Christianity is a stupid religion
Oct 6th, 2006 by Ben
Rob Forsyth, the Bishop of South Sydney spoke at college chapel this morning. As part of his sermon, which was from 1 Corinthians 1:18 and the following verses, he showed a slide of this famous graffiti, probably dating from the 2nd century.
A little clearer:
The words read
which is (not very good) Greek for ‘Alexamenos worships god’. You can see Alexamenos on the left, worshiping his ‘god’, who is a man with a donkey’s head, hanging on a cross. The donkey-guy is Jesus, and someone is giving Alexamenos a hard time for worshiping someone who was crucified.
Rob Forsyth made the point that it’s pretty easy to sympathise with the ‘artist’. Who would worship someone who had been executed in the most humiliating fashion, using a method reserved for the lowest of criminals? No one with any intelligence, that’s for sure.
Jesus was:
- poor
- Jewish
- not a Roman citizen
- physically not very attractive (what?)
- a pacifist
- a virgin when he died
- crucified
- around a long time ago
But 1 Corinthians 1:18 says this: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
To those who are not yet believers, the message that Jesus died on a cross 2000-odd years ago to bring forgiveness to all who believe is ridiculous. It’s pure stupidity to think that could be God. But: to those who are being saved, the message of the cross, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the power of God, his power to save.
For the unbeliever, I don’t think there’s any point of Christian faith that makes less sense than Jesus death on a cross. And Christians keep going on about it!
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