Einstein

from February 19, 2010

"If God didn't exist, it would be necessary for man to invent him"

-Albert Einstein

I have spent an enormous chunk of energy avoiding religion in my life. It's not tat I am opposed to God - just having someone else's version of God rammed down my throat. And the endless guilt that follows when I don't believe the same way.

So it strikes me as almost funny that so many of the books I have read lately have had Christianity as their underlying theme. First there was The Alexandria Link, then The Templar Legacy, and lastly The Last Templar. And while each of these books was certainly a unique story in its own right, the underlying questions were the same: if you discovered a secret that would shake the foundation of the church or Christianity, would you tell anyone? Or is it better for the people to have some faith, even if a little distorted and misguided? Is religion doing the world more harm than good?

In one, a document is found that revealed that Jesus did indeed have a physical relationship with Mary Magdalene who bore his children. In another it was revealed that Jesus was never resurrected. That "resurrection" was perhaps metaphorical. And in so revealing, would disprove the notion of the afterlife. What if the resurrection never happened?

And in the final one, a Gospel of Jesus is discovered that proved that Jesus was not the son of God, merely a man, however devout and perhaps saintly, but just a man. Then all of the New Testament is a lie.

So what would you do, if through some accident (or miracle) you discovered irrefutable proof that Christ and the way the church had always portrayed his life is wrong? Is it historically important enough to reveal the truth? Or would the damage outweigh the good? Was Einstein right?