An Atheist's Theory of Prophets and Religion

JUDAISM TRIBAL AND RACE-BASED
Jews regard themselves as the Chosen People of God and Judaism is basically tribal. Jesus, a Rabbi, saw that it would benefit mankind to spread the benefits of monotheism to gentiles. Understandably, many Jews objected to this, probably because they felt it diluted or cheapened their religion.

"MY DAD IS GOD SO YOU BETTER LISTEN TO ME!"
To make his message more persuasive, Jesus claimed divinity. For this blasphemy he was crucified. But it was not that unusual to claim divinity. After all, Roman and Chinese emperors were worshipped as deities and so were Egyptian Pharoahs. A modified form of this was the divine right of kings, practised in more recent history by European monarchs.

THE MYSTERY OF THE HOLY TRINITY SOLVED
[It has been said that if you can explain it you are a heretic.]

Christians have never convincingly explained the mystery of Holy Trinity. The only way it could be convincingly explained is through a non-religious context of psychology, mythology and propaganda. It is the device through which Christ's message is made more appealing and more powerful. It also serves as his vehicle to divinity. (You see, it is not enough to portray Christ as a man who just died for his principles. People need more than this to want to accept his message. A man who died for all our sins is infinitely more appealing than one who has died for just his own principles.)

The mystery of the Holy Trinity is this: it "explains" and "proves" that Christ is divine. To enquire further is to commit heresy. In the olden days, you could be burnt at the stake for this.

A LIGHTER BUT MORE POWERFUL FORM OF MONOTHEISM - ISLAM
Muhammad's lighter and more powerful version of monotheism consisted of claiming divinity only for the Koran which Muhammad "revealed" or "recited" in his liftime when his followers needed the guidance of God in difficult and confusing times.

MUHAMMAD THE TECHNOCRAT?
The fact that it was taken down from one source and later standardised would at least make lawyers of those who could read and had to interpret the Koran. In the meantime it encouraged literacy, for that was necessary to receive the full benefit of the Koran - to read it for oneself. Islam does not require you to believe in the impossible and improbable, ie that Jesus is Son of God.

LOWER ENTRY REQUIREMENTS OF ISLAM
Through the Koran, fairly common-sensical teachings had the stamp of divinity. Conversion to Islam was easier, because it has lower "entry requirements" than Judaism and is not caught up in incoherent and mysterious trinitarianism - a theoretical device which "explains" the divnity of Christ. Disputes on interpretation could be resolved by referring to a form of words in a particular chapter and verse that is at least undisputed.

Not perfect, but better than before. Not perfect, but still progress!

FAITH AND REASON
While Jesus emphasised Faith (as he must necessarily have done to move it away from the then wholly ethnic basis of Judaism), Muhammad emphasised Reason, and the Tools of Reason: reading, writing, reference, authority and jurisprudence.

PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF MONOTHEIST RELIGIONS
Muhammad could not have developed Islam without first examining the life of Jesus and the form Christianity was taking in Muhammaden times.

Schism was and is the most noticeable characteristic of Christianity. Muhammad must have seen the effect of the disputes amongst Christians over the Holy Trinity - an incoherent theory that would have us accept that One is Three and Three is One (or "one for all, and all for one", like the Three Musketeers!). He cut the Gordian knot by denying its validity in the Koran, saying that Christ was just another mortal prophet with no divine attributes, just like Abraham, Moses, and himself of course!

AN OMNIPOTENT AND MORAL GOD
Christ certainly would not have been able to spread the benefits of a monotheist God, if Abraham had not conceived of it first. If not for Abraham, Moses would have had no single god to which to ascribe moral attributes with his Ten Commandments.

A SCIENCE OF RELIGION?
It can be seen therefore that there is a progressive nature to the monotheist religions. Islam was built on the foundations of Christianity and Christianity built on that of Judaism.

Subsequent prophets sought to improve and add to the teachings of previous ones, and this theory can only be grasped in a non-religious context. The same analogy applies to Hinduism and Buddhism.

THE PROBABLE ATHEISM OF ALL THE PROPHETS
Indeed, I would go so far as to claim that none of the prophets in fact believed in God. They merely had the wisdom to use this innate desire of all those who wished to believe in a loving and omnipotent God to make the world a better place. Ascribing to it moral attributes to the most powerful entity Man could imagine and describe - All-Powerful and All-Wise, Benovelent and Merciful - could perhaps indirectly encourage some of us to understand and indeed take on the attributes of God, ie to become stronger, wiser, kinder and be more forgiving.

To love God is to know God, to know God is to become one with Him.

The supreme irony of this is of course that most of what humanity worships was and is in fact man-made!

PYGMALION
The story of Pygmalion illustrates this beautifully. Pgymalion was a sculptor of extraordinary talent. He sculpted a woman so beautiful he fell in love with her/it. He loved it/her so much that it/she became real, for when he behaved as if she was real, she was real. That is precisely what Man has done with God throughout the ages.

The power of imagination, eh?