I will try to invalidate the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus said: 'Love your neighbor as yourself', but was also was encouraging people to hate their own life'.
Literally it meant that they should hate the lives of their neighbours.
People asked Jesus to say what it meant to be a neighbour. Jesus simply said that they could disregard priests, as priests didn't count as one's neighbours. The only people that mattered were the ones that gave you free money, according to this story.
Jesus was a fan of publicity stunts, especially if they meant free food, or free wines, for Jesus and their apostles.
The other day they found out that somebody kept undiluted wine in a banquet hall. They asked people to dilute it a little with water and give it to Jesus and other guests. You can read about it here.
On another occasion Jesus realized that they needed twelve baskets of food for their twelve disciples.
Jesus nor disciples had any, so they took bread and some dead fishes from a small boy, and run a fundraiser that collected the required twelve baskets.
Jesus then pretended that it were the disciples and themselves who fed everybody, even though all they did was remove the food from the child and collect some more from the crowd. You can read about it here.
It is beyond my comprehension why would a human need to eat a dead animal. Jesus was supposed to resurrect the dead, not eat the dead, or was it the other way round? I'm confused.
Jesus told their disciples that they were against funerals (source).
They later said that their own body should be eaten as opposed to buried (source).
A mere couple of days after Jesus' death their body couldn't be found in the tomb. (It was probably eaten by the disciples).
Nevertheless, Jesus' ghost would still appear to people from time to time, most prominently to Paul the Apostle.
Just because Jesus ghost appeared to people from time to time, while performing impossible stunts like floating in the air, passing thru walls and showing off their mortal wounds to their friend Thomas, Jesus is commonly believed to have resurrected.
My question is, though, if Jesus intended to resurrect, why did they specifically tell their disciples to eat their body? And why did not Apostle Thomas see any bite marks on Jesus' ghost?
You can read an account or an unrelated case of resurrection of somebody's ghost (namely Swami Sri Yukteswarji's) in the book 'Autobiography or a Yogi'. Quote describing this particular situation is here:
In my autobiography I have recounted how, during my experience of the resurrection of my guru, Swami Sri Yukteswarji, he described his dwelling as a savior in a supernal region of the astral heaven inhabited by souls who have overcome earthly ties. His words were a wondrous assurance: "There you and your exalted loved ones shall someday come to be with me."
Jesus was particularly keen on receiving donations, and claiming that they were manifested by Jesus due to some supernatural stunt.
People who gave away free money were called 'neighbours', as described above.
Still, does your family count as your neighbours? Are you allowed to love them?
Hell no!
Jesus says here:
If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters--yes, even their own life--such a person cannot be my disciple.
According to Cults 101 these are the characteristics of a cult. The source lists two criteria:
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
and:
Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
I am not exactly against breaking ties with your family, but I wouldn't just say that all people should do it.
Jesus hated all work.
In Matthew 6:28 to Matthew 6:29 Jesus said that work did not really matter:
And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.
Jesus bullied people who did work. They also said that if you did work, you should at least try to cheat your employers.
The only lifestyle that really impressed Jesus was begging and donating 100% of one's money to the temple.
In one case Jesus claimed they could teach their friend, Peter, to walk on water.
Peter nearly drowned!
Jesus was a greedy and lazy control freak.
Jesus would tell people that they were only to love other people if they were neighbours who donated free money to them.
They were still not allowed to love their parents or other family members.
It's easy to hate Jesus due to their harmful teachings.
I personally despise Jesus because of their promotion of fishes eating, and hating all members of your family, even if they are good people.
Still, Jesus would attract crowds and encourage people to engage in a spiritual discussion.
Teachings of Jesus were sometimes extremely trivial, like when they told people to forgive others 77 times. Matthew 18:21-22:
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times !"
I would say: It's irrelevant whether you forgive them or not, just do not engage with them any more.
You can forgive somebody just seven or even thousands of times, just break the relationship if it is not productive.
Jesus would say things like always forgive them, yet ignore them if they do not give you free money, yet you still have to hate all members of your family no matter what.
Life is obviously not so simple. It does not just boil down to these three bullet points:
Still, if it was not for Jesus, I wouldn't have been able able to write this post.
It's actually very difficult to evaluate the work of a religious teacher without becoming one oneself.
I did join several mainstream religions, an ecovillage, a small number of anarchist camps and a recognized destructive cult that at that time operated in Berlin just to see what it took to create a community, spiritual or otherwise.
Currently I run a small sanctuary for between 100 and 200 mice and a guinea pig. I try to encourage spiritual discussion within my home, but it is still more about the pets, even about professional software development, than about religion.
Just last weekend my girlfriend and I watched some documentaries about two particular former cult leaders that used to operate in my city. After watching that we had a discussion on what made a legitimate as opposed to destructive new religious movement.
Jesus would try to teach people, during their numerous public talks, what made a bad religion. Example is found in Mark 12:38-40:
Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.
Still, Jesus wasn't really able to convey what made a good religion: Eat fishes, love people who give you money, ignore or hate everybody else, drink wine; these seemed to be Jesus' only guidelines for an ethical and spiritual life.
The internet allows creation of a more meaningful, better researched religion than the fluffy hate-your-parents religion created by Jesus.
I still give Jesus credit for creating anything at all!
