Is it a coincidence that April Fool’s Day and Easter are on the same day or nearly the same day every year?
Religion is all about faith. Most people have surrendered to believing the stories and tales and instructions described in the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, the Vedas, or other holy scripture.
Many of you reading this posting may call me an atheist or perhaps an agnostic.
In my view it is all well-meaning stories and guiding ideas that will take us to heaven. Heaven is an imaginary place where we will live forever. That is our dream because most of us cannot accept the reality that life is not infinite and we will die.
The two most outrageous stories that I am aware of is that 1) the Red Sea opened so that the escaping Jews could leave Egypt. Then the sea returned killing Egyptian soldiers that were chasing the Jews. 2) A man named Jesus died and then came back to life. In both instances Christians and Jews believe these stories.
It is written in a book so it must be true.
So the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years before arriving in Canaan. If one looks at a map of the region between Egypt and Israel, the question of why it took 40 years to travel a straight-line distance of only about 240 miles.
Most Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. The evidence is lacking but the people dreamed of someone coming to promise them a place that they will live forever. Jews as well as Christians want to believe they will live forever even if their bodies fail. To this day religious Jews believe the Messiah is still to come.
The other fairy tales are just as ridiculous.
Noah’s Ark is the vessel in the Genesis flood narrative (Genesis chapters 6–9) by which God spares Noah, his family, and a remnant of all the world’s animals from a world-engulfing flood. According to Genesis, God gave Noah instructions for building the ark Seven days before the deluge. God told Noah to enter the ark with his household and the animals. The story goes on to describe the ark being afloat for 150 days and then coming to rest on the Mountains of Ararat and the subsequent receding of the waters. Searches for Noah’s Ark have been made from at least the time of Eusebius (c. 275–339 CE) to the present day. There is no scientific evidence of a global flood, and despite many expeditions, no evidence of the ark has been found.
Jews celebrate Hanukkah every year (usually occurring near the end of November to the end of December). The eight-day celebration commemorates the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors. There was always to be an eternal light in the Temple but the Greeks had contaminated the oil for the light. One jar of oil that could last for only one day burned for eight days.
Oh and then there was God Tests Abraham’s Faith. When Isaac (son Abraham) had grown older, Jehovah tested Abraham’s faith. He called: ‘Abraham!’ And Abraham answered: ‘Here I am!’ Then God said: ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, and go to a mountain that I will show you. There kill your son and offer him up as a sacrifice.’ Then at the last minute God sends an angel to tell Abraham you have shown your faith. Don’t kill your son but sacrifice a sheep from the nearby bushes.
And finally God created heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh. How long is a day? This was a story to explain the world to children.
April Fool! It is all a fairly-tale.
Coast Contact 