My peoples! As always, it’s been a hell of a long time since I dropped somethin’ new for you to salivate over. For some reason I just can’t help but keep all you crazy characters in suspense. But let me not get too off topic right out of the gate. The way I see it: In a strange turn of events, I woke up on Monday morning and found a text message on my phone. It was from my brother, and it read, “www.zeitgeistmovie.com Bro, u should take a look at this. It’s long, but it’s important.” There were no other details, no other instructions, and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. When I got to work (yes work) later that morning, I visited to the website and the movie immediately started playing. Now, granted the whole documentary is 2 hours long, but once I started listening to exactly what it was that they were talking about, I realized that most people probably wouldn’t be able to even make it passed the first 30 minutes of this film. Now I’m not sure which part is the hardest to digest. If you ask me, I guess the whole thing is a pretty tough pill to swallow. But I gritted my teeth and ended up watching the whole thing. Now as raw and free-minded as I am, rarely will I take new information lying down. So I immediately started doing some research on what was in the film. When I started to dig, just a little bit, the results became more and more disturbing. It was almost amazing, the way all I had to do was ask the questions. I simply typed them in, Googled ‘em, and low and behold, streams and streams of information began to pour out for me. I’m going to be honest; I think that there is way too much information out there on these topics for any single person to know. So instead of trying to tackle all of these issues presented in the documentary, the one I want to focus on this time around is the one on “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” Many people think that the Greatest Story Ever Told is that of the Miracle birth of Jesus Christ, his works on earth, and his death and resurrection, eventually returning to Heaven. Unfortunately for those people that believe that, the story goes much deeper than that. The Greatest Story Ever Told is not of Jesus, but that of “Religion” itself. When we examine Religion more closely, we find that in its origins Religion was used as a way to understand the phenomena that occurred on the earth and among the stars. It eventually became a hierarchy (or institution) and when finally mastered by man, it became a form of control. “How can we find a way to persuade the masses? How can we get all men to do what we want? How can we get them to build for us, conquer for us, KILL for us?” Now I know that I’m going to sound like a Conspiracy Theorist when I start talking about this stuff, but just try to stick with me, and try to relate. Has there ever been a time in your life when you stopped for a moment and asked yourself these types of questions: “If I was born in another part of the world, what religion or faith would I believe in?” “If my parents were not of my religion would I blindly follow whatever it is that they teach me?” “How can I know for sure that my religion is the only religion that will ensure eternal life?” “How do I know that everyone that does not believe what I believe is going to hell?” The list goes on and on… It doesn’t really matter to me what you believe in. Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, any –ism or any belief. Most faith-based religions focus around a higher being, and some sort of Savior or “way” to achieve eternal life. Let me first start by saying that I don’t think that the belief and faith are inherently wrong, bad or evil. As a matter of fact, I think that they both provide an amazing and essential aspect to life, as we know it. I am not here to disprove, debunk, throw off, or cast out anyone’s belief system. I mean, I’m an asshole, but damn, I’m not an evil bastard. I simply want to encourage anyone who is reading this to start asking his or her own questions. For arguments sake, let’s take the story of Jesus for example. Just like me, many of you know this story and hold it near and dear to your heart. I myself was raised in a Christian home where I was immersed in the scriptures of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. My whole life I was only taught one thing. I was taught to blindly believe what others told me. What others had written, what others had claimed to witness. And when I asked people such as my pastor, or preacher about other faiths, and other religions, they were simply dismissed as false or “Of the Devil.” I was told that I had to have FAITH in Jesus, and if I didn’t, then or course, I would die. Could you imagine if your children one day came to you and said, “Mommy/Daddy why is this certain thing in the world the way it is?” and your response would be, “Don’t worry about why it’s that way, just believe it, because if you don’t YOUR’E GONNA DIE!” How crazy is that?! I would venture to say that most people in the Western World, at some point, have heard the name Jesus in some form or another. Great point for Christianity, but did you know that there are 16 other known and documented stories about a Son of God who came to earth, died on the cross, and rose again after 3 days? And guess what else? Each and every one of these stories was written before the birth of Jesus Christ. Now the easiest way to dismiss these stories is to just say, “They are all fake! There’s only one Savior!” Sure, that’s one way to justify everything else that everyone has ever written. But there might be a scholarly way to look at this as well. I would ask folks to do a little research on your own. But instead I’ll just give your lazy asses the links to just one of many videos. Take a few minutes to check these out before you read on. C’mon just open a new tab, copy and paste. Don’t be scurred. But do me a favor and try to keep your mouth closed while watching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wrd-T75Pos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9088NBhHHGk&feature=related Pretty interesting stuff, huh? Amazing how similar these Astrological stories of the cosmos, discovered thousands years before the birth of Jesus seem to resemble his story exactly. Another Disclaimer for you: I am not an Astrologer or an Astronomer. I do not have an in depth knowledge of the stars or Constellations. I’ve probably used a telescope once in my life. Planets (other than Earth) have little to no meaning to me. And the movement and progression of these celestial bodies plays no active role in my life… But the people thousands of years ago have a much different story. It is a verified fact that ancient cultures and civilizations used the stars to help them determine their lives. They were very in tune with the stars in the sky. They depended upon the Sun and the Moon for growing and harvesting crops. The heavens told them when to when to build, when to move, where to go (possible roots for horoscopes based on Astrology and the signs of the Zodiac) and so on, and so forth. They used the constellations to determine directions, locations, and seasons. The stars above were so important to people’s survival that they began to study, personify, and worship the planets and stars themselves. Just in case you’re wondering how important the stars and the planets were to the people of old… Every single name of every single day of the week was actually offered up to a different Celestial Body. Let me just Give you some Examples: English: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Spanish: Lunes, Mártes, Miércoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sábado, Domingo German: Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, Frietag, Samstag, Sonntag Translation: Monday = Moon Day Tuesday = Mars Day Wednesday = Mercury Day Thursday = Jupiter Day Friday = Venus Day Saturday = Saturn Day Sunday = Sun Day And just incase you think I’m the one making this up (trust me, i'm not) you can be my guest and Wikipedia or Google any one of these days, in ANY language. Let me know if you find something different. Above all else though, the bringer of life, the bearer of light, the protector against darkness was the Sun. Without the Sun, people could do nothing. The sun gave life to everything it touched. People realized this, and they were thankful for the goodness brought by the Sun. Is it any wonder that the Sun was worshipped? The majority of Christian folks that have every inquired about the stars or the Zodiac, have immediately been told, “We don’t talk about those things. That’s the Devil’s work”. But could it be that maybe the people that tell us those things don’t even know what they truly represent? Ever wonder why thousands of years later we still go to church on SUN day? How can all of this just be coincidence? Is it logical to say that these concepts and ideas have nothing to do with Religion? Or is it possible to see the connections between man, and these heavenly bodies that they did not truly understand. How they could offer up so much to them because the stars influenced so much of their daily lives. We already know that more people have been killed in the name of God than any other force on earth (or in heaven) so I don’t even have to try to argue how religion is used as a form of control. Over the past few days, I have struggled with these thoughts and ideas, and to be honest, it’s prompted me to find out more about questions I probably never would have asked. Me personally, I have always believed in God. The easiest way that I can explain the way I see it, is that I know that it wasn’t me who put myself here. It was another force greater than myself. And understanding that creation with a plan is easier to accept than creation with no plan (i.e. The Big Bang). Hell, I could be wrong about that too, but that’s just what I see right now. But anyway, since I started this whole thing off by telling you that I got a message from my brother, I think I’ll end it the same way. Last night, my brother and I were talking, and I said, “Bro, this stuff is really bothering me. I mean, what do we do when/if we find out that everything we were ever told about this stuff was a lie? What am I supposed to do with this newfound information? How will I know when I find the truth?” He replied, “What exactly do you consider to be the truth?” I thought about it for a few moments, and in turn I said, “I guess the truth of this matter can only be found at Religion’s origin (which did not start with the church), and that may be something I think we may never really find. Or maybe the answers are out there, but the ‘reality’ of it is so well hidden from the average person, that we will never know the true information.” Either way, I just wanted to challenge any of you who actually read all of this to do a little bit of self-searching and maybe a bit of independent research. Please, please, please, if you read through this whole thing, LEAVE A COMMENT! I want to know what all ya’ll are thinkin’ about this too! Start asking the people closest to you questions until they begin to get uncomfortable. Then ask some more questions. Rattle the cage, and dig a little deeper. Curiosity is in our nature… Don’t you want to see just how deep the rabbit hole really goes? -Shel Out.