The road to Damascus - 2009

1669 words - 31/08/2009

IN A WORLD WITH JESUS CHRIST
(The road to Damascus)
by Professor H. D. Dean Rupinda, V.I.E

As a professor of History here at the Vishnu Institute of Enlightenment I often called on to give my views
on what might be termed 'alternative' history.

I am often asked about various events in history and how - if things had turned out a little differently -
the course of history might have changed. Like a pebble starting an avalanche, seemingly small events
can have huge and unforeseen consequences.

There have been times in the past when the whole course of humanity has balanced on the head of a pin
and once the balance shifts, the 'what could have been' is lost for ever.

For this particular dissertation, I will examine a small Israeli desert cult called 'Christianity'
that flourished for a brief few decades in the Vikram Samvant era before being totally annihilated by
its many persecutors.

This was just one of many desert cults of the time that flourished in the region, like flowers springing up
after the rain, before being crushed out by other cults or  paganism. Christianity itself was founded
primarily by the followers and supporters of a demagogue known as  Jesus Christ, thought for a time to be the
much prophesied messiah of another little known desert cult of the time - Judaism.
The ruling Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) of the day disliked this man however and had the Roman
gouverner put him to death. The disciples of Christ tried to keep his teachings of peace and love alive but
in these harsh times this burgeoning religion was quickly crushed, primarily by Judaism. Judaism in turn
died out three hundred years later in the great sweep of paganism that encompassed all of Europe and Asia
prior to the Enlightenment.

There was no persecutor of Christianity greater in his zeal than a man called Paul. During his life time
he rooted and out executed hundreds of these new Christians.

When he left Jerusalem for Damascus, he set in motion a purge of this new cult that would effectively
wipe it out completely in his life time.

But imagine if you will, a world where this didn't happen. Imagine if he received a vision from
some angel, or Jesus Christ himself that would instantly convert him to this new faith.

History would undeniably change, Christianity's greatest enemy would become its greatest ally. With
Paul leading the way, Jews and Gentiles would convert in their thousands, initially persecuted
by the Romans, but finally, perhaps becoming the official Roman religion and creating some kind of Holy Empire.

As any young school boy knows, this is not what happened, otherwise we would all be worshipping
in churches and not pagan and Hindu temples as we do today! But would humanity be better off if
we had adopted a monotheistic religion so early on in civilisation, before we were fully aware of
the dangers associated with such singular belief?

Any monotheistic religion, however good its intentions, always falls foul of the same problems.
Corruption, dogma, strictures quite literally set in stone, followed by heresy, inquisition and
ultimately persecution and terror. As this passes, it is replaced with apathy and complete
spiritual desolation.

It is my feeling that if Christianity had flourished in some way, as it had every possibility
of doing for this strange Jewish man had a very persuasive message of peace and understanding,
that not only would it have become the dominant religion of the region, it would also spread
all across Europe, Asia and North Africa.

It would have also had the effect of making all other monotheist religions that much more
appealing to the common man.
As a cult seemingly at odds with Judaism, would it, perversely, ensure that this Abrahamic religion
continued on into the present day?

Not only that, but would other monotheist religions rise up? Such a strange concept as it may appear to
people to day, but back in these times, it was a very persuasive argument.
Arabia for instance, having no strong religion would have been have been ripe for it. The great
general Mohammed, a minor historical figure that came along five hundred years after Jesus would
have been the perfect person to spread such things across this area.

How would paganism and Hinduism have faired against such monolithic, single-deity worshipping
zealotry? I picture paganism pushed to near extinction by successive waves across Europe and
North Africa. Hinduism would perhaps have faired better, covering as is it did then the whole of the
Indian sub-continent, but such a gentle and nebulous religion would still easily be subdued by
harsher, more pragmatic monotheist invaders.

Here in the Britain would our mixture of enlightened paganism, Hinduism and spiritual atheism be
replaced by the rigid forms of a confused personality cult masquerading as a belief in a single all
powerful deity?

Perhaps. Certainly we would have a Christian calendar rather than a Hindu one.  So this year,
Sarvadhari, would be known as 2009 (going by the birth of Christ - I will now use this dating
system for all further dates in this essay.)

As we know from history, three hundred years from the crucifixion of Christ we entered an age known
as the Pagan Enlightenment. Humanity began to see their pagan pantheons, be they Roman, Greek, Norse
or Celtic for the metaphors that they were. While keeping the spirituality, human kind was no longer
bound by the earlier dogma and our spirits soared free from our ancient binding superstitions and
customs.

So, instead we would be living in a world shaped by a zealous monotheist cult or a series of cults.
Founded on love, peace and kinship, it is true, but many studies have shown that when all the
power is put in one place, corruption, nepotism and despotism follows.
As we have seen with other, thankfully brief, monotheist experiments, dogma and ritual takes over
and soon the ruling religious elite are dominating the lower classes who are beaten into sub dual by
such things as the promise of a more forfiling afterlife.

Strange as it may seem to an enlightened pagan, or a neo-hindu, in the time of Christ it was altogether
possible for such a thing to happen, in fact the world was ripe for it. The existing monotheist religions
such as Judaism were already making their presence felt. It would have been a much more modern concept
to the ancient mind, rather than the dusty old pantheons of hundreds of seemingly uncaring deities.

And they would have no idea then of the dangers inherent in the worship of a single god. Putting all
your spiritual happiness under the control of one single entity, perverse as it may seem today, was very
much a possibility two thousand years ago.

As a consequence of all this wealth hoarding and dogma ridden philosophy, we can only imagine how many
hundreds of years the enlightenment would be delayed. It may well have been held back until the 1600's (using
their calendar), meaning anything up to a thousand years!

Imagine all the knowledge that would be lost, stamped down by these all powerful cults. Imagine how
many scientists and philosophers that would have to be constantly looking over their shoulder incase
they offend this all powerful church.

Humanity would descend into a 'dark age', and languish there for hundreds of years, before the every
hungry curiosity of human endeavour finally pulled itself out from under the shadow of zealous monotheist
misbelief.

There would be no cloning as we have today. Stem cell research would probably be in its infancy and
interstellar travel would be a distant dream. With the SS Galellio about to make her maiden voyage to
Proxima Centauri, in this alternative world it would not be surprising to think that scientific endeavour
had been held back so much that they were barely advanced enough to put a man on the moon.

It is grim indeed to imagine so many people of the world searching for spiritual truth, not from within
themselves, but from dusty old tomes of dogmatic scripture that was written down by ignorant men two
thousand years ago.

However, it could not be all bad. I am sure, that with a stronger, more war like Europe it
would have been almost impossible for a war like the Aztec Invasion to happen. If curious Christian
explorers were to have landed in central and south America to invade and pillage these rich kingdoms hundreds
of years before hand then it would be unlikely that large parts of Britain, Gaul and Spain would be
destined to lie under the yoke of Aztec domination for decades before being thrown off by the Hindustan Armies.

Sometimes perhaps things are just written in the stars and whatever happened in the past, mankind would
always be destined for a Great War. Perhaps it would even start on the same date - 1914.

The Aztec Empire, which threw away its paganistic beliefs for purely ritualistic blood letting by then
and had wrestled control of all of North and South America.

Our great war was terrible, and millions died in the nuclear blasts.
Would the alternative Christian world fair any better? It would be hard to imagine them having mastered
the power of the atom by then, but would their monotheistic mind-sets be able to think up other
more primitive but no less effective means of mass destruction?
And with no nuclear conclusion, like a massive full stop at the end of the wars sentence, would it
not flair up again in another twenty or so years. And what part would religion play in all of this?
Would the competing monotheistic religions be at war with each other? Would one try to annihilate the
other in some terrible genocidal holocaust?
Our devastating single year of world war may seem mercifully brief to their eyes, as they dealt with
the ramifications of competing single god religions well into the 21st century.