In the video embedded below, Alan Watts (1915-1973), a lo-fi firebrand spiritual scholar and irreverent philosopher, begins with a discussion of the complicated and political origins of the Bible and the politics of translation and interpretation. Humans edited the Bible, and those edits were political. Did these edits distort the Word?
Watts emphasizes that Christianity suffers from the pedastalization of Jesus. Instead of focusing on the good works and the fact that Jesus told his followers in John 10 and the 82nd Psalm that everyone was the progeny of God, Christians have made Jesus into an iconic figure to be worshipped.
A brief voyage through scripture.
John 10:30 – "I and the father are one."
31 The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?"
33The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God."
34* Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'?
Here Watts is identifying that Jesus is referring to Psalm 82: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High."
35 If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside,
36 can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated* and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
In the King James version, the passage states, "I am the son of God." In the Greek version, 'I am a son of God. In the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), "I am a son of Elohim"?
As Watts points out, italics are not for emphasis; they indicate words interpolated by the translators. The distinction between a son, and the son, is millennial. The former implies Jesus was just one of many progenies of God, while the latter has led to a misplaced veneration.
The attempts to "live like Christ" are unattainable, where "the Gospel is an impossible religion." Yet the public performance of trying to reach that level of spirituality, and failing repeatedly, consequenced the hermeneutical reading that "Christianity institutionalized guilt as a virtue." At this point in the video, there is widespread laughter and applause. Perhaps guilt was excited to be exposed as a tool of control and propaganda.
Instead of following an "emasculated gospel," Watts suggests that "we see Christ as the great mystic," communicating his connection with God so that others can consider the connection as the spiritual point, not the veneration of a deity.
Check out these animated videos by After Skool synchronized with Watt's lectures. After Skool is a project by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured Professor in the Department of Neurobiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After Skool uses the power of the whiteboard to "to finding the most powerful content and delivering it in the most engaging way possible. A good idea is like a raindrop falling into the ocean. Most raindrops hit the surface and barely make a ripple, but some ripples gain momentum, and become waves."
