Christianity & Cannibalism
The Eucharist, or Holy Communion, is deeply rooted in cannibalism. Not only did our ancestors consume the bodies of vanquished enemies and the deceased members of their own community in the hope of gaining their power, in a practice called theophagy, they consumed the body and blood of their god (sometimes in the form of a human proxy).
The notion of a sacred meal shared by a god and his followers (such as found with the Christian Last Supper) was a concept prevalent throughout the ancient world. The Catholic Encyclopedia says this about the Mystery religions: “There was usually the meal of mystic foods— grains of all sorts at Eleusis, bread and water in the cult of Mithra, wine (Dionysus), milk and honey (Attis), raw bull’s flesh in the Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus cult.” Christian father Firmicus Maternus wrote that the followers of Liber (aka Dionysus, or Bacchus) believe “he was intercepted and killed,” and his murderers, “chopped his members up into pieces and...devoured them.” An event which his worshipers celebrate in “recurring sacred rites celebrated every two years,” in which, “They tear a live bull with their teeth, representing the cruel banquet [ at which the God was eaten.]”
The gospel writers simply borrowed these ideas and had Jesus say, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” ( Jn 6:53-56)
It came to dawn on the Catholic Church that this passage posed a difficult problem. Here we have Jesus himself proclaiming eternal life came only by consuming his flesh and blood—not bread and wine. So how to resolve this dilemma? Magic of course!
On October 11, 1551, the Council of Trent, decreed “By the consecration of the bread and of the wine a conversion is made of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the Body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His Blood; which conversion is by the holy Catholic Church suitably and properly called transubstantiation.”
Shazam! Transubstantiation! Problem solved. What looked, smelled and tasted like ordinary bread and wine was now the real flesh and blood of God himself. And not just a portion of flesh— not just a thigh or finger but everything—liver, spleen, heart, bowels, testes, eyes, hair. It was nothing short of Holy Jesus Sausage. And Catholics seemingly swallowed this idea as easily as they did the immaculate conception (another borrowed idea). However, Frederick the Great was one who found the idea a “repulsive and blasphemous absurdity” and in a letter to Voltaire said, “This is the most disgusting dogma of Christian religion, the greatest insult to the Highest Being, the climax of madness and insanity.”
For hundreds of millions of people to think a cracker is the flesh of an invisible mangod and to happily wash this down with what is believed to be blood can only be understood as mass insanity—at least temporary insanity. And though Protestants may see the holy sacrament as merely symbolic, it nonetheless symbolizes a repulsive cannibalistic act.
6 comments:
As a protestant, I was not taught that the wine & bread were really jesus' body but rather representative or symbolic. However, I remember that taking communion was highly sacred. I have a childhood memory about that. When I was a kid, maybe about 6 years old, I got into the bread after communion service. They were these little tiny buns, size of a thumbnail, and they tasted like tea biscuits. I was hungry, and ate a whole handful. I wasn't caught, but I was so torn up with guilt that I had taken communion without contemplating the sacrifice of Jesus I eventually 'fessed up to my dad. He was pretty understanding, but probably saw that I had practically given myself an ulcer over it. In retrospect, considering how hungry I was, I should have eaten ALL of the biscuits.
Yes, my understanding was always that it was a symbolic thing as well. But when you think about it, even that symbolizes cannibalism! Not a whole lot better.
I have wanted to do an art piece showing the absurdity of the whole thing by getting ahold of a blessed Catholic wafer and nailing it to a small wooden cross. If it got any publicity at all it would cause quite an uproar I’m sure.
Whenever the cross is mentioned, I think of that joke "If Jesus had been executed 50 years ago, would catholic children be wearing little electric chairs around their necks???"
But that aside, I think the symbols of religion are far too precious to religeous people (almost like worshiping a graven image maybe???) Catholics have their rosary beads & crosses (with Jesus hanging on it in obvious pain), protestants have their bibles. My father would tell me what a sinful religion Catholicism was because they relied too much on symbols of god, and because they needed a mediator (the pope) to communicate with god, when EVERYONE KNOWS and THE BIBLE SAYS that you can pray to god directly. What my dad did NOT realize is that he worshiped his bible as though it was literally holy. How is that any better? It is a physical object; not really "god" or "jesus". Dad loves his bible. He keeps trying to get me to read it more; he doesn't realize that the more I read it, the more horrible and nonsensical it becomes to me.
OK, how about some levity??? Here's a cannibal story:
A Cannibal Story A cannibal was walking through the jungle and came upon arestaurant operated by a fellow cannibal. Feeling somewhat hungry, hesatdown and looked over the menu...
Tourist: $5
Broiled Missionary: $7.00
Fried Explorer: $9.00
Toasted Democrat: $6.50
Freshly baked Republicans: $150
The cannibal called the waiter
over and asked, 'Why such a huge price difference for the Republicans?'
The cook replied, 'Have you ever tried to clean one? They're so full of sh*t, it takes all morning.'
(Hope I haven't offended any republicans on this site!!!)
At least it doesn’t take long to cook Republicans as they’re half-baked to begin with!
Oh groan.....
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