The fifth of April, 2015 is Resurrection Day. Easter... Easter Bunny. Chocolate eggs. It's a day to make us believe in rabbits from the time we're toddlers in a basket. To stay forever as a basket case. From year to year it changes date because Easter is based on the moon calendar. Easter is not a fixed date like say Christmas, which was made to coincide with a pagan fiesta — the celebration of sumpthin' that became Santa Claus. But the whole lot is designed to place markers in our faith. The whole lot is boloney of course. 

"God is risen" never happened but makes for a good story. On this subject, the battle between historians and theologians is not new. Theologians had won hands down till the 18th century though some rabid smart-arse scientists asked nifty questions that did not fit the narrative, in the 1600s. The planet of humans is not flat. The sun does not spin around the earth. The sky is full of nothing much but laws of gravity, independent of god.

In the Catholic world prior to Galileo's conflict with the Church, the majority of educated people subscribed to the Aristotelian geocentric view that the earth was the center of the universe and that all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth,[53] despite the use of Copernican theories to reform the calendar in 1582.[54] Biblical references Psalm 93:1, 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 include text stating that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." In the same manner, Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Further, Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "And the sun rises and sets and returns to its place."[55]

It's only because some theologians became historian that we know the tricks and the origination of the fraudulent twaddle...  Belief has lots to do with "don't ask questions, believe".
Before this and in parallel with, of course, "pagans" had their own beliefs. There were still more druid organisations than churches in the middle ages, but these were mostly operating underground because they were not sanctioned by the powers in power — kings and emperors. 
Due to the confusion brought in by "Protestantism" that sprouted in the interpretation of the "sacred" text, other organisations started to have their own brand of faith... From the Templars to the Freemason, god taketh many variations on a theme. All went to war against each others.
Before this, the Cathars had gone for the spiritual jugular. Their world (and yours) was not the work of god but that of the devil. Savvy Cathars!... The devilish set up was created to entrap us, poor humans, in a con-trick in which every one had to find their own resurrection after several reincarnation to become "perfect". Perfects would go to heaven only then and never come back. Possibly influenced by Buddhism and Judaism, the Cathars had some great new "traditions", lasting for a bit more than a couple of centuries. Their political rules were more in tune with the capitalism of today — with better conditions than modern women can still dream of. Equality. Political, ownership and sexual freedom. 
Of course these Cathars — as they lent money to merchants contrarily to the Catholics, who claimed that lending money was a sin — were becoming powerful and rich, considering the interest they charged would make present day "pay-day" lenders appear like amateurs.... Facts that aggrieved the French king and the Catholic pope. Those two powers allied and used their "catholic" armies to wipe out the Cathars in the name of god and country, after a few long battles still remembered in Cathar country, now fully catholicised. One could not have the devil being exploited like the Cathars did, could one?
The cathars were thus wiped out but their 'secrets" were still haunting us in the 20th Century. The Da Vinci Code was loosely based on "legends" about them — legends that were "re-created" from scratch by two con-artist raconteurs in the 1950s. Why Not. 
In the early 2000s, these were turned into a pseudo-reality novel — a boof (a spoof in a book) called "the Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown, stealing more or less all the guff from another boof of the 1980s, based on the legends of Sion "the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" in which some "documents" proved that Jesus ended alive and well in the south of France, possibly in Cathar country ... Why not.
These modern tricksters were fibbers in the long tradition of fibbers who started operating in the first century AD. In order to develop a belief around a few events that happened in Galilee, some chroniclers wrote stories. it started organically from a few forgeries to a complex web of lies, from writers who for polemical purposes added fancy detailed porkies that never happened — let alone interpreted and were often contradictory. 
Very soon after people started to "believe", there were schisms such as the Orthodox, the Copts and the Catholics to name a few, because the "texts" of course were full of contradictions and the slowly developing powers wanted to choose their own bits to believe in what. Do angels have sex, for example. In these belief systems new hierarchies were thus created as to "control" the power of belief. Priests, bishop, super-bishops, cardinals and popes were invented to make sure the loot that was collected from the believers, was associated with "kingdoms" and used to promote, maintain and increase the kingdom-come with armies and eventual inquisitions... Thus as the beliefs evolved, some text were adapted to mention the "kingdom of god". Easy. Kings and kingdom are mentioned in that other collection of fancifully adapted text, the Old Testament, in which the wrath of god is more furious than the worse of typhoons, or deadly calm like the Sargasso Sea in which sailors die from lack of wind. Death features prominently.

Exodus 34:7 Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Deuteronomy 24:16 “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.

Ezekiel 18:19-20 “Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Numbers 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’

Text like these can lead to "interpretations"...

But the new text was going to be about love, peace and a glowing light on the hill pinned to a cross. Of course in order to apply love, there were many bloody battles fought in the Galilee region and everywhere else where some non-believers refused to believe in love, peace and the glorious light on the hill, according to the new peaceful narrative. Turning the other cheek was never an option, though it was there in black and white on the new cheeky books full of contradictions. 
After some major rewrite and some clean-up of the bits that did not fit, the 27 books (manuscripts acknowledged by historians but there could have been manuscripts from other forgers that were never found) were condensed into four major scripts for the Catholics and possibly more for the others, the Orthodox and the Copts.
The original fibs having been written in Greek (not in Aramaic), were then translated in Latin. Anyone who is a linguist would know that translations are never perfect, even porkies. Thus today there are still new Christian groups who read the translations with new interpretations since — even as translated in modern English — nothing is purely settled. Lies are difficult to tell that something is straight.
In the 7th century, another group of people, with a somewhat similar ethnic background but always in opposition to the Jews, decided to create their own beliefs, using bits of this and that belonging to the Abrahamic traditions, including believing that Jesus was a prophet — all done in the good spirit of conquest, as demonstrated by the Catholics making and taking ground. Islam was thus invented by the humble Prophet Mohammed who, unlike Christ was not deemed to be the "son of god" — the concept and the trinity having been invented around the 4th century AD, in order to conciliate discrepancies in the collective of stories. 
Humbly, Mohammed of course declared himself the last of the true prophets, rightfully promising to kill anyone else claiming to be another one, though some schisms in the Islamic religion have since adopted "other" later prophets. Hence the hideous religious war and battle for territory between Shia and Sunni revival. Loonies with guns roam the planet armed with beliefs while engaging in persecution — mostly in the form of eradication... 
It would have been well-known to the boffins of the Catholic church, from their own experiences that persecution only reinforces belief. Even the lions in the lion-den knew that. This is why the Catholics had to wipe out the Cathars entirely. No trace of them left. Burn their texts, their women and their perfects. Luckily some historians recorded the deed and were already attune to the double-standards (hypocrisy with benediction) of the church. There were thus more schism a few century later with Luther (shown as Luthor, the nemesis of one Superman) in "Germany" (German-speaking territories of the Holy Roman Empire) and Calvin (a reformist, now a naughty little kid in a comic strip) in France, who were incensed at the church's immense treasury, opulent cathedrals and the breaking of many rules in the text that the church itself had written, mostly under Constantine — especially about frugality. 
When the church started to sell "indulgences" to rich sinners, this was the last straw. 
Paying cash for less days spent in the purgatory was, one must admit, a nifty transaction. But all this mercantilism could not happen without the "belief" being reinforced daily, especially on Sunday — the day of the Sun in Saxon lingo, Dimanche in French (dies dominica (Latin dies Dominicus)  "jour du Seigneur" (Day of the Lord),  Didache : Dies dominicus — translation from Greek: Kuriake Hemera, then Sonntag, in German (day of the sun) — which according to the Jews is the first day of the week (Saturday being the Sabbath) while in the Catholic calendar Sunday is the last day of the week. Have a rest.
A certain Henry the VIII decided to open his own branch of Catholicism called Anglicanism because the pope gave him the shits in regard to his divorce. Thus most of the Catholic buildings in England were duly ransacked and demolished or adopted to the new version of the faith.
"Believe or we'll kill you" was (still is) a very effective way to control people who had (have) no idea about much and thought gold (or oil) was like aluminium-foil wrapper. The conquistadors thus traded the godly belief for gold under the threat of muskets and swords. Massacres were good for the business of beliefs. Still is these days. 
But (un)fortunately, psychology (or the study of the mechanics of thoughts/behaviour) entered the fray. More and more people could see blind Freedie and expose the religious con-trick through the wide cracks in the floor. One religion had to find more powerful ways to conjure. Doubt is thus still manipulated to create faith, with clever ways. Miracles are being performed:
Fred Nile regularly prays for the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras to be drenched and as regularly noted it nearly only rains on the Easter parade (Show) in Sydney. God works in mysterious contrary ways, like the weather. People who pray to god for the weather to change for their benefit are nuts. Tonight of course is the shortest eclipse of the moon since 1592, an eclipse no-one in Sydney will see due to the rain, rain and more rain... Where's god when one wants to see an eclipse?
But a psychological preacher got wind that positive thinking was better than spruiking to crowds about hell... Spruiking about hell and brimstone is somewhat negative...
It worked for him. With the cash from his parishioners believing in the power of positivity, he build a massive crystal church in California and retired a well-off man, if not a rich man. His priestly followers deciding to become positively richer faster, thus may have squandered the fortune and the church became bankrupt, the building being sold to you guess whom — the Catholic Church. 
Then we visit the Church of Scientology which some bad people deem to be a tax-dodge lodge for rich entertainers. Clever... A bit like the Cathars, except from the freedom bit, and a bit like our positive psychological pastor — with psychological tests and delicate brainwashing, one can reincarnate, while being alive, to the next level... Magic as long as one pays more cash. It makes one feel more important than being a mere movie star — most of whom have oodles of cash to launder by lauding a superior being (or bunch of green beings). 
The druids are still cutting the mistletoe, while some pommy prince lays more wreath to the dead of some wars, in which the field participants had no idea about the true purpose thereof of dying — but did so by believing in god. It makes us feel good to know our loved ones are in heaven, unlike the Aboriginal ancestors being part of the landscapes which miners want to dig...
So "god is risen" is a furphy. Jesus was posted on a cross like a common criminal. The Jews did not kill him but the legend is written. His dead body was deemed to be thus taken to a burial chamber, closed with a huge rock... This is only raconteured a few centuries later after the deed and this does not make any historical sense whatsoever, of the times. Criminals, including thieves, were left to rot on the sticks by the romans. But this would not fit the illusion. The "messiah" could not be seen vanishing in the wind of death. So when the women came to visit the tomb, it was empty. Of course it was empty because "he" was never placed there and women were not allowed to go the site of the crucifixion again. And who cares?...
So when all the disciples, with good English names, like Peter and Simon, learned their masters had vanished, they had some visions being visited by him... Well, this is what was written some centuries later... No witness accounts. In the big book, there were no mass hallucination which would have been recorded historically. So the forger told us it was individual visions. One disciple after the other... well just a few disciples hallucinating for 40 days (40 is a good number for Abrahamic believers and politicians). When one has an activity focus, it is psychologically known that this will affect our psyche — our dreams (including day-dreams) — except for Thomas, the clever exception that confirmed the rule: "believe and you shall go to heaven"... I must say that the writers of the hoax were very very clever and knew how doubt could be manipulated into the story-telling to create a spruik. 
Have a happy rain-soaked Easter, a great Passover and keep believing in the good witches, while cutting the mistletoe from oak-trees...
Gus Leonisky
Your local atheist priest


ps: Of course people like Da Vinci and Michelangeo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni belonged to secret arcane religious societies while getting a lot of their cash from the Catholic church for rendering its illusions into magnificent Last Suppers and Virgin Marys... Gus belongs to the Secret Society of C, in which the almighty is a big carrot in the sky.
pps: To all the believers, especially politicians, believe quietly if you must, without guns.

 

ppps: Illustration at top by Gus Dali Raphael, with a dash of an unknown painter of the 18th century...

 

See also: 

 

and god createth the fanatic...

 

 

evil is a black cat...

 

 

 

insulting truck drivers...

 

 

 

eschatology or the end of time, relatively...

 

 

 

magic number...

 

 

 

of nihilistic art and religious beliefs...

 

 

 

evolution...

 

 

 

operation secular democratic humanism...

 

 

 

the ghosts of religion in a secular political world...

 

 

 

god versus the debbil...

 

 

 

the greed of the easter piggy...

 

 

 

consume, dear consumer, and be happy in the hands of lord business...

 

 

 

of teaching history, religion, hot sauce and hamster wheels...

 

 

 

8-10-13-16-19-22-23 — the beauty of consciousness....

 

 

 

flat-earth theory confirmed by 25 per cent americans and 33 per cent europeans...

 

 

 

a simplified religious history of the world.

 

 

the santamaria-zation of australia...

seriously though...