I wonder if anyone has pushed the thesis that Christianity is really just an abstract version of Judaism and the Judaic beliefs.

I mean Judaism to me seems more founded in plain reality. Jews don’t have to wonder whether they’re the chosen people they know they’re the chosen people; but Christians have to earn their way into heaven, a sort of quid pro quo with God.

Big Catholic guilt, my brother would say.

Judaism was supposedly waiting for a messiah, but what it got instead was an abstraction of one. Judaism was fine by itself; it doesn’t need anything.

For whatever reasons, Christians resurrected this ancient tradition of blood sacrifice as a way of making some sin OK with God; but instead of killing an animal and offering its blood to God, Christians drink a glass of wine and pretend that it’s the blood or they eat the piece of bread and pretend that it’s the body of the martyr Jesus.

This is a substitute for the blood sacrifice. Christians still do it, just in a more abstract way. I don’t think Jews worry about sins in the same way the Christians do. Maybe the Jews just look at sins as part of life … stuff you should say sorry for, but don’t sweat it too much. Christianity seems to have a long history of guilt associated with sin.

I’m glad that i’ve gotten to have the range of religious experiences, from evangelical Protestant Christianity with lots of Jewish friends, atheism, Tibetan Buddhism, and finally ending up with Unitarians. Nothing to lose as keep over.