Entertainment
BACK TO THE GARDEN
The religious revelations in this book will leave you saying "Holy Shit."
Mon, Jun 10, 2002 12:00 am
Preston Peet
Authors Chris Bennett and Neil McQueen have created an exhaustive study of both the Old and New Testaments in their book, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible (Forbidden Fruit Publishing). The book will disturb most devout followers of the Jewish and Christian faiths as portrayed in the modern Bible.
Starting with the Old Testament tale of the Garden of Eden, asserting that the Tree of Life was cannabis sativa and that the Cain and Abel story "may in fact have been a contrived piece of propaganda against certain sacrificial rites of Near Eastern fertility cults," the authors move merrily along, documenting various respected religious figures who partake in the smoke of cannabis-laden incense and other psychedelic substances, and who fornicate and commit slaughter before, during and after communing with their God.
The authors then dissect the New Testament, giving evidence that not only Jesus may have been married and/or gay, but to attain his Messiah-hood, he was anointed by John the Baptist with an oil that contained large amounts of cannabis. Most alarmingly to the devout, Jesus and his disciples may have pulled off an elaborate hoax utilizing drugs to feign death in the crucifixion and resurrection incident.
The authors rely not only on the tracts the modern Bible contains, but also on many early Jewish and Christian texts, like those of the Gnostics that were excluded as heretical by early Church fathers.
Bennett and McQueen assert that religion, as portrayed in the Bible today, is basically a tool used in a conspiracy to further isolate humanity from the natural world.
"The Highway to Hell is indeed paved," they write. "The rediscovery of the entheogens [plant hallucinogens] may offer us a means of reacquaintance with the natural order, and a way to return back to the garden. For if there is one thing that can break through the pavement encasing our earthly paradise, it's a weed."
Starting with the Old Testament tale of the Garden of Eden, asserting that the Tree of Life was cannabis sativa and that the Cain and Abel story "may in fact have been a contrived piece of propaganda against certain sacrificial rites of Near Eastern fertility cults," the authors move merrily along, documenting various respected religious figures who partake in the smoke of cannabis-laden incense and other psychedelic substances, and who fornicate and commit slaughter before, during and after communing with their God.
The authors then dissect the New Testament, giving evidence that not only Jesus may have been married and/or gay, but to attain his Messiah-hood, he was anointed by John the Baptist with an oil that contained large amounts of cannabis. Most alarmingly to the devout, Jesus and his disciples may have pulled off an elaborate hoax utilizing drugs to feign death in the crucifixion and resurrection incident.
The authors rely not only on the tracts the modern Bible contains, but also on many early Jewish and Christian texts, like those of the Gnostics that were excluded as heretical by early Church fathers.
Bennett and McQueen assert that religion, as portrayed in the Bible today, is basically a tool used in a conspiracy to further isolate humanity from the natural world.
"The Highway to Hell is indeed paved," they write. "The rediscovery of the entheogens [plant hallucinogens] may offer us a means of reacquaintance with the natural order, and a way to return back to the garden. For if there is one thing that can break through the pavement encasing our earthly paradise, it's a weed."
