It is not difficult to make the case that religion, particularly fundamentalist religion, is one of the greatest negative forces in human history. How many wars, how many tortures, how much suppression, how much sadism, has been created by religion? Christianity, despite being based upon the preaching of a messiah who emphasized compassion and tolerance above else, is unsurpassed in the number of people it persecuted in Gods, Mary's, and Jesus' name. it is a sin to take the Lord's name in vain, yet who has done so more than the Church itself?

All of this notwithstanding, if this still continues to be a seed of truth in each of the great religions. The problem lies in attempting to weed out the truth from the fiction. The four gospels that communicate the story of Jesus to us today themselves have major discrepancies. In the centuries immediately following Christ's death, there were as many as 50 gospels. At this point it is impossible to determine which of these were the most faithful to the true story.

Manipulators and deceivers are not creative; their lies are not pulled out of thin air. Instead they find it much easier to take the facts, shuffle them and then rework them into a pattern that best suits their purpose. They are the "knaves who twist your words to make a trap for fools". There is no better way for Satan, if he does indeed exist, to undo God's work than by bending and twisting it until it bears only the vaguest resemblance to the original.

Looking at the story of Jesus - what if Judas was not the villain, but the fall guy? Peter denied Christ's name no less than three times before the cock crowed. What if it was he who was the true villain of the story? When one stands beneath the dome of Saint Peter's basilica, it is hard to imagine that its pomp and splendour are what Jesus had in mind when he sacrificed himself on the Cross for our sins.

The movie, The Passion of Christ, is yet another example of how the intent of Christ's sacrifice is manipulated to serve the intentions of his persecutors. By focusing the attention upon the act of the crucifixion and the enmity of the Jewish Elders towards him, it incites rage on our part, instead of forgiveness. Pontius Pilate, a conspicuously cruel and incompetent Roman magistrate, who was not shy to crucify anyone who challenged Roman rule, a governor who lined the road to Jerusalem with crucifixes to send a strong message to all who traveled there, is miraculously recast as a soulful, contemplative intellectual upon whose conscience Jesus' death weighed heavily.

This story could not have been interpreted in a more flattering way to the Roman occupiers if it was the Romans who are the authors. Indeed we are the Romans. we seek power, status and comfort if not forgiveness. We as a culture esteem those who win, not those who play by the rules, or are good sports. in some sense we are in fact worse than the Romans - at least there was a certain brutal honesty in their hedonism, while we need to shroud ours in moral rectitude.