The Gospel of Judas Iscariot

Originally Posted by MetheGelfling

Edit: Also, can you actually imagine planning to get tortured and crucified as a political move? That just doesn't seem too rational, but then again under this assumption one could argue that Jesus was insane.

Well, there are a lot of things that are done for the purpose of making political statements that are not exactly rational, terrorism for example.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Jerrica

This is true, but you have to look a little deeper. According to Christianity, God doesn't make men into robots. You always, always, always have a choice. So Judas *chose* to betray Jesus, he wasn't forced into it by some cosmic guiding hand. Judas was flawed, Judas was the betrayer of the Christ. And though Jesus had to die to fulfill his role as Christ, his betrayer still sold out the son of God, by choice.

Depending what interpretation you accept, that might or might not be the case. Not all denomination thinks that way. My aunt is a Pentecostal; I like how her favorite line is "god has a plan for each and every one of us", and then proceed to coerce me to church. Although I guess the concept of "sin" only exist because of the appearance of personal choice, but just how much meaning do those choice really hold in the context of an all knowing all omnipotent being with every outcome in the Universe predetermined?

There's nowhere I can't reach.