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High holy rollers?


Al_U_Card

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i'll try to read the rest later, but one of the early premises i read doesn't make sense - he states that the crucifixion was a hoax... that particular act has as much if not more historical evidence as any of the ancient world, written about by two prominent historians of the time - one a jew and one a roman... but who knows, maybe they were in on it (no doubt drug-induced)
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That's what I don't understand .... why would anyone care about this? I mean ... Christianity descends from a fertility cult ... so what? Most schools of thought (whether religious or otherwise) become unrecognizable if you try to trace their roots 2000 years back. Suppose someone claimed that Marxism can be linked to a 2000 YO mushroom cult. Would Marxists feel insulted? I don't think so.
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As an atheist with a personal interest in the subject, I didn't find this particularly interesting either. Did Jesus exist? Probably. Does that prove anything about the existence of a supernatural creator with a bad temper who craves adulation and carries grudges for eternity? No.

 

These links (for example) are more interesting, imo.

 

http://www.atheist-community.org/library/a...read.php?id=700

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_is_not_Great

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That's what I don't understand .... why would anyone care about this? ~~

right... it appears that this caught al's fancy and he takes it as proof of the non-existence of God... we all know such a claim can't be defended, and especially by someone who is a little hazy on historical facts

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I guess you could debate just what aethist world leaders do preach but in practice alot of aethist world leaders do tell you what to do...

 

See Stalin or Mao. or other world leaders throughout history.

 

Of course if you are talking about aethists who are not leaders.....that is another discussion.

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That's what I don't understand .... why would anyone care about this? ~~

right... it appears that this caught al's fancy and he takes it as proof of the non-existence of God... we all know such a claim can't be defended, and especially by someone who is a little hazy on historical facts

Don't think it ever once mentions the existence of God anywhere.....but it sure pokes some holes in the religious ethos. It caught my fancy alright. Exactly the kind of flight of fancy that the unscrupulous can use to dominate the credulous. Talk about your basic mythical beings. B) :)

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All religions cant be right.

Well, actually, this is not correct.

 

If a cat can be both dead and alive, and if an electron can be in more than one place at the same time, then surely all religions can be right.

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All religions cant be right.

Well, actually, this is not correct.

 

If a cat can be both dead and alive, and if an electron can be in more than one place at the same time, then surely all religions can be right.

Sounds as all religions are wrong in that they don't recognize that everything is right and wrong at the same time. Oh maybe the Thaoists are close to the truth :)

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That's what I don't understand .... why would anyone care about this? ~~

right... it appears that this caught al's fancy and he takes it as proof of the non-existence of God... we all know such a claim can't be defended, and especially by someone who is a little hazy on historical facts

Don't think it ever once mentions the existence of God anywhere.....but it sure pokes some holes in the religious ethos. It caught my fancy alright. Exactly the kind of flight of fancy that the unscrupulous can use to dominate the credulous. Talk about your basic mythical beings. :) :blink:

i think you might need to read portions again... in any case, he claims the crucifixion a hoax... the bible is not the only ancient document attesting to the historical fact of the crucifixion

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My bad. I consider God to be something other than a manifestation in human form as are we all. Our own personal divinity aside, the paucity of verifiable sources on the contemporary life of Jesus is only surpassed by the lack of veracity of most of the translations available.

 

Just sifting through the apocrypha and the gnostic texts gives pause for thought. Mr. Allegro's cogent perspective on the origins and developments of religious fervor just helps to illuminate the bankrupt nature of the historical content of organized religion. Were they only philosophical treatises, open for debate and conjecture, it is likely that a lot fewer violent deaths would have been the result.

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All religions cant be right.

Well, actually, this is not correct.

 

If a cat can be both dead and alive, and if an electron can be in more than one place at the same time, then surely all religions can be right.

I think it is correct.

 

An electron doesn't 'claim' anything. The cat doesn't declare it's state of being. We observe their state and apply definition.

 

Christianity in particular makes absolute, exclusive truth claims... Therefore it sets up a position in which it is either correct or bunk. We aren't left with the 'both/and' option.

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All religions cant be right.

Well, actually, this is not correct.

 

If a cat can be both dead and alive, and if an electron can be in more than one place at the same time, then surely all religions can be right.

I think it is correct.

 

An electron doesn't 'claim' anything. The cat doesn't declare it's state of being. We observe their state and apply definition.

 

Christianity in particular makes absolute, exclusive truth claims... Therefore it sets up a position in which it is either correct or bunk. We aren't left with the 'both/and' option.

cs lewis couldn't have said it better

Our own personal divinity aside, the paucity of verifiable sources on the contemporary life of Jesus is only surpassed by the lack of veracity of most of the translations available.

as i said earlier, the historical sources for Jesus' birth and death are as great as if not greater than any occurrence in antiquity... the historians josephus, a jew, and tacitus, a roman, both report his death by crucifixion in the time of pilate... of course they could have been part of this mushroom cult also, who knows

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as i said earlier, the historical sources for Jesus' birth and death are as great as if not greater than any occurrence in antiquity... the historians josephus, a jew, and tacitus, a roman, both report his death by crucifixion in the time of pilate... of course they could have been part of this mushroom cult also, who knows

The trick here is, it is one of those very historians who you were claiming supported the crucifixion story that's now now contradicting it.

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as i said earlier, the historical sources for Jesus' birth and death are as great as if not greater than any occurrence in antiquity... the historians josephus, a jew, and tacitus, a roman, both report his death by crucifixion in the time of pilate... of course they could have been part of this mushroom cult also, who knows

The trick here is, it is one of those very historians who you were claiming supported the crucifixion story that's now now contradicting it.

you'll have to refresh my mind on this

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you'll have to refresh my mind on this

Nothing exciting...just that he was a well-known religious historian who was included in the Dead Sea Scrolls exploration. Whether he always believed this stuff, believed this stuff after seeing the 'original sources', or doesn't believe it now and is just trying to force the DSS to make all of the Scroll information public, I don't know.

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If you read his earlier stuff, he was very neutral in the beginning. One of the reasons for his inclusion on the team. After the initial studies, he started to raise issues in the 60's (especially about the restrictions to accessing the scrolls and the distribution of the info translated) but it was only after he got hold of some similar finds that were not controlled and sequestered by the church that he came up with his proposition about the entymological sense of the scriptures.
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