A good recent review of this recurring issue …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgpt0Co94mQ
Of course the original Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic is best but too hard for most people.
The Biblical and associated Iron Age literature originated out of Bronze Age literature of the Near East. This is an introduction …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfYYraMgiBA
Cuneiform wedges are beautiful.
The Bible suffers from Hitchen's Razor: What can be asserted without evidence, can also be dismissed without evidence. The Bible is incredibly unsupported considering the extremely improbable claims of astronomical and solar anomalies, reanimations of multiple dead, accounts of mass exodus, and an obvious misunderstanding of disease causations...just to name a few.
To me it is only interesting as a window into the psychology of (1) ancient Jewish tribes and (b) a tiny sect of the Roman Empire. That millions of (non Jewish, LOL) people today take it as a history book just tells us about the power of cultural indoctrination. The fact that Mormons actually exist is almost beyond belief, but L Ron Hubbard was paying attention. It doesn't even have to be an old pile of shit.
Quote from: Cassia on October 05, 2020, 06:37:42 PM
Cuneiform wedges are beautiful.
The Bible suffers from Hitchen's Razor: What can be asserted without evidence, can also be dismissed without evidence. The Bible is incredibly unsupported considering the extremely improbable claims of astronomical and solar anomalies, reanimations of multiple dead, accounts of mass exodus, and an obvious misunderstanding of disease causations...just to name a few.
To me it is only interesting as a window into the psychology of (1) ancient Jewish tribes and (b) a tiny sect of the Roman Empire. That millions of (non Jewish, LOL) people today take it as a history book just tells us about the power of cultural indoctrination. The fact that Mormons actually exist is almost beyond belief, but L Ron Hubbard was paying attention. It doesn't even have to be an old pile of shit.
There is no evidence for a literal Bug's Bunny, therefore gay marriage is OK ;-) But yes, psychology is the thing, and that is timeless.
The correct counter to the post is that history and tradition are limiting, as is morality, so just abolish them ;-))
Yeah, ditch it.. if it's in the Bible...a contrived attempt to insert itself as a legitimate source of history, tradition and morality. Miracles as evidence, heaven as the carrot and hell as the stick. Hey, the gods give leverage and import to the otherwise average knuckleheads and there were plenty of competing bullshit stories.
Quote from: Cassia on October 05, 2020, 10:37:26 PM
Yeah, ditch it.. if it's in the Bible...a contrived attempt to insert itself as a legitimate source of history, tradition and morality. Miracles as evidence, heaven as the carrot and hell as the stick. Hey, the gods give leverage and import to the otherwise average knuckleheads and there were plenty of competing bullshit stories.
Legitimate history? As in Herodotus' pro Greek propaganda? The secular BS is related to schemes by used car and used kingdom salesmen.
Literature is illegitimate? What would England be without the false Robinhood BS? Factual history has no narrative, it is interpolated dry census stuff. How many gay Comanches were there in 1850? And how does that impact the coming election ;-)) Not that there is anything wrong with having the personality of an accountant ... but you will never be popular at cocktail parties.
Quote from: Baruch on October 05, 2020, 10:49:25 PM
Not that there is anything wrong with having the personality of an accountant ... but you will never be popular at cocktail parties.
My personality is irrelevant to my popularity at parties. Anyways usually I am up on stage at events trying to remember chord patterns. Getting trapped in a corner by religious bags of hot air or political pundits quickly takes the joy out of any event. Here they come, Run ! The main reason I even go to a party is just for an opportunity to play dress up, but we could just go to a concert instead. I am looking forward to doing that again, hopefully sooner than later.
Speaking of parties I will drop the atheist bomb if cornered with church-talk for too long. It works like a charm, the looks on their faces...priceless.
So you are situationally the center of attention, so you don't have to circulate ;-)
I have never been a party goer other than congregational activity. But then you are suspected of heresy not mere atheism '-)
Christianity is best exemplified in the Crusades ... a brave Muslim just as righteous as a brave Christian ... a new story about old stories ... humanity itself, not math nor physics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxIamZE_4M0
The Church militant .. in reaction to the Mosque militant. Perhaps two groups of anti-heroes. The real Saladin was also dying of leprosy, not just the king of Jerusalem. I have a broadsword bought at a Medieval Faire. I hope to never use it. My middle name first became popular in Britain during the Crusades. My daughter has a Celtic crown (similar to the Elvin ones from LOTR). Messina in Sicily, their port of embarkation, is the ancestral home of my father-in-law. Sicily was occupied by the Muslims for several centuries, and subject to reconquista by "the other French Normans" ... the one's who didn't go to England. There was a Convivencia between 3 faiths there, like the one in Iberia, but shorter lived. In that case between Roman and Greek Christianity, and Islam. In Iberia between Roman Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Both were precursors to the Renaissance, which got further stimulation from refugees from Byzantium.