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Robert Price: The OT Is A Pile Of Shit

Started by Minimalist, December 30, 2018, 01:52:20 PM

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Minimalist

Okay, the actual title of his book is Holy Fable:Vol. One but I like to cut to the chase as the saying goes.  I'll be posting excerpts from the work.  The first deals with "David and Goliath."  A cute story and total bullshit.

QuoteDavid and Goliath 1 Sam. 17 According to 1 Samuel 17: 55-58, David and Saul meet here for the first time, on the eve of the battle with the Philistine champion Goliath. 78 David is a youth unaccustomed to either armor or battle. Yet according to chapter 16, Saul and David had already met, and David was already a skilled warrior by the time of chapter 17. The chapter 16 version must be the earlier of the Saul-David meeting, since it is the less spectacular compared with the David and Goliath version. If you already had the Goliath version, who would ever have made up the less spectacular one in chapter 16? But if that is what you started out with, you might welcome a new, more colorful version. They both survived in the tradition side by side. And, according to 2 Samuel 21: 19, it is not David but someone named Elhanan who kills Goliath! So we must conclude that the feat was only later ascribed to the more famous hero David. The David and Goliath story as we read it in 1 Samuel 17 must be a legend. As such it is another prime bit of Deuteronomic theology: God’s power is shown in human weakness. (But again, isn’t the point really that brains trump brawn?) Interestingly, the much later Chronicler, who rewrote the Deuteronomic History, noticed this discrepancy and made Elhanan kill Goliath’s brother (1 Chron. 20: 5)! Subsequent Bible copyists liked the Chronicler’s harmonization so well that they inserted it into the text of Samuel, which is why it appears that way in the late, corrupt text of the King James Version at 2 Samuel 21: 19. Similarly, the Septuagint translators noticed the contradiction between the two versions of the first meeting of Saul and David, and they eliminated one of them! Finally, note that Goliath’s stature has literally grown in the telling. According to the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls texts, he is six and a half feet tall, not nine and a half feet tall as the corrupt Masoretic Text has it.

Pgs 112-113

Prof. Israel Finkelstein has a good take on this tale, too.  But I'll stick with Price for the moment.
The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Baruch

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.  Expand your mind.

Yes, Dr Finkelstein is good.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Minimalist

That's what Price is doing.  Fundies will explode at the mere suggestion that their holy horseshit is.... well.... holey.
The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Baruch

Quote from: Minimalist on December 30, 2018, 03:13:23 PM
That's what Price is doing.  Fundies will explode at the mere suggestion that their holy horseshit is.... well.... holey.

Infallible and inerrant scripture .. is shooting fish in a barrel.  Do you lake fish with dynamite?  Is that sporting?
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Minimalist

I have no objection to picking off people who do.  Frankly, I'm amazed that in the 21st century there are still people who take that shit at face value.
The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Unbeliever

#5
Quote from: Joseph LewisIt is our duty to expose the Bible. We must continue to tell the truth about the Bible. We must continue to enlighten the people. And if after the true facts are known, there are some who still insist the Bible is good enough for them, they are welcome to it.

I'm familiar with Robert Price, he's one of my favorite people.

The reason the OT is so contradictory is that it was created from several different documents, according to the documentary hypothesis.

Does Price discuss this at all in his book, Holy Crap, Batman?
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Minimalist

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Baruch

Quote from: Minimalist on December 30, 2018, 04:44:54 PM
I have no objection to picking off people who do.  Frankly, I'm amazed that in the 21st century there are still people who take that shit at face value.

Apparently you don't get out much.  Also with each generational turnover, we have a whole new set of fucking assholes to deal with ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Mike Cl

Robert M. Price is one of my favs.  I last read his Jesus Christ the Incredible Shrinking Son of Man--loved it but it was a long time ago.  I have several other publications of The Journal of Higher Criticisms and read some of his Jesus Seminar stuff.  I should get the book you are referring to--should get back into the guy.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Minimalist

Quote from: Baruch on December 30, 2018, 07:08:12 PM
Apparently you don't get out much.  Also with each generational turnover, we have a whole new set of fucking assholes to deal with ;-)

The good news is that jesusism is dying out in the West.  It's an aging population of shitheads that show up at the churches, on occasion.
The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Baruch

#10
Quote from: Minimalist on December 30, 2018, 08:38:08 PM
The good news is that jesusism is dying out in the West.  It's an aging population of shitheads that show up at the churches, on occasion.

In Europe and Canada etc ... not so much in the US.  The cynical upper class of any country though, is never genuine in anything.

I got interested in Biblical criticism because of my wife's seminary education.  One of her professors was a member of the Jesus Seminar ...

http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/art_jesus_sem_hist_bel.htm

That was 20 years ago.  From there I moved onto "original languages" ... as religious anthropology.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Minimalist

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Baruch

#12
Quote from: Minimalist on December 30, 2018, 10:38:51 PM
We're getting there.

https://bigthink.com/stephen-johnson/the-us-is-losing-its-religion-and-faster-than-you-may-think


We had a longer way to come, sadly.

People, when free of parental influence, choose their religion or lack thereof, based on their psychology.  There are 16 personality types (per Meyer-Briggs).
See, the ultimate genocide is the extermination of 15 of the Meyer-Briggs personality types by the Master personality type?  The only question is which of the 16 is the master.

So no, you will never get rid of X, no matter what that X is, and no matter how much you hate X.  The problem isn't with X, the problem is with you.

BTW ... US is pretty religious, as always ... just more diverse in theism ...

http://www.pewforum.org/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean/

Comparing younger adults to older adults is a false comparison, because people's religion changes with age.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Minimalist

I don't know..... lots of old farts in this congregation.




Last one out can turn off the lights.


Then there is this:

https://www.infowars.com/between-6000-and-10000-churches-in-the-u-s-are-dying-each-year-and-that-means-that-over-100-will-die-this-week/

(I deliberately chose Infowars to make the point!)

QuoteAs you will see below, between 6,000 and 10,000 churches are dying in the United States every single year, and that means that more than 100 will die this week alone.  And of course thousands of others are on life support.  All over the country this weekend, small handfuls of people will gather in huge buildings which once boasted very large congregations.  At one time, America was widely considered to be “a Christian nation”, but that really isn’t true anymore.

Depending on location most of them should be torn down and converted to what this country really needs:  More parking.
The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

-- H. L. Mencken

Unbeliever

America was never "a Christian nation" - just a holier-than-thou nation. I'm enjoying the decline of religion. I hardly ever hear anyone mention it, anymore, since I don't stay at the local gospel mission these days. There are two churches that have a breakfast for the homeless every Saturday and Sunday, but the most they ever do is pray before the meal. Well, they only do that at the Church of the Incarnation. The other is the local Unitarian church, and they don't seem to pray at all, ever.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman