Thoughts and Prayers: The Religion Thread

@Octave I may have posted these before, apologies if that's the case:

Zealot by Reza Aslan
Desire of the Everlasting Hills by Tim Cahill

There are a few others and I am blanking on them right now. One of them was a pop-sci book about The Shroud of Turin that included a pretty sound account of what it might have been like to grow up when and where Jesus did.

Another good line of inquiry would be to look at some of the historic examinations of Saul/Paul of Tarsus and Luke. Paul was there for most of Christ's ministry. He was the source of much of what was preserved and set forth as canon until the Councils of Nicea in 326 C.E. I have to admit a preference for Luke. He was a doctor, an artist, and an avocational folklorist/oral historian who sought out everyone he could find who was still around after the crucifixion. They shaped the popular ideas we have about the life of Christ and many of them still hold.

@outofplace, I'm not arguing about rights. I should be more legalistic and less emotional about this and have fallen down in that regard.

 

Well, it's fine not to trust the source material, in a sense, as it relates to the thing that matters - which is whether he rose from the dead or not. Or the miracles.

I'm not sure it's essential Jesus not have had a wife. I suspect our long concern over it is rooted in how unambitious we can be, in the cosmic sense.

 

Thank you kindly, for real- and I'll let y'all get back to your judo match.

 

I think it's possible. FWIW, I don't believe in demons or djinn or fae or anything like that. My mind may be changed in the future. I think we're not getting the whole story about the fallen angels. (On a shallow note, my goodness, Tom Ellis is pretty, but I liked him better as Miranda's boyfriend.) Mary of Magdala was smart, depressed, and trapped in a place, time, and culture that wasn't meant for people like her. Jesus' friendship possibly saved her life and her sanity. She'd probably been told over and over that she was ungodly and possessed and may have even started to believe it.

It's some people's theology. Heaven is going to be a lonely place if we have stringent purity tests. Young Jesus supposedly wandered off to the east for a while. I doubt he'd pass muster with many groups today.

Some other creative takes on Judeo-Christian gods. I love this one.

And would we have been any better at this whole God thing?

And the sequel, which is more of a midrash on the flood myth, but an entertaining one:

BTW, I nearly got my nephew, Sproutie in deep poop when he informed his Sunday School class about flood myths during a pipecleaner animal construction session. ::sigh::

 

Well, you clearly don't know what I don't understand. I'm not out of line. I "called him out," -- as you've suggested people do. I'm not trying to push any buttons. I just know I'd never throw my apparently wonderful, dying significant other into a contentious discussion in which I'm calling everyone else a fucktard, repeatedly, for no other purpose than intentional offensiveness, and think it's OK, and I wondered if she knew about it. I still bet that she doesn't, and I still bet that she wouldn't like it. I have a right to say that, but I'm not "telling" him anything other than that.

I can only hope that it'd give him pause, though. As I've said, oh, three times now, I didn't tell him or lecture him about it. I ASKED him if she knew he did this, and I gave my opinion, based on what he has always written, that she wouldn't care it. Sure, I could be wrong about that thought, but we don't know, do we? Because neither he (nor you) answered my very pertinent questions. It's really very simple, and you're reading way more into my "lecture" than there is. The only reason hey abbott or anybody else would've been "offended" by that post was because he knew he was in the wrong, and/or they decided to give him a pass, thanks to that purposely aggressively graphic, sympathy-seeking "fucktard"-naming post that he wrote, and that he always writes, when it comes to this thread, and I wouldn't.

If that offends you, that's your problem, as you like to say.

 

Why did God approve of Able’s offering but not Cain’s? Why didn’t God know what Cain would do and prevent it. God must have known, how could
God not know? Is fratricide part of the unknowable plan? The first death of a human was the result of murder. Great work God.

 

You are fine either way. I get that you aren't talking about rights, but I am.

 

I wonder if it was really the first death or just an origin tale about the first murder.

 

Well, there is no Amber Doubleday. There was Abner Doubleday, and God didn’t speak to him because Maj. Gen. Doubleday cared more about cable car patents than sports. God did speak to Alexander Cartwright about the need to invent a game that would allow RBIs to be an important statistic.

 

You were out of line. You are out of line when you try lecturing any of us about what a beloved relative would think of us. It is especially true in his case. Talk to him about what he's doing. Implying that he is somehow not doing right by his wife is every bit as offensive as anything he has posted on this thread, and that's saying a lot. You should be embarrassed, especially given that you are delusional enough to think you have some moral high ground here. You clearly do not.

Spare me the semantics. You lectured. That you used a rhetorical question in that lecture doesn't make it any less of a lecture. Your claim that the only way he could be offended was if he knew he was wrong is utter bullshit. He could be offended because you are out of line. I am not going to speculate about what his wife would want. I don't know here and it's not my place. It isn't yours, either. Maybe that's why this bothers you so much. Maybe you really do know you are out of line, but can't bring yourself to admit as much.

I'm not really offended by either of you. I just view a lot of what you post the way I view a lot of what he posts, with the disdain those posts deserve.

 

Indeed. Sting vs. Nikita Koloff!

And if Ray Lewis and Daryl Strawberry get into a street fight, it’ll be a bonus.

 

If you believe that the Bible is literal, it’s the first death. Can you be a Christian, Muslim or Jewish person and not believe that your Bible is literal?

We know that nothing that occurred prior to Moses was written Contemporaneously with the action.