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How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard
RE: How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard
(September 13, 2015 at 6:16 am)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: Umm... so what does that have to do with the Samaritans?

Or the story of the good Samaritan?

I suppose in a vague way, you're saying you see kindness and goodness in people, especially Christian people (to which we, of course, reply that it's hardly unique to Christians), and you think that's what Jesus was talking about. But it's not.

The Samaritans were people who were political transplants. When the Assyrians conquered the 10 northern tribes of Israel, they exported them over the mountains en masse, to the far side of their empire, and spread them out so they would assimilate and not fight over their homeland. Likewise, they took conquered people from the far corners of their empire, and settled them in what used to be Israel. It was a means of keeping people from fighting for their "ancestral homeland", and it effectively erased the northern 10 tribes, which we call the "lost tribes". As a result, the surviving tribes of Benjamin and Judah (from which Judea/Jews get their modern name) became quite obsessed with the notion of resisting assimilation, and many argue that this is the reason for much of the Redaction we see in the Old Testament, as the priests sought to put together a unifying, single message for all, a Hebrew Identity™ around which they could all rally, especially during the Exile a few generations later.

By the time we get to Jesus' era, the Samaritans were an amalgamated people that the Judeans saw as sub-human, immoral, and trespassers on sacred soil. They were, to the Jews, the lowest of the low. So your Jesus-figure picked a Samaritan for a specific purpose. What was it? That's what I wanted you to read the story to see.

(September 13, 2015 at 3:08 am)Ronkonkoma Wrote: Sure I just read the Good Samaritan, I think he was probably a real person that Jesus came in contact with. He pulled out two denari to help the beaten up guy.
Felt I needed to quote the part I was addressing, above, so you could see what I mean exactly.
If the point was that "a guy Jesus met helped somebody by giving them money and being nice", there would be no reason to invoke the fact that he was a Samaritan.
My point to you was to research the history (which I just typed-up for you) of the Judean-Samaritan relationship, and to understand why Jesus chose that particular ethnicity for his story, instead of "some dude was on a road".
Sure, I know a little about Samarians and the fact that they were looked down on by the Jews because they worshipped on a mountain different from Jerusalem. All I was saying is that the story might have been a real happening, and I compared it to the the migrants who are traveling in Europe, who are also looked down on. They are actually the "salt of the earth" and I say that because I can't find a nicer expression for them. Some others are probably ISIS.

Jesus was actually once rejected by a Samarian village because he was going to worship in Jerusalem. His disciples wanted him to "send down hellfire on them", but he rebuked them. And how many times this happens today, over and over, "Christians" wanting to send people down to "hellfire". Still he went to the well of Jacob to drink, which was a remaining link of the Samaritans with the Jewish devotion. It was there he spoke to a woman living in adultery:

"Samaria! I came to Jacob's well athirst for thee, thou water of this well. And when thou didst give Me to drink, I promised thee living water that would never let thee thirst again. And thou didst, hoping and believing, make known to Me thy longing for this water. Behold, I reward thee, for thou hast allayed My thirst for the by thy desire after Me! Samaria, I am the Fountain of living water. I, who now speak to thee, am the Messiah."

That woman is believed to be Martyr Photina b the Eastern Orthodox Churches. She was ordered thrown down a well by Nero. http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/03/20/1...d-her-sons 

The Samarians converted to Christianity "in droves" .
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Messages In This Thread
RE: How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard - by Ronkonkoma - September 14, 2015 at 1:28 pm

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