(April 29, 2015 at 12:43 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote:Notice that having evidence of a manuscript is not the same as having the manuscript.

Precisely.  They claim they have evidence.  The rest of us have bupkes except their word which is worth exactly shit.


There have been so many of these scams lately ( remember the Lead Codices, or the Jehoash tablet, or the James Ossuary, or the First Temple Pomegranite, or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to name a few.)

Even when there are legitimate archaeological finds like the Ebla library or the DSS we go through a period which scholars call "the silly season" where every religious shitwit pronounces the new find as "proof" of their fairy tale.  They are not.

I remember a few years ago my mother was trying to scare the hell out of me by telling me about an episode of TBN (I call it an episode, what else can I call it) where they were saying archeologist had dug down to hell and they were playing recordings of what they claimed were the screams of souls trapped   there. They even had a bat flying out of the hole. It saddened me that my mother would believe such crap.  But when you have an emotional need to believe something, you're not going to question anything that claims to be proof of what you believe.

Mom's a couple of cards short of a full deck, eh Rhonda?

Quote:http://www.snopes.com/religion/wellhell.asp

I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell her.

(May 1, 2015 at 3:19 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Mom's a couple of cards short of a full deck, eh Rhonda?

Quote:http://www.snopes.com/religion/wellhell.asp

I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell her.

Naw, she has all her cards in the intelligence area but even highly intelligent people can be susceptible to the pathos of religion. They prey on human emotions like ambulance chasers. I was lucky. Because of my hearing and visual disabilities, it was plain for me to see the dichotomy between what the church offered and what it delivered. After a while I got tired of them always having an explanation.  As for mom, I don't know what makes her so vulnerable. She's strong on the outside but until her emotional needs shift away from that cesspool of undigested lies called Christianity, she is where she is.

(May 1, 2015 at 3:11 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: I remember a few years ago my mother was trying to scare the hell out of me by telling me about an episode of TBN (I call it an episode, what else can I call it) where they were saying archeologist had dug down to hell and they were playing recordings of what they claimed were the screams of souls trapped   there. They even had a bat flying out of the hole. It saddened me that my mother would believe such crap.  But when you have an emotional need to believe something, you're not going to question anything that claims to be proof of what you believe.

Oh!  I'm sorry.  That's a little over-the-top.  

(May 1, 2015 at 3:11 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote:

(April 29, 2015 at 12:43 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Precisely.  They claim they have evidence.  The rest of us have bupkes except their word which is worth exactly shit.


There have been so many of these scams lately ( remember the Lead Codices, or the Jehoash tablet, or the James Ossuary, or the First Temple Pomegranite, or the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, to name a few.)

Even when there are legitimate archaeological finds like the Ebla library or the DSS we go through a period which scholars call "the silly season" where every religious shitwit pronounces the new find as "proof" of their fairy tale.  They are not.

  But when you have an emotional need to believe something, you're not going to question anything that claims to be proof of what you believe.

sadly, i can attest to that during my christian days (and even some struggles i had after departing from christianity) i'm glad that's behind me. i'm finally comfortable with reality, and not needing to believe in a pseudo reality. 

Bats come out of Hell because of Meatloaf?

I don't remember such references in the bible.

(May 2, 2015 at 12:53 am)Deidre32 Wrote:

(May 1, 2015 at 3:11 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote:   But when you have an emotional need to believe something, you're not going to question anything that claims to be proof of what you believe.

sadly, i can attest to that during my christian days (and even some struggles i had after departing from christianity) i'm glad that's behind me. i'm finally comfortable with reality, and not needing to believe in a pseudo reality. 

Kudos for your triumph! I know it wasn't easy.

---

(May 2, 2015 at 3:30 am)robvalue Wrote: Bats come out of Hell because of Meatloaf?

I don't remember such references in the bible.

?
I looked for the post about meatloaf and couldn't find it. Who said something about meatloaf?  Although, now that you mention it, those guys at TBN  do seem to be kinda cooked. 

(April 18, 2015 at 4:17 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: When I was a student at Biola, a 4 year Christian university, the Bible  professors and theologians spoke of reading the NT in the original Greek.  For many years, this sounded cool. I couldn't do it, but it was cool, nonetheless.

In the past few years, though, something occurred to me.  Jesus wasn't Greek. Neither did he speak Greek. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John weren't Greek. Neither did they speak Greek.  Peter, Paul, James and Jude weren't Greek. Neither did they speak Greek. So how could an authentic NT have been originally written in Greek?

Jesus and the Apostles all spoke Greek. It was the lingua franca of the Roman empire. Necessary for trade and all that. In fact, the Jews of the diaspora (those not living in Palestine) read the Greek Septuagint scriptures instead of the Hebrew scriptures.

Luke and John Mark were not Jews; they were Greeks. Paul, though Jewish, was a Roman citizen from Tarsus.

Yeah, the boys all spoke Greek. 

Quote:Jesus and the Apostles all spoke Greek.

Evidence that jesus and his fucking apostles were anything more than a figment of someone's imagination?


Didn't think so.

(May 2, 2015 at 3:30 am)robvalue Wrote: Bats come out of Hell because of Meatloaf?

Lol!