An unanswerable question

[Rahul]

L. Ron Hubbard. They think they have the answer straight from God.

Hubbard never thought that. He knew he was creating fiction.

[Lek]

[/quote]

I have read scripture for many, many years.

It is largely the reason I am an atheist.
[/quote]

Ok. At least you've read them for yourself.

[fr0d0]

Where did you get this history of the life of Paul? From a comic book?

Well played brother

[Cyberman]

Careful, lest ye earn the monicker p0ed0.

[Ryantology]

It pays to remember Paul's alleged history. At one time he was a bestiarius, fighting and killing animals in the arenas. Then he was a bounty hunter, tracking and killing members of The Way cult. When he was on his way to Damascus to hunt for some more he suffered heat stroke and had a hallucination about what became the Jesus character. After that he went to Arabia for about three years to develop his new religious doctrine. He then returned and converted the remnants of The Way cult to his new religion.

His disciples later wrote the Gospels to explain flesh out the Jesus character and to provide background information about him. The writers learned everything they knew about Jesus from Paul, who had created him.

Paul was no different from other guys who started religious movements, such as Martin Luther, Charles Taze Russell, Thomas Campbell, Joseph Smith, Uthman, and L. Ron Hubbard. They think they have the answer straight from God.

Where did you get this history of the life of Paul? From a comic book?

Considering the subject matter, a comic book is no less accurate a source of information than anything else.

[Tonus]

The whole reason the law was instituted was to bring people to Christ. Nobody could live according the whole law until Christ came and fufilled all the requirements of it.

Doesn't that mean that the law was written by god, for god? Why burden humanity with something he knew they could not accomplish?

[Crossless2.0]

The whole reason the law was instituted was to bring people to Christ. Nobody could live according the whole law until Christ came and fufilled all the requirements of it.

Doesn't that mean that the law was written by god, for god? Why burden humanity with something he knew they could not accomplish?

Just to be clear, this business about the law being unfulfillable except through Christ's sacrifice is Paul's schtick. Practicing Jews throughout the ages haven't seen it that way. But then again, if I had some snake oil to sell Gentiles as Paul did, I'd probably find some way to rationalize ignoring Torah too.

[Tonus]

It makes me think of the scene in Kill Bill 2 where Bill is explaining the way that Superman is different from other super-heroes. He makes the point that Batman is Bruce Wayne's alter-ego, for example, but Clark Kent is Superman's alter-ego and not the other way around. Clark Kent is Superman's commentary on how he sees humanity-- when he wants to blend in, he reduces himself to a clumsy, clueless oaf.

Yahweh, on the other hand, openly mocks humanity by only changing the uniform, not the person underneath. He puts on his Jesus costume and fulfills the law and he doesn't even miss a beat. It's as if Superman put on his suit, tie, and glasses and then juggled airplanes while using his heat vision to give Lois Lane a nice tan and curing cancer on the side. Just because he looks like us doesn't mean he's a shitty little turd of a human being. God is better than you are, and he wants to make sure that you understand that, you pathetic little lump of clay (or rib bone, if you're a woman)!

[Wyrd of Gawd]

It pays to remember Paul's alleged history. At one time he was a bestiarius, fighting and killing animals in the arenas. Then he was a bounty hunter, tracking and killing members of The Way cult. When he was on his way to Damascus to hunt for some more he suffered heat stroke and had a hallucination about what became the Jesus character. After that he went to Arabia for about three years to develop his new religious doctrine. He then returned and converted the remnants of The Way cult to his new religion.

His disciples later wrote the Gospels to explain flesh out the Jesus character and to provide background information about him. The writers learned everything they knew about Jesus from Paul, who had created him.

Paul was no different from other guys who started religious movements, such as Martin Luther, Charles Taze Russell, Thomas Campbell, Joseph Smith, Uthman, and L. Ron Hubbard. They think they have the answer straight from God.

Where did you get this history of the life of Paul? From a comic book?

Paul's history is primarily detailed in Acts and in Galatians. Feel free to read it yourself and draw your own conclusions. That's what I did and I'm comfortable with my analysis.

---

The whole reason the law was instituted was to bring people to Christ. Nobody could live according the whole law until Christ came and fufilled all the requirements of it.

Doesn't that mean that the law was written by god, for god? Why burden humanity with something he knew they could not accomplish?

You do realize that the New Testament contains hundreds more commandments than the Old Testament? The writers were like American legislators. They thought that if they had enough rules it would eliminate all of the problems.

[Tonus]

You do realize that the New Testament contains hundreds more commandments than the Old Testament? The writers were like American legislators. They thought that if they had enough rules it would eliminate all of the problems.

That just made it worse. And since the old law was fairly strict and controlling, the "new law" had to be that much more so. Which is why so much of it deals with 'thoughtcrime.' As Jesus told the crowd in Matthew 5, it was no longer enough to obey the law via action; if you could not control your intent or desire, you were guilty of the crime anyway.