The Utter Irrelevance of the New Testament

[dyresand]

All of the fuss over the "historical accuracy" of the NT misses some important points. The trouble is that so much of whatever may be historical is infused with Christian mythology, which, while it had some novelty, derived most of its key features from folklore prevalent in Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures (which they in turn largely received from Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, and Babylonian civilizations before them).

Gods impregnating mortals and having sons - not original to Christianity
Gods coming in the form of mortals - not original to Christianity
Divine signs in the stars, in birds, heavenly voices, miraculous healings, prophecies, a state of frenzy (speaking in tongues), etc. - not original to Christianity
The body is corrupted and one must free themselves of bodily pleasures to attain true spiritual enlightenment - not original to Christianity
Lucifer (he was originally Venus, i.e. the morning star, a title also attributed to Jesus in the NT) - not original to Christianity
Heaven and hell - not original to Christianity
Sacrificing humans/animals as a blood atonement for sins - not original to Christianity
A hero or deity being called Lord, King, and Savior - not original to Christianity
Post mortem appearances - not original to Christianity

The list could go on.

What's more plausible: that a god decided to come to earth and mimic the folklore already prevalent in the world or that a group of religious fanatics applied the common stock of mythology to a man they revered as a god?

Angels and demons never were apart of Christianity either.
Angels were creepy looking shits if i ever find that image from my post ill put it up. 
Angels never resembled anything human. 

[robvalue]

You know when a series does a flashback episode? Where they just show lots of old material but stitch it up with a little new content so it can still be called a new episode?

Yeah.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Whateverist-

In one sense, it doesn't matter whether they believed it or not. It only matters whether or not it was true.

If it wasn't, then your assessment is correct. But if it was, then since much of the content of the NT concerns what happens after we die, many people would find that highly relevant. 

Well gosh, I guess the fact that so much of it is horseshit pretty much supports Whateverist's point.

Nice of you to back him up that way, though.

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There is only one God.
Within that one God are three persons.
They are not three Gods.

How is that possible? Well, consider that a dog is a being but not a person. A man is a being and one person. God is a being and three persons. From this you can see that while we usually think one being = one person, in fact, the number of persons "in" a being can vary depending on the nature of that being.

Generally speaking, we think of that as a mental illness, not a cause for worship.

In seriousness, you're hiding behind language. You write, "A man is a being and one person. God is a being and three persons", which is simply a restatement of the trinity concept without any explanation. The example about the dog is entirely irrelevant, but leads the point in order to muddy the waters.

And to top everything off, you're pontificating about the nature of an inscrutable being whose existence is actually at the center of the discussion -- you you've not done anyone the courtesy of explaining where you've gotten this knowledge. The Bible? It mentions the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but at no point does it ever say that the three are one.

You've no solid basis for your claim even enough to convince other Christians, seeing as many of them disagree with you.

By the way, how do you know that a dog is not a person, but a god is?

[Huggy Bear]

I made a post awhile ago and i stated how much of the bible is ripped off of other mythologies and i listed every single mythology and even stated horus and even the epic of gilgamesh.

Wrong.

I also explained how every single mythology evolved from the ancient Babylonian (Babel in the old testament) religion, who at one point had a monotheist religion which turned into polytheism. This religion spread to Egypt, and from Egypt into Greece. Now It's Part of Roman Catholicism, of which the Bible refers to as "Babylon" in the book of revelation.

Babylon - Semiramis and Tammuz                          

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Egypt - Isis and Horus

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Greece - Aphrodite and Eros / Rome - Venus and Cupid

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India - Yashoda and Krishna

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Roman Catholicism (Religious / Spiritual Babylon)

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[Whateverist]

I made a post awhile ago and i stated how much of the bible is ripped off of other mythologies and i listed every single mythology and even stated horus and even the epic of gilgamesh.

Wrong.

I also explained how every single mythology evolved from the ancient Babylonian

I must have missed that. Care to explain how Mayan and other new world religions migrated from the 'holy lands'?

(Your narrowness is showing.)

[abaris]

Thank you for sealing off another rabbit trail. I appreciate that very much.

You see, many people argue that the authors of the NT made the whole thing up; IOW, they knew it was a lie, but they conspired to tell it anyway.

Now, we can go forward with the idea that the authors genuinely BELIEVED what they proclaimed...even if they were idiots. 

At least they were HONEST idiots.

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That's not the point. The authors weren't around for the events in question. They took oral traditions and compiled them into manuscripts. Generations after something may have happened. People didn't live that long back then. So we can at least speak of 2 or 3 generations of telling and retelling until someone decided to pen it. And even with the best intentions, they will have added their own understanding of what they heard.

[Cato]

There is only one God.
Within that one God are three persons.
They are not three Gods.

This is known as dissociative identity disorder. Your god should seek the assistance of a mental health professional.

[abaris]

There is only one God.
Within that one God are three persons.
They are not three Gods.

This is known as dissociative identity disorder. Your god should seek the assistance of a mental health professional.

And it leads us back to the original problem of Jesus' sacrifice being pointless, since he is god and only pulls off a splatter show to make a point.

[Cyberman]

I made a post awhile ago and i stated how much of the bible is ripped off of other mythologies and i listed every single mythology and even stated horus and even the epic of gilgamesh.

Wrong.

No, he did.

[Lek]

[/quote]

That's not the point. The authors weren't around for the events in question. They took oral traditions and compiled them into manuscripts. Generations after something may have happened. People didn't live that long back then. So we can at least speak of 2 or 3 generations of telling and retelling until someone decided to pen it. And even with the best intentions, they will have added their own understanding of what they heard.
[/quote]

Why are you assuming that the new testament was written by authors who were not alive at the time of Jesus?

http://www.freebeginning.com/new_testament_dates/