RE: Does a God exist?
July 7, 2016 at 11:09 am
(This post was last modified: July 7, 2016 at 11:17 am by SteveII.)
(July 7, 2016 at 8:58 am)pocaracas Wrote:(July 7, 2016 at 8:39 am)SteveII Wrote: I read the entire Wikipedia article on the Essenes. Did not mention anything about "dying and rising leader/teacher". I think you underestimate the just how radical an idea that a 'messiah dies for our sins therefore allowing a personal relationship with God' is.
Your definition of belief is off. From Wikipedia: "Belief is the state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case, with or without there being empirical evidence to prove that something is the case with factual certainty. "
The wikipedia article... lol...
Maybe you should have looked into this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher_of_Righteousness
But... wiki... we all know how biased it can be...
Maybe historians are better at explaining things?
http://www.shareintl.org/archives/M_emer...eacher.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsou...19666.html
http://www.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/deadsea.htm
On belief, thank you for the definition. This one you gave is a bit too inclusive... to the point where knowledge must be defined as "justified true belief". How about we leave this philosophical definition and use the common understanding?
belief - to think that something is the case, without evidence to attest it.
knowledge - to think that something is the case, with evidence that attests to it.
What does a leader of a small Jewish sect that was killed prove? The Jews were looking for a messiah because one is promised. It does not follow that the mistaken identity of one person has any bearing on the truth of another being the messiah.
No, belief has a very common meaning. If you want to change the definition of belief, you are going to confuse everyone.