RE: Paul's Writings Underpin Western Thought
August 2, 2018 at 10:32 am
(This post was last modified: August 2, 2018 at 10:42 am by SteveII.)
(August 2, 2018 at 10:10 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: What's the very best example of how Paul's writings underpin Western thought?
1. Intrinsic value. The Roman and Greek view was not that people had intrinsic values just for being people. When Paul said such things like "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28) this was revolutionary. Your birth, your societal status, your nationality, your gender does not give you value in the eyes of God. That would be a very appealing message to entire classes of people who were told otherwise and often lived brutal lives as a consequence.
There are actually a number of things wrapped up in this issue. If you believe everyone is highly valued by God, your worldview must change over time. Things like education and hospitals and social welfare are natural extensions of your worldview. I'm not saying if not for Christianity, then we would not have these, but I think that we can find other cultures to make a comparison and it turns out this is a very far-reaching feature of a Christian worldview.
(August 1, 2018 at 9:32 pm)Succubus Wrote:(August 1, 2018 at 5:01 pm)SteveII Wrote: This is getting stupid. You claimed that RR's views "do not represent modern scholarship; you are an extremist, as far as higher Biblical scholarship is concerned."
There is no way you can support that. You overreached and now can't figure out how get out gracefully. Dodging specifics and then posting a book to buy is so lame.
Higher biblical scholarship has the same rancid stench that is sophisticated theology.
#2.
What is this 'higher Biblical scholarship' of which you speak? And how does it differ from other forms of biblical scholarship? What are its conclusions? How does it arrive at those conclusions? And on who's authority do they speak?
How do bible scholars (upper and or lower) explain how the rules by which the universe operates are circumvented in order that a three day old purifying corpse be brought back to life?
And you can't appeal to theologians (coarse or refined) because they have no fucking idea.
One final question, why do you believe the bible story?
Do try to pay attention. That was a quote from Jehanne--ask her.
The rest of your post is off topic.
