(January 5, 2019 at 9:32 am)Jörmungandr Wrote:(January 4, 2019 at 6:15 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I disagree. People DO seem to care about 'merely historical people'. We read what they wrote, we read what was written about them, and we quote them to make points.
Socrates, Nietzsche, Shakespeare, Rodin, Twain, Curie, Barton - tons more, none of whom were miracle workers or gods, yet we still discuss them and their contributions to the human condition.
Regarding Jesus, your own Thomas Jefferson didn't for a moment think he was divine, but regarded him as a great moral philosopher.
It seems we can care a great deal about the 'merely historical people'.
Boru
You're being purposely obtuse. Obviously I meant that they would not care about Jesus in the way they do if he were merely a historical man. You took what I said and interpreted it very literally in order to make a contrarian point. Additionally, what you said is not even true. We don't care about Socrates and Nietzsche and so on because they were merely historical people. They weren't. They were exceptional people, and that is why we care about them, not because they were historical. So you're doubly wrong.
*shrug* I think you're being needlessly defensive. In addition to which, your point about Socrates and Nietzsche is misplaced. The case can be made (although you don't have to agree with it, I certainly don't) that Jesus was an exceptional person. This, according to what you just said, would make him worth caring about.
You also said 'If Jesus wasn't a miracle man and God, then he's not worth remembering.' Isn't this rather a case of special pleading? Socrates wasn't a miracle man and Nietzsche wasn't God, but we find both of them worth remembering, so why not Jesus?
Let's suppose, just for the sake of argument, that Jesus was an historical figure, but that he never worked a miracle and wasn't in the least sense divine. He (with more than a little help from Paul) founded what was to become a world religion that has had a staggering impact on human civilization. Doesn't that make him worth remembering?
Lastly, I reject the label 'contrarian'. I can only respond to what you said, not to what you meant.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
