The Incredibly Stupid Things (Few, Hopefully) Atheists Say

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, stupidity knows no bounds.

[Exian]

I disagree here.
It makes lots of sense if you see it in context as a useful and effective survival strategy for the religion (via its adherents.)

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And if stuck to, unassailable.
The apostles lost their meal ticket.  They had to do something to eat with their guru gone.
Things not going the way you want them to? Make up a (fictional) narrative that says, it was all planned that way.
Similar argument as a frustrated child in error, "I meant to do that!"
All they had to do to carry on the scam was stick to the talking points.


The Jews have spent thousands of years profiting from a similar strategy.

1. We are God's chosen people (so we deserve all the good stuff and can rationalize any nastiness we exhibit.)
   
2. Objection: you got trashed by the (fill in the blank with: Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans.)
   
3. We had a king that didn't (pick one) honor/tithe/sacrifice to God properly and were "chastised."
   
4. We're still God's chosen people.
   

It's a stubborn kind of trick, but a good one.  It works.

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I think he's saying it wouldn't make sense as an original plan, and only makes sense as a track covering tactic, like you said.

[Joods]

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I always thought that the people who turned stupid at the invocation of Jesus' name were called Christians. Apparently, being a Christian isn't a requirement.

Things people have said over the past few days about whether Jesus probably existed or not:


"I don't think so. I've even heard that his home town of Nazareth didn't even exist."
- It probably didn't exist because he's heard that someone said so!

"Because if there WAS any credible evidence by now that JC actually did exist, then I believe we wouldn't have as many atheists as we do now. That just goes without saying."
- It goes without saying! If Jesus existed, HE MUST HAVE RISEN FROM THE DEAD! But there are still atheists. Therefore, Jesus didn't exist.

"I think even non christian historians can fall for this, with the aura of power the bible has."
- I'm sure this was a joke, but considering what precedes and follows, it's difficult to say.

"But yeah, what does HJ mean?"
- I think it means "historical Jesus," as in, a man named Jesus who inspired his followers to form churches after his death. 

"We know for a fact that there was never a flood that covered the whole Earth."
- A good point!

"When pressed they invent bullshit stories like 'Q' but no one has ever seen so much as a fragment of any such work."
- But yeah, what does Q mean?

"We have no more need to disprove the existence of Jesus than we do to disprove the existence of Harry Potter."
- The one thing historians can finally agree on: that's some retarded shit right there.

"There had to be 100 guys named 'jesus, son of joseph' in first century Judaea.  They were both common names."
- Hence, Jesus of Nazareth probably never existed.

"He wasn't even supposed to be called Jesus. He was supposed to be called Emmanuel. Prince of peace. But we get this Jesus guy that wants to bring a sword."
- Watch out for ninja Christ!

"A consensus doesn't really matter.  You'll find lots of people who believe all kinds of absurd, unsupported things.  A consensus doesn't make those  beliefs any better. After all, there might have once been a consensus that the Earth was flat.  They were still wrong."
- The overwhelming majority of experts are wrong sometimes, right? Right, guys?

"I have no problem saying that we don't have good evidence for many people from antiquity.  Some have suggested that Socrates was just an invention of Plato, others have suggested that Plato and Aristotle might not have been real.  It doesn't matter because the ideas that have come down to us  today are important, no matter who actually came up with them in the first place.  However, that isn't the case with Jesus. For Christianity to matter at all, Jesus had to physically exist as a man-god."
- Keep your eye on the ball, kiddo. No, hey, over here! Focus!

"Scientists don't make science.  It's science that makes scientists.  Scientists are only scientists so long as they are doing science."
- I think the key word here is "science."

"What you have for Homer is exactly what you have for jesus.  The writings of later authors.  Similarly, the same applies to mohammed."
- Now that's what I call "nuance"!

"I think you may be missing the point.  No one here has said Jesus absolutely didn't exist on some level."
- I definitely missed that.

"Clearly, you want desperately for Jesus to have existed and are unwilling to concede even the smallest of his mythical attributes."
- ........

"But hey, messiahs always seem to need defenders."
- I've been found out. Oh fuck.

"Except that the majority of 'experts' used to believe in leeching, flat earth and a host of other things."
- The moral: DON'T BELIEVE experts... or their arguments... or any data post-analysis...

"Not a single copy of Jewish Antiquities that existed from the time of Josephus contained that passage."
- (Also, we don't possess any copies from the time of Josephus)

"All of these supposed 'accounts' have been thoroughly debunked."
- Historians will come to see it too... just wait!

"All you guys ever manage to trot out are your fucking gospels."
 
- I hate when historians use all of the tools at their disposal!

"Come on.  We know this stuff has been edited through the centuries.  You not only don't know who wrote them, you have no idea who edited them."
- Come on, man. Serially! Come on.

"And Gone With The Wind mentions Atlanta.  Does that make the novel factual?"
- The Bible... it's like Gone With The Wind... but with less wind...

"You are the one asserting that there are historical facts in your precious bible."

- My precious Bible. 

"Just because the Bible gives factually accurate information sometimes doesn't mean that all information it contains is factually accurate."
- Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

"You have to remember that for most believers, 'fact' means 'what I believe'.  They don't really care if their beliefs are true, they'll just desperately twist and turn things to try to justify believing in it.  They always have a double standard in play.  I've pointed out that credible historians demand multiple independent accounts for historical tales... There are standards for a reason, they cannot meet the standards, but neither can they admit that their belief system fails in any test.
- Yes, credible historians have standards... what do they think about Jesus? Oh yeah... 

"The bible writers' purpose was to con people that they had knowledge of an invisible god and their intention was to use as much knowledge of the times as they had to make it as believable as they could."
- I know so because I was on a road and saw a light and then....!


Seriously. What fuck is going on here? Is it because today is good Friday?

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Is it a tradition that people turn retarded on Easter weekend or something?

*bolded by me.

Not sure if the meaning of this thread was to actually call some people stupid or what, but then again, I REALLY don't appreciate your using the word "retarded".

Out of ALL of the words in the English language, you chose THAT one?

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't see why not. Stupid mistakes are often made by slow thinkers.

I don't think he was using that as a slur for folks with Down's Syndrome.

[rexbeccarox]

Closing pending staff decision.


I see this as calling-out, which is a direct violation of the rules.


Edit: thread is permanently closed due to staff decision.