Biblical Christianity 101, a study of the book of Romans

[Anomalocaris]

Monkey turds don't know what fact is.

[GrandizerII]

Knows more about Biblical scholarship than Ehrman? Wow, what an amazing Christian you are, Drich!

When you have to refer to an agenda to defend against criticism, you've lost. Especially if the only people you don't think have an agenda are the ones who agree with you.

lol, Drich is in big denial. All the evidence points to the Book of Acts being written at least somewhere near the end of the first century, and experts themselves make it clear to us how this is so.

Drich on the other hand doesn't provide any evidence that it was written around the date proposed by him but just dismisses what the experts say by arguing that expertise means jack shit if it goes against his beliefs.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Knows more about Biblical scholarship than Ehrman? Wow, what an amazing Christian you are, Drich!

When you have to refer to an agenda to defend against criticism, you've lost. Especially if the only people you don't think have an agenda are the ones who agree with you.

lol, Drich is in big denial. All the evidence points to the Book of Acts being written at least somewhere near the end of the first century, and experts themselves make it clear to us how this is so.

Drich on the other hand doesn't provide any evidence that it was written around the date proposed by him but just dismisses what the experts say by arguing that expertise means jack shit if it goes against his beliefs.

Until he shows up next week with some "this literalist, evangelical theologian says the Bible is exactly true as written, how can you deny it?" bullshit; then we'll be castigated for not taking the experts seriously. 

[RoadRunner79]

I wasn't  that familiar with early LDS church history, so I looked up the death of Joseph Smith. I'm sure there was persecution, but it was not all one sided, and their is reasons why Mormons where driven out of states. In any case, it seems inaccurate, to say that Smith died because he believed himself a prophet.

Don't you see that similar things could be said of Paul? The difference is that we have a severe lack of information to go by when assessing the reliability of what a 2000-year-old man said about his own experiences.

With Joseph Smith, we have a much clearer picture.

Are you not just making an appeal to ignorance???

[Redbeard The Pink]

Don't you see that similar things could be said of Paul? The difference is that we have a severe lack of information to go by when assessing the reliability of what a 2000-year-old man said about his own experiences.

With Joseph Smith, we have a much clearer picture.

Are you not just making an appeal to ignorance???

No, he's saying that if you're looking the information at hand to assert that it's uncertain exactly why Joseph Smith died, he is justified in looking at the (even smaller) amount of information at hand and asserting that it's uncertain exactly why Paul died.


He's using your standard of evidence to discredit your argument/conclusion.

[Hmmm?]

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged a sinner?

Drich, what do you think Paul lied about?

[Spooky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A2KXS5DYho

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Fucktard.

I'd put money on most of the Atheists here knowing more about christianity than you.

[RoadRunner79]

Are you not just making an appeal to ignorance???

No, he's saying that if you're looking the information at hand to assert that it's uncertain exactly why Joseph Smith died, he is justified in looking at the (even smaller) amount of information at hand and asserting that it's uncertain exactly why Paul died.


He's using your standard of evidence to discredit your argument/conclusion.

Ok... my question is if you are looking at the information at hand, or appealing to what we do not know.  I admit, that this is the first I have looked at the beginning of the early Mormon church.  But from the information I have gathered, it appears that he was arrested because he ordered the destruction of a printing press (which spoke against Mormons), and a vigilante group mobbed the prison in which he was held, and killed Joseph Smith.In Missouri and Illinois, from the information available, I think that a case can be made, that there was a lot of political tension that at least partially contributed.

Although sometimes exaggerated, I do not think that scholars disagree, that Christians where persecuted for simply being Christian.  This can be seen in Paul's accounts of his own actions  before his encounter on the road to Damascus, and other places throughout the new testament.  Pliny the younger also admits to as much in his letter to Trajan. He even asks how to deal with those who recant their beliefs.

[Minimalist]

Although sometimes exaggerated, I do not think that scholars disagree, that Christians where persecuted for simply being Christian.

Perhaps you should read Candida Moss' "The Myth of Persecution."  That is, if you ever read anything that does not agree with your pre-determined positions.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

That's an oversimplification, although there were definitely political tensions (having been thrown out of Missouri and Illinois for practicing Mormonism) after he tried to set up a Mormon militia that nearly rivaled the size of the US Army at the time, and the printing press he destroyed was just an excuse for the Governor to get rid of him. The paper whose press he destroyed was founded by ex-Mormons who had left the faith and criticized it; in effect, he was attacking ex-faith atheists for pointing out the flaws in his argument.

A warrant was issued which he initially fled, but returned to the scene and turned himself in for arrest. He was well aware that his enemies would conspire to kill him. According to the legend, he said his work was done so he was no longer prevented from dying by God (similar to Paul's final letters, eh?), and prophesied that he would be murdered in cold blood. Of course, the fact that he was a career criminal who had defrauded investors and slept with the wives of his congregation probably weighed against him there, as well. Hehe.

The Mormons certainly were persecuted for simply being Mormon. They were not only driven out of states for it (which is why they moved waaaaay out to the Utah Territory, onto land no one else really wanted), but their views got them branded a lot of really nasty names, particularly for their practice of polygamy.