Old testament v. new testament

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

http://www.evilbible.com/

If you deny this fr0d0, you are a madman by any normative standards and a worthless and dangerous fool that no one should have any interaction or discussion with.

ad hominem attacks are not very helpful.

I will never say Frodo is a fool BECAUSE of what he believes or does not believe.

I have said he and will say again I think he's a fool AND has some loopy ideas. (that's why I have him on ignore;can't be bothered with him)

[chatpilot]

padraic you have fr0d0 on ignore? I like fr0d0 alot he reminds me of myself when I was a theist. I used to say anything to justify that biblical fictional character God and his tyranny, he was always right and anything we did we got our just deserts for being disobedient. Christianity is just one big guilt trip for the stupidity of an incompetent god.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

padraic you have fr0d0 on ignore? I like fr0d0 alot he reminds me of myself when I was a theist. I used to say anything to justify that biblical fictional character God and his tyranny, he was always right and anything we did we got our just deserts for being disobedient. Christianity is just one big guilt trip for the stupidity of an incompetent god.

Yeah. A personal failing on my part. He just gets up my nose. I wouldn't bother with him in real life,so don't here either--Ironically, there a lot of people who feel like about me and not just on internet forums.

[mem]

Such an active chap he was, god. In "biblical" times. Where is he now? Showing his face in slices of bread and cloud formations. Boggle boggle boggle goes my mind trying to understand how anybody can kid themselves so bloody much. You is all too afraid to face the fact that there's nothing but us and when you die thats the end of it!!!!

[Captain Scarlet]

Such an active chap he was, god. In "biblical" times. Where is he now? Showing his face in slices of bread and cloud formations. Boggle boggle boggle goes my mind trying to understand how anybody can kid themselves so bloody much. You is all too afraid to face the fact that there's nothing but us and when you die thats the end of it!!!!

I have a lot of sympathy with the thrust of what you are saying. But even if true ( which I believe it is) this says nothing for theistic truth claims of gods existence or of an afterlife. This is because it commits the genetic fallacy of showing something up by it's origins rather than it's own merit. However Too little regard is taken by theists for examining the historical context in which these documents were first written. From what we know of first century Palestine it was an occupied land with hostility between occupiers and occupied, barbarism, torture, sacrifice, stupified and illiterate peasants who saw superstition and magic as a way of life & apocolytic thinking, where the only education the masses had was theocratic. No surprise then in the time before Newton, Darwin and Einstein that they followed all manner of cults and sects. One started by john the baptist was particularly apocolyptic and orthodox like many are today saying that people should follow the real message of the OT for the end is nigh. When he was behedded a charismatic right hand man called Jesus took over who thought of himself as being able to deliver the Jews from the Romans, as per the lunatic mystical writings of the OT. The Romans took care of him for sedition then c. 60 years later the NT was written as a means of taking this very Jewish cult, that survived the death if it's leader through family members, international as a means of bringing everyone into line and to do that incorporated pagan myths such as Mithras etc.

[chatpilot]

Captain Scarlet I completely agree with your assessment of the origins of Christianity, as expected it has borrowed from some of the most popular myths of its day. As I stated before that is how religions are formed and propagated throughout the region of origin and in some cases the world.

[Minimalist]

From what we know of first century Palestine it was an occupied land with hostility between occupiers and occupied,

Not to quibble, C-S, but you need to be more specific. The first 37% of the First Century was taken up by the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. During that time Jews were exempt from certain taxes as well as the requirement to worship Roman state gods. Herod's building projects and later Roman projects had provided work for the poor while Herod's erection of the port at Caesarea had greatly enriched the region by permitting it to participate in sea-based trade. When the Jews wanted to be rid of Herod's son, Archelaus, as king, Augustus granted their petition and made them a prefecture. The Roman Prefect resided in Caesarea which meant that day-to-day matters in Jerusalem were handled by the Sanhedrin thus assuring a fair amount of home rule. If there was ever a time when the Jews did not need a deliverer it was the first third of the first century....and this is when xtians choose to set the story of their godboy!

To be sure, things changed. Tiberius died in 37 and was succeeded by Caligula. The first anti-semitic riots took place in Alexandria, Egypt where the local Greek population objected to special treatment given to the Jewish community there. Caligula decided the rioters had a point and ordered his governor of Syria, Petronius, to install statues of Roman gods in the Temple. Petronius, at the risk of his own life, delayed carrying out this order and thereby assured that the Great Revolt did not take place in 40 AD but later. Caligula was assassinated and the crisis passed but the fuse had been lit on a cycle of provocation/reaction which would explode into open revolt in 66.

But...if jesus ever existed he was long dead by the time any of this happened.

[Captain Scarlet]

From what we know of first century Palestine it was an occupied land with hostility between occupiers and occupied,

You will understand that I didn't consider this salient to the point I was trying to make, but I accept your quibbling points