Freethought & Rationalism Archive

James Brown · 09-06-2008, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschlichter

Why would you find that curious? Think of any group and google it with an ex in front of it. ex-atheist for example. I am assuming it has the report of some disgruntled ex-atheist forum moderator who feels he or she was mis-treated. However, I am not going to bother reading it because it is irrelevant to me.

~Steve

Keep in mind this isn't a support group just for former members of a particular religion or belief system, as your link to ex-atheists suggests. It's for former Jews for Jesus staff. It's the difference between a support group for former junk food junkies (something I can easily understand and accept) and a support group for former McDonald's employees who meet regularly to deal with their issues and trauma of having worked for a particular company. That I would find to be very curious.

See the difference?

sschlichter · 09-06-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Shaver

Yep. Now tell me what is erroneous about that reasoning.

I did a brief search trying to find out how many members Jews for Jesus claims. The best guess I could come up with was a few thousand. Let's assume 5,000 is a decent ballpark figure. Then let's revise it to 15,000 for the sake of both generosity and easy calculation. There are perhaps 15 million Jews worldwide. So, one out of a thousand Jews -- a tenth of 1 percent -- belongs to Jews for Jesus. Why should I or anyone else believe that of all the Jews in the world, only 0.01 percent correctly understand their scriptures?

are you under the impression that jews for Jesus (the organization) is an all-encompassing container for Jews that have become Christian? There are Messianic Jews that have nothing to do Jews for Jesus. There are just plain old Christians that happen to have come out of Judaisim and have nothing to do with Judaism any longer. They are baptist Jews, or presybeterian Jews, etc.

Quote:

The word Jew has a variety of definitions. In this context, I am defining a Jew as someone who practices, or at least believes in, the religion known as Judaism.

now if you can define the Jewish religion without proving my point that large % of Jews share wildly diverse views of Scripture and their insights cannot all be priviledged and contradictory. Orthodox Jews are very fundamental. very literal in regards to the OT. Others do not ever even read the OT and their religion is about traditions, not theology.

Quote:

I didn't say they are not removed. I said Christians are farther removed.

How are you measuring that? Which Christians? What about a Jew for 40 years that became a Christian? What about Christians or Muslims that currently live in Palestine. Their culture is more similar to that of the 1st century than are modern Jews.

Quote:

No. It has noting to do with geography and everything to do with history.

History?

sschlichter · 09-06-2008, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesABrown

Quote:

Originally Posted by sschlichter

Why would you find that curious? Think of any group and google it with an ex in front of it. ex-atheist for example. I am assuming it has the report of some disgruntled ex-atheist forum moderator who feels he or she was mis-treated. However, I am not going to bother reading it because it is irrelevant to me.

~Steve

Keep in mind this isn't a support group just for former members of a particular religion or belief system, as your link to ex-atheists suggests. It's for former Jews for Jesus staff. It's the difference between a support group for former junk food junkies (something I can easily understand and accept) and a support group for former McDonald's employees who meet regularly to deal with their issues and trauma of having worked for a particular company. That I would find to be very curious.

See the difference?

I see the difference, but I am lost on the relevance. Is this page more analogous to your example. It has disgruntled ex-moderators of IIDB and the like. I do not know or care about their complaints but do the existence of the complaints invalidate atheism? I do not think so.

~Steve

Toto · 09-06-2008, 12:15 PM

Has the topic of Barker's Easter Challenge been exhausted?

Jews for Jesus is way off topic here, as are the other digressions.

I will close this thread until someone shows a reason to reopen in. In the meantime, feel free to discuss Jews for Jesus in GRD.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

09-06-2008, 12:15 PM	#1184
Toto Contributor Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: Los Angeles area Posts: 40,549	Has the topic of Barker's Easter Challenge been exhausted? Jews for Jesus is way off topic here, as are the other digressions. I will close this thread until someone shows a reason to reopen in. In the meantime, feel free to discuss Jews for Jesus in GRD.

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.