aa5874

What you say cannot be shown to be true. All religions do NOT have to be based on Myth Fables.

Now, I am doing history so it is irrelevant what people want to BELIEVE.

In my research of the NT it is CLEAR that there is ZERO corroboration that any so-called Pauline letter was written before the Fall of the Jewish Temple c 70 CE.

Steve Weiss

I respect your scholarship and always look at your posts, and objectively you are correct when it comes to the myths and lies that have been incorporated into history, but it certainly isn't irrelevant what people believe, unfortunately.

You make an interesting assertion that religions don't have to be based on myths. If so, what makes them religions rather than science? Religion is based upon the desire to control reality according to the whim of believers who want to make existence conform to their version of reality. The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. Hitler knew that. People would rather trash a well researched history and pick up a work of almost total fiction like the bible, and other "sacred texts."

aa5874

First of all I want to make it Absolutely clear that I am just an ORDINARY person who have read writings of antiquity and present them as they are found.

Once you examine the writings of antiquity it will become clear that Belief in Gods is NOT the same thing as the fantastic claim that Jesus, the Son of a Ghost, Walked on the sea of Galilee, was Transfigured up in a mountain, was Resurrected, then visited the disciples where he Authorised the preaching of the Gospel and was Ascended in a cloud.

There are BELIEFS and there are LIES.

The NT Canon as Compiled is a Pack of Lies or a Pack of Myth Fables or a combination of both.

Steve Weiss

What are the differences between beliefs and lies if they are all impossibilities? In my view these are distinctions without a difference. A belief is a mere opinion which may or may not have some evidence to support it. When the evidence is objectively and critically examined the claims of believers fall away into nothing. Religious claims are untrue, deceptive, manipulative propaganda created out of nothing for the purposes of controlling people's uncritical minds. Lies are stories told with the intend to deceive and are not innocent errors, that is true, but holding to a belief when all of the facts declare that it is erroneous undermines cognition as such.

aa5874

Well, let us examine the NT Canon and see if there are LIES--intention to deceive.

In Galatians 1.18-19, a writer claimed he MET the Apostle Peter and James the Lord's brother in Jerusalem.

Galatians 1.18-19 is a Monstrous Lie.

The Jesus in Galatians was a PHANTOM--a Myth and had NO actual disciples or actual human brother.

1. The Galatians writer did ADMIT his Jesus was NOT a human being.

2. The Galatians writer did ADMIT that he did NOT get his gospel from a human being.

Galatians is a pack of LIES. The Galatians Jesus had NO real existence, could NOT have been in contact with the writer, and had NO actual Apostles in Jerusalem.

The abundance of evidence show that the Jesus cult was in its Infancy stage in the 2nd century and that the Pauline letters had no influence on the Jesus stories.

Steve Weiss

I think that it is necessary to properly classify "sacred books" as fiction rather than to debate the finer points of what is contained in them. Since all of them are fictional, the details are irrelevant. If Lord of the Rings is a work of fiction, then does it matter what happened and who said what in the story? Virgin birth, resurrection, transubstantiation, worldwide floods, walking on water, Samson killing a 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, the Jordan river parting for Joshua, all good entertainment but not to be taken seriously by rational people. I saw Forest Gump speaking with several US presidents in a movie too, but in this case seeing wasn't believing.

aa5874

Belief does NOT have to be based on Myth Fables like those found in the NT.

Now, it is EXTREMELY important that we understand what people of antiquity wrote and what they Believed whether or NOT we believe it is Fiction.

It is most remarkable that Christians today ridicule people as Atheists when Christians of antiquity were called Atheists 1800 years ago by people who believed Jupiter was a God.

And even earlier, one would technically be an Atheist if he did NOT Believe a God was a Stone.

It is absolutely fascinating to read what people BELIEVED in antiquity but even more astonishing that even today people still BELIEVE the very same Myth Fables.

It must have taken a "Million" years for Mankind to figure out GODS could NOT be Rocks.

Steve Weiss

What should beliefs be based upon? I prefer knowledge to beliefs. If one holds to theism as a belief one certainly does not value reason and the truth, so your efforts to present evidence using reason are just ignored by true believers. Beliefs are mere opinions held at random based upon geography and tradition. You could present a water-tight case against theism, but that would carry no weight to a theist. What are facts when one has belief and faith?

aa5874

Are you NOT aware that people can deconvert??? Now, Belief is NOT only related to Theism--some people, even Atheists may Believe the Pauline writings were written BEFORE c 70 CE and even Admit they have NO evidence for such a belief.

It is most remarkable that some who claim that there is NO evidence for Gods accept the Pauline letters as authentic WITHOUT a shred of evidence and become extremely upset when people BELIEVE in God without evidence.

Steve Weiss

Yes, a small number of people deconvert, but why is the question. Are they overwhelmed by contradictions in the evidence and by reason or for other reasons? A better question is why everyone doesn't deconvert given that there is nothing to support their beliefs. Reason or faith, which one has more influence? If one were reasonable one wouldn't be a theist in the first place.