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Old 03-29-2003, 07:03 PM   #41
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Coas, how many worse ways are their to suffer than crucifixtion? There certaintly weren't any worst methods 2000 years ago. Back then Crucifiction was so horrible it was beyond unthinkable. There may be a few things today that are worse ( although not many), but considering Jesus was separated from God by the sins he carried for the first time in eternity, there really isn't any pain or suffering worse than the crucifiction and separation from God .

What do you consider worse?
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Old 03-29-2003, 07:16 PM   #42
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What do you consider worse?
Burning in the Islamic hell, of course.
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Old 03-29-2003, 09:32 PM   #43
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Coas, how many worse ways are their to suffer than crucifixtion?
For the two thieves it was about as bad as it gets. Jesus, on the other hand gets taken down from the cross after only a short time and the first thing Sunday morning he's visiting his friends.
The only thing I get from this story is that he didn't die.
If they chopped his head off on Friday and he was up and about on Sunday morning I'd be impressed. But they didn't. The bible says that he was tortured for only a few hours, declared dead, wrapped in bandages (fine for a corpse, better for the wounded) left on a bench and then around 36 hours later he was up and at 'em again.
It sounds pretty dopey to think that he was actually dead but got better. To say that he looked dead but wasn't seems more in keeping with the story.
And Magus I'm about as seperated from God as you can get and it feels just fine. In fact I've never felt better...so there goes that theory
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Old 03-29-2003, 11:36 PM   #44
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I'm going to forgoe the true point of the thread, and ask magus(it may have been asked already, I blanched when I saw his idiocy on torture) how he would compare the comparatively non-painful death by crucifiction vs. that of other methods. I personally don't see the "terrible" time jesus had, when it was only a rental anyway. And as to crucifiction being the most painful method of dying, you are uneducated. Do you think he would have chosen a martyrs death if it had been during the reign of Vlad the impaler? I'm sorry, having a sharpened stick shoved up your nether regions, and raised up on said pole, to slowly slide down it over the course of half a week, your internal organs left functioning, while ALIVE would seem to me to be far worse! Or to be drawn and quartered? Or to be skinned alive? Of the death by a thousand cuts? In light of the possibilities, crucifiction would seem to be the best of the alternatives.

1. So it's a lease, because he's god and knows he'll be up walking again in the morning...

2. It's just another blood sacrifice, but this time it's the sacrifice of a god who can't die, to the SAME god, who is supposedly OMNIPOTENT, so that he can forgive people for failing a test, that HE CREATED in the first place. How dumb does that sound?

3. It's FAR from the worst torture available...

How is it you see it as the ultimate sacrifice? Most anyone I know would sacrificed their life for 1 PERSON. Who wouldn't do it for everyone? You are too short sighted.
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Old 03-29-2003, 11:40 PM   #45
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Now I see that magus apparently thought people had no imagination for torture 2000 years ago. I would suggest he either starts reading history, or let's his fundy mind grasp the concept of the human ability to inflict torture. It's not a new thing! You think that somebody said, HEY, LETS NAIL PEOPLE TO A STICK, CAUSE IT"S THE WORST POSSIBLE DEATH!!!! Sorry, as I already pointed out just by a few examples(history is replete with far worse than that even) torture is neither new, nor unusual.
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Old 03-30-2003, 01:15 AM   #46
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Lori,

Quote:
Rhea never said that Jesus "didn't even have it bad" or that he "had it good" . By putting those words in her mouth (so to speak!) you mischaracterize her position, making it easier to attack - hence the strawman. There is a BIG difference between saying "so-and-so's suffering wasn't the worse EVER" and "so-and-so didn't suffering wasn't even bad, he had it good."

See what I mean?
Here is Rhea’s comment that I was responding to:

Quote:
Now tell me. How can any person say that _Jesus_ had it bad? How can you say that and still look at yourself?
Asking “how can any person say that _Jesus_ had it bad?” strongly implies that Jesus did not “have it bad” according to Rhea’s criteria. The second question reinforces that.

When someone says “how could you say that xyz is the case? How can you say that and still look at yourself?” it usually means that the person speaking thinks xyz is not the case. That is not a stretch … such a thing is clearly implied.

If Rhea does think that Jesus’ suffering rises to the level of merely “bad,” then I hope she clarifies that for me. I would see that as a positive thing, and happily retract the comments you objected to.

But Rhea has not posted anything which suggests that Jesus suffering was “bad” in any sense of the word. I would not have replied to you in the same way because you have clearly stated that Jesus’ crucifixion was “certainly horribly painful.”

Maybe I am overanalyzing, and Rhea was not trying to speak in accurate terms but simply to convey a general thought. That’s possible, and I will be happy to retract any inaccuracies I have posted about Rhea’s position if she explains how I misunderstood her.

Respectfully,

Christian
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Old 03-30-2003, 01:17 AM   #47
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Erewon,

Feel free to project anything you want to into it. I'm simply accurately reporting the historical reality of the crucifixion.

Respectfully,

Christian
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Old 03-30-2003, 01:22 AM   #48
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keyser_soze,

I thought Keyser Soze didn't really exist?

The ancient historians were unanimous in delaring crucifixion to be the most painful execution known to man at the time. I posted this earlier with the link, but here is an example:

Quote:
The Roman statesman Cicero called it "the most cruel and disgusting penalty" (Verrem 2:5.165) and "the most extreme penalty" (Verrem 2:5.168). The Jewish historian Josephus, who certainly witnessed enough crucifixions himself, called it "the most wretched of deaths." The Roman jurist Julius Paulus listed crucifixion in first place as the worst of all capital punishments, listing it ahead of death by burning, death by beheading, or death by the wild beasts. And from Seneca we have this quotation, which is one of the most unique descriptions of a crucifixion in non-Biblical literature:

Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man by found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly wounds on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long drawn-out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross (Dialogue 3:2.2).

The ancients considered death by crucifixion to be not just any execution, but the most obscene, the most disgraceful, the most horrific execution known to man.
My question is .... why should I accept your opinion on the matter as more authoritative than the Roman Jurist Julius Paulus and Seneca?

Respectfully,

Christian
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Old 03-30-2003, 01:29 AM   #49
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Biff,

From the Journal of the American Medical Association:

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Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish and Roman trials was flogged and was sentenced to death by crucifixion. The scourging produced deep stripelike lacerations and appreciable blood loss and it probably set the stage for hypovolemic shock as evidenced by the fact that Jesus was too weakened to carry the crossbar (patibulum) to Golgotha. At the site of crucifixion his wrists were nailed to the patibulum and after the patibulum was lifted onto the upright post (stipes) his feet were nailed to the stipes. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion was an interference with normal respirations. Accordingly death resulted primarily from hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. Jesus death was ensured by the thrust of a soldier s spear into his side. Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross.
(JAMA 1986;255:1455-1463)
And my question to you is, why should I accept your opinion on the matter as more credible than the voice of the American Medical Association?

I respectfully suggest you check out
this web site which has the article from the JAMA, to include diagrams and descriptions and lots of references. Written by doctors and published in the JAMA. Here is the intro:

Quote:
THE LIFE and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth have formed the basis for a major world religion (Christianity), have appreciably influenced the course of human history, and, by virtue of a compassionate attitude toward the sick, also have contributed to the development of modern medicine. The eminence of Jesus as a historical figure and the suffering and controversy associated with his death have stimulated us to investigate, in an interdisciplinary manner, the circumstances surrounding his crucifixion. Accordingly, it is our intent to present not a theological treatise but rather a medically and historically accurate account of the physical death of the one called Jesus Christ.
With your medical background, you should be able to understand how crucifixion worked after reading that article.

Respectfully,

Christian
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Old 03-30-2003, 02:04 AM   #50
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Originally posted by Christian
keyser_soze,

I thought Keyser Soze didn't really exist?

The ancient historians were unanimous in delaring crucifixion to be the most painful execution known to man at the time. I posted this earlier with the link, but here is an example:



My question is .... why should I accept your opinion on the matter as more authoritative than the Roman Jurist Julius Paulus and Seneca?

Respectfully,

Christian
Use your brain for 1 tiny second. Do you think the ability to inflict torture only happened AFTER jesus died? I think, that if anyone had taken a special interest in causing him some suffering, they could have done FAR better, don't you? Which do you think would be worse, what the romans did, or what vlad the impaler did? Which would have been the more painful? BTW, the romans weren't the world, just to answer the question with a debate point. Didn't want you to think I was merely going with 2+2=4 suppositions. I will do a search through my old books, but I do recall several tortures that predate jesus my centuries that were pretty gruesome, some of which lasted as long as a week. That is not even going into the torture of women captives, some of whom were kept as forced "prostitutes" for the armies and basically "screwed" to death. You want to put a womans suffering at the hands of a hundred men for days at a time, against that of jesus on the suffer-o-meter? BTW, they didn't have the option of rising from the dead afterwards either. Your argument is ridiculous. Do you seriously believe that torture only GOT BAD after jesus, and you base this only on the statement of a couple people who basically said it was "pretty darned bad". Peronally, I think the romans as well as everyone else were capable of putting a little thought into it.
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