Ted Hoffman

Wrong. They are related issues - that was a reductio for your earlier argument and thats why I used your own words.

The point is, its false to argue how the IPU took your bananas, and whether the IPU had a red beard or a pink one before you have proved the IPU exists.

In the same way, its invalid to reconstruct a HJ (as a galilean peasant, eschatological prophet, cynic jew etc) before you have provided sufficient reason to believe that the figure, creation from the OT, actually existed.

If this is the only one, how do you explain your raw desire to muzzle mythicists and banish mythicist expression from the internet? Is your aggravation that serious?


You are not the final authority about when and whether this thread is productive. I started this thread.

Rick Sumner

You're quite incorrect, and you've already conceded as much. You would not, as you already observed, go spout mythicism on an apologists forum. In similar fashion, you would not, on a Fundamentalist forum, discuss the nature of justification by faith by contending that there is no God to justify you. Why can you acknowledge that other fora have different aims, but can't see that Ebla has different aims than the IIDB?

To avoid the obvious ad hominem you'd almost certainly issue if it isn't headed off at the pass, I am not likening Ebla to a Fundamentalist forum, I'm using a caricatured analogy where the point is rather obvious.

I've participated on this forum off and on for over a year, the Jesus-Mysteries forum for over a year prior to that, and countless other more open forums for years prior to that. I've been on Usenet, on Yahoo! Groups, on EGroups (before Yahoo! took them over). I've participated on everything from IRC channels to X-Talk. Between all of those, I've had quite enough of the Jesus-Myth.

Again, different fora for different discussions. Is it "muzzling" when X-Talk prevents participants from debating inerrancy? Or is that simply acknowledging what the forum is designed for?

And as long as you can continue not to be flagrantly insulting, I'll continue to participate. You're beginning to walk a fine line between me not bothering to read your posts at all, however. Much of this has been wholly inappropriate, and entirely unwarranted personal attacks.

Regards,
Rick Sumner

Ted Hoffman

I haven't read those aims at Ebla and I was invited to Ebla by people I respect.

This is delightful news for me. You know, I was beginning to think that only me, Doherty, Iaison and a few other members here are mythicists!

To know that the mythicist camp is actually represented all over - enough to send HJ proponents looking for a safe haven is actually delightful news.

After serious deliberation and seeing that the mythicist case is over represented all over the internet, I hereby now officially disabuse you of your impatience and intolerance of mythicist viewpoints.

You notice in my OP I express my worry that mythicism is being abandoned? Am glad that the situation in other internet fora that you have visited is quite the contrary. Thank you for allaying my fears. I hereby personally firmly place a tape securely upon my mouth. That sound of something falling in the street is my keyboard.

Peter Kirby

Your point is?

Who are these people, and what do you want to say about them?

I know that when I was moderating here, I locked a few threads and sent a few ~~Elsewhere~~. Have things changed?

As to the representation of posters relative to the existence-of-Jesus issue here, there were 176 voters in this poll:
http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=57586

13 07% Yes, and I am a Christian.
37 21% Yes, and I am not a Christian.
39 22% No.
52 29% I think the question is probably undecidable.
35 19% I am looking for more information and argumentation.

So you are correct that this forum is not overwhelmed by people who would positively state "there was no historical Jesus." It is interesting, though, that almost a full half are "agnostic" (undecidable or investigating). If it matters, I voted, "I am looking for more information and argumentation."

best,
Peter Kirby

Vorkosigan

No humor here: this thread has become entirely too personal. I'm locking it. The rancor potential is just too high.