Toto

McDuffie - it is quite possible to imply things that you don't really mean. You stated several times This is inflammatory. You don't actually say that every MJer in the world is like that, but lots of other posters picked up that implication. When your words are so easily misunderstood, you have an obligation to write more clearly and with more attention to how you are going to be understood.

You could, for example, have prefaced your statement with "the few MJ'ers that I knew (and I don't know if they were typical). . ." instead of using the emphatic words "Literally every." (And you still haven't told us how you know their inner motivations.)

But instead you said later:

So you really know what you are doing - needling the mythicists.

McD

I had no idea that anyone would be so hyper-sensitive about this issue. It is stunning. If I was a mythicist and I got so easily angered at the things that McDuffie said in this thread, I would contemplate suicide.

Really. This isn't a big deal. There are issues that deserve emotional response and outrage. A guy saying that he once met a bunch of JMers who were nutters and hasn't met too many more since then who weren't isn't something to get outraged about.

I think some people here really, really need to take a break from the internet.

And Toto, this is the second time you quoted me out of context to make a case against me. The purpose of me saying "OK so now, that I have pissed off the MJers again, . . ." was to introduce my next point which was that MJers, like HJers are like every other demographic: there are a few bright ones at the top, a few real dopes at the bottom and a bunch of average people in the middle... and personally, I don't hold a very high opinion of the average person.

As I said, this is the second time I have caught you quoting me out of context specifically for the purpose of making a case against me. If this is typical of your behavior, I honestly question the wisdom of II retaining you as a mod.

McD

Iasion

Greetings,

Wrong.

I am an MJer, but NOT an atheist.
As are some others here.

This is just one of the many false claims repeatedly made about MJers - perhaps that's why some of them get angry?


Wow.
You object to the mindset which wants EVIDENCE before believing something?



Iasion

Toto

Anyone can look at the context by checking your original post on this page. I fail to see how I took anything out of context - I quoted you as saying that you knew you had pissed off the MJ'ers again. Does this mean something other than you know you had pissed off the MJ'ers again? Are you in the habit of introducing a new topic with a false statement?

You say But you don't acknowledge that there are any bright MJ'ers, do you? Would you like to put that on the record now?

As far as your thinking that people are hypersensitive, you appear to be unaware that Christians and some atheists come here regularly and insult the intelligence and scholarship of anyone who believes that Jesus was a myth. The Christians seem to have a motive of using ridicule to close off an interesting area of historical inquiry. Some of us are getting tired of going through the same arguments.

Finally, I am not trying to make a case against you. I am trying to clear the air of the inflammatory charge that MJ'ers are secretly afraid of having to accept Jesus as Lord.

McD

Toto: first of all, you have consistently misrepresented me in this thread. You will not agree with that statement. So what? All anyone has to do is to look at how you quoted me and then look at the original context and they will see that I am right.

From post # 110
From post #97
But so fucking what?

What is really annoying about this whole thing is that you people are angry about people that I met. I cannot control people that I met. What if I never met a single MJer that wasn't a totally uninformed, thin-skinned, ill-mannered, boorish fucking idiot? Would you blame me for that? Is it my fault that the first half dozen MJers I met were not very good NT scholars and that I haven't met too many in the 20 years since who were? You act as if it is my fault.

What if I had only met 3 atheists in my entire life and all three were total fucking retards, and I came onto a forum like this and said "Man, I don't know about atheists. I met a few and they were total retards." You fucking people would get mad at me? It's my fault that I happened to encounter ill-informed or willfully ignorant people who called themselves atheists?

Get real.

rlogan

heh.

I am not the slightest bit angry. Sure seems like you are.

I am rather having fun mocking such a ridiculous argument.

...and now the additional hypocrisy of who is being "hypersensitive".


Generally, it is fear that drives this anger.

McD

How can you be mocking an argument? I didn't submit an argument.

If you are going to take the internet as seriously as you obviously do, you should really pay more attention.

EDIT: Oh, I see, It was my use of the various versions of the word fuck. Ah yes. That means I am angry. No, it means I am annoyed. It is annoying that I am being attacked by people who insist that I am attacking them when I am clearly not.

And then sometimes, when I reread these posts, it is hilarious that I am being attacked by people who insist that I am attacking them when I am clearaly not.

Oh and by the way, when I get around to submitting an argument, feel free to mock it. Until then, you just look silly.

Toto

I apologize, you did say that there were a few bright MJ'ers, (most of them were dopes, but you think most people are dopes.) And you emphasized that Wells had alleged changed his mind (that's a topic for another thread. Doherty still classifies him as a mythicist.)

But other than that, I don't think I have taken anything you said out of context. I think you unintentionally made some inflammatory statements.

We're not blaming you for that, we are concerned about your reading the minds of the few MJ'ers that you met and assuming that they were afraid of having to accept Jesus as their savior, which we find incredible.

We would take offense at your trying to generalize from 3 people.

GakuseiDon

Do you mean modern gnostic groups? I'm not aware of any gnostic groups in antiquity who believed that Jesus was a supernatural being who didn't have a life on earth.

Which gnostic groups do you mean?

Toto, out of interest, I'm only aware of the one review that Carrier has done, here: http://www.infidels.org/library/mode...uspuzzle.shtml

Are you referring to that article or another one?

Toto

Yes, that one, plus his subsequent posts.