Toto

Please cool down. This is not open heart surgery. And we haven't found anyone who believes Pete's pet theory on Constantine, but every time he is attacked for not being an expert it just generates sympathy for him.

stephan huller

Why not start the thread, Mary Helena? Why not start a thread and ask me to prove specific points of my thesis? Wouldn' that just be in order here? Perhaps the reason you don't do that is that it would draw attention to the strengths and weaknesses of your own Herodian hypothesis.

stephan huller

I know but it is funny to see things always unfold in a predictable way.

maryhelena

No way - it's your baby. You are quite able to put your theory on the table so that all the rest of us can dig holes in it.....
Oh, I forgot - you did say earlier that.....

Looks like your hoist with your own petard.....:devil3:

maryhelena

..and funnier still to watch your song and dance routine when you loose your step and end up on your .........not cool, not cool at all.....:funny::funny::funny:

Sheshbazzar

The open heart surgery analogy seems to me to be incredibly flawed.

Sure one would be wise to go to a professionally trained heart surgeon for diagnosis, advice, or heart surgery. Following his expert opinion.

But following that logic to its conclusion, one would need go to a professionally trained
theologian and Biblical scholar for religious advice, and then follow his 'expert' opinion.

Now if one were to choose a Hospital for open heart surgery, wouldn't it be sensible to go to the largest, most established Heart clinic in the land, the one with the most professional heart surgeons on its staff? The one with more personal experienced in heart surgery than can found any other place on earth?

Yes, of course, if such a choice of treatment facility and personnel were available.

But where would one find the largest religious institution, the one with the most dedicated, and the most thoroughly professionally trained theological and Biblical scholars to be found anywhere on earth?
Would one be equally as wise, to lay their lives in the care of those hands? to accept all of their learned theological Biblical advice and instruction?

That choice is up to each one of us.

As for myself, there is no way in hell that I'm going to be so manipulated and deluded by such faulty reasoning, into turning my life over to the trained professional theologians and Biblical scholars of The Holy Roman Catholic Church for religious advice and instruction!

maryhelena

The reason I don't start a thread re your theory re only one Agrippa is because that is your theory to set out. I'm not going to do your work for you. :huh:

Sheshbazzar

Yep. Ya gotta wonder about any cowboy that always wants to pasture his horse in someone else's pasture.
Then expects 'em to feed his horse on their oats.
Expects them to tame, and put the bit in the mouth of 'his' horse',
saddle 'his' horse, and ride 'his' horse for him.

Dy-amm! but that shore don't sound like much of a cowboy to me.
All hat and no horse, as they say.

Transient

Exactly.
I think the thing that sticks in my mind about what has happened here over the last few days is that if a person shows such poor judgement in making wild statements like those we have heard from Stephan lately then how can you trust that person's judgement re ancient historical stuff.
He might well have some great ideas, it's hard to tell, but It's very hard to trust his judgement at all now and then i start to wonder about all those other scholars out there - another reason to demand details of the sources on which they make their judgements.
I refuse to accept the ideas and theories of people who may well be acclaimed experts in their field unless I am able to view their source material where possible. I had a gutful of the same sort of pushiness from christian experts that bent over backwards trying to disuade me from questioning the value of the ideas put forward by christian scholars. I was just supposed to accept their ideas and move on. No way!
And the same applies to non-christian scholars.
There a quite a few people on this board with an enormous amount of knowledge on these things and they have earned my respect by posting their thoughts on various subjects and leaving it at that - my hat goes off to you all.

stephan huller

The only reason that you don't think that expertise matters in the study of Christianity is because you start with the assumption that it is all bullshit. The study of 'bullshit' doesn't need expertise because - well - it is bullshit. It is a circular argument.

Most people would argue that authority is related to expertise. A taxi driver is generally presumed to be a skillful drive. A prostitute is generally assumed to be skillful at laying men.

If you had all the money in the world and were so bored that you wanted to hire idiots to move those rocks back and forth between two flags in your backyard, all day every day it wouldn't matter whether or not they were expert rock carriers because this was a 'bullshit job.'

My point again is that your clearly expressed lack of interest in learning or 'getting the facts right' about Christianity (i.e. 'I couldn't care less if Mani was or wasn't the Paraclete') leads you not to feel the need to read what people who have studied the Manchaean religion for most of their adult lives have to say.

You have already concluded that religion is all bullshit. These people by devoting their lives to the study clearly must view it has some significance so you are already at odds with anyone that could ever have authority over the field of study your trivialize.

Hence your interest in supporting Pete who clearly has no expertise on the Manichaean religion but is always attempting to trivialize any tradition related to Christianity.