Originally Posted by stephan huller

A few observations. There are many positions here which get repeated which are so ridiculous and waste everyone's time like:

1. All the writings of the Church Fathers are corrupt and not worth mining for information about the early Church except for Justin Martyr
2. All the writings of Christianity were forged by Eusebius
3. the rabbinic literature is a wonderful and unbiased source of information about Jesus and Christianity
4. the Therapeutae - a Jewish sect - created Christianity by borrowing from the Egyptian mysteries of Serapis and Osiris (and Mithras)
5. anything that comes out of the mouth of Chili
6. anything that comes out of the mouth of sotto voce

All these opinions are silly and should be banned from this forum as - the opinions, not the individuals - are unreasonable and unworthy of serious consideration. FRDB should create a special forum for these discussions - Conspiracy Theories - where the interested parties can indulge their fantasies.

You know the forum has come to a crossroads if I am the voice of reason here. I am not flattering myself by saying this. I admit I often indulge in tenuous attempts to define a tradition. But my field of interest - Marcionitism - is 'the hot thing' in the study of early Christianity, or so Trobisch told me after returning from the Society of Biblical Literature conference. At least I - perhaps an individual just as unreasonable as the rest of the lot here - happen to have decided to ride the right horse. A bad man is often justified by his choice for his wife. So here too I guess.

Originally Posted by stephan huller

Ever thought of trying porn? You see this is a forum where other people have to read your masturbatory musings. It gets in the way of the rest of our discussions. Porn at least doesn't necessarily involve people watching you pleasuring yourself. Or maybe the institution which takes care of you has strict restrictions on what you can view.

Originally Posted by Chili

It sounds like you do not like the stuff I write, as if it hurts. My advise to you is: do not expose yourself.

Originally Posted by Toto

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We do not want to overly stifle the discussion, or discourage honest posts or questions. But there is too much noise, too many posts that do nothing to advance the debate.

Your input is requested on:

1. Civility - the rules have never forbidden profanity or disrespect. However, constantly labeling something as "horseshit" does nothing for rational discussion.

2. Hobby horses - in particular the constant repetition of a claim that has been soundly defeated or rejected. (Discussing a new aspect or new evidence is not included here.)

3. Chili - what is he talking about?

Originally Posted by stephan huller

Ever thought of trying porn? You see this is a forum where other people have to read your masturbatory musings. It gets in the way of the rest of our discussions. Porn at least doesn't necessarily involve people watching you pleasuring yourself. Or maybe the institution which takes care of you has strict restrictions on what you can view.

Originally Posted by stephan huller

Ever thought of trying porn? You see this is a forum where other people have to read your masturbatory musings. It gets in the way of the rest of our discussions. Porn at least doesn't necessarily involve people watching you pleasuring yourself. Or maybe the institution which takes care of you has strict restrictions on what you can view.

Originally Posted by stephan huller

A bad man is often justified by his choice for his wife. So here too I guess.