Perm

My fiance keeps tight reigns on me when I'm around certain people... let me at least say that.

That being said, I was a Christian once myself, I spouted meaningless platitudes like those above for a decade, so I can usually call them pretty quickly. ^_^

George S

*donning numerologist hat*

1 = Unity
2 = Division
3 = Unity and Division together a Trinity

Their sum, 6, must Mean Unified Unity and Divided Division and Trinity all at once. Surely that is amazing perfection. :devil: :grin: :wave: :Cheeky:

Mageth

Naah. Seven is the number of perfection. Six is one less than seven, so six represents imperfection.

Darklighter

Eureka!

Jack the Bodiless

Well, I'm watching the video now. This will be a running commentary, I'll just keep pausing it to type.

...Yuk. Daniel was written 500 BC? Nope, 168-164 BC. Prophesied Jesus? Nope, the events of the Maccabean Rebellion (when it was written). And the narrator conveniently glosses over all the problems regarding the various "decrees" (which one exactly?) and the counting of the years (which never seems to quite line up with Jesus). But she's confident enough to pull a probaility of 1 in 100,000 out of her ass. We're only talking about a period of about 500 years here, so how did 1 in 500 become 1 in 100,000 even if the prophecy managed to get the right year? By the way, nobody knows which year Jesus was allegedly crucified in anyhow!

...Micah said that the Messiah would be born of the clan of Bethlehem. But even if we grant that: how do we know that Jesus WAS born in Bethlehem? Apparently, he wasn't! Luke had to invent a "census" to MOVE the birth to Bethlehem, and John mentions a crowd rejecting Jesus because he WASN'T born in Bethelehem, but in the Galilee region instead: John 7:52, "...out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Then another rectally-extracted 1 in 100,000...

...Now we have more examples of stuff written to make Jesus "fulfil prophecy" with no independent confirmation that any of it ever happened... (let me guess: 1 in 100,000?... hahaha, 1 in 100,000,000,000 !!!)...

...OK, standard Christian mistranslation of Psalm 22 as "pierced"... what are the odds? One in 10,000,000,000,000? What the fuck is going on here? If this is supposed to be a cumulative calculation, then why didn't the number increase after the "born in Bethlehem" claim?...

...Isaiah "prophesied" Cyrus? Only if you assume that part wasn't written after the event, of course. And the odds just keep piling up, gotta be cumulative, I guess she just goofed earlier...

...WHAT??? She's listing the FAILED propecies of the destruction of Babylon in Isaiah and Jeremiah as SUCCESSES? No mention of the fact that it was supposed to be taken and destroyed by the Medes, but instead it was taken intact by the Persians and became the BIGGEST CITY IN THE WORLD after it was supposed to be destroyed?... (funny, the odds have dropped to 1 in 1,000,000,000 - not cumulative after all? Of course, this failure should have blown everything out of the water anyhow, but we're well into the surreal here...)

...Showing pictures of Petra, pretending that this was the capital of Edom... even without this goof, I'd rate the probability of a desert city drying out as somewhat better than 1 in 100,000...

...and that's it.

Undewhelming, to put it mildly.

George S

Speaking of videos about the Bible, see: http://zeitgeistmovie.com/

Synopsis:
Intro (about 5 minutes) may be skipped but is actually somewhat entertaining.

Part 1: The source of Christianity as adaptation of pagan beliefs. (Timestamp 7:30 - 35:00)

Part 2: A conspiracy theory about 9-11 (skip this)
Part 3: A conspiracy theory about the Federal Reserve. (Ron Paul supporters love this part; too bad there are a lot of errors in it.)

Parts 2 is very questionable. Part 3 is somewhat credible, but far from proved. Part 1 is, as far as my research has been able to determine, accurate.

A book has been written about part 1 verifying it; excerpts here: http://www.stellarhousepublishing.com/zeitgeist.html

Indeed, it is my contention and that of others deemed "Jesus mythicists" that the creators of the gospel tale picked various themes and motifs from pre-Christian religions and myths, including and especially the Egyptian, and wove them together, using also the Jewish scriptures, to produce a unique version of the "mythos and ritual." In other words, the creators of the Christ myth did not simply take an already formed story, scratch out the name of Osiris or Horus and replace it with Jesus. They chose their motifs carefully, out of the most popular religious symbols, myths and rituals, making sure they fit to some degree with the Jewish "messianic scriptures," as they are termed, and created a new story that hundreds of millions since have been led to believe really and truly took place in history. Over the centuries, those who have clearly seen this development have asserted that this history is a fallacy imposed upon long pre-existing myths and rituals that have been reworked to result in the gospel story. In other words, we are convinced that "Jesus Christ" is a fictional character created out of older myths, rituals and symbols. (p. 8)

Sheshonq

And new atheist landed on the rational reason side of the space.

All of which have been soundly refuted here, and elsewhere.

Naw, you're just under the sad impression that we haven't seen it 15 times already and have already refuted it lol!

Except the citations you think are so special generally fall into three categories:

1. they are not declarations about Christ;
2. they are not genuine;
3. they are comments about CHristians, not about Christ

Based upon any objective criteria for prophecy that isn't unfairly rigged to help out the prophecy.

That is only part of the criteria for prophecy.

it has never happened.

That's already been done. It's precisely why I said that no prophecy has ever been fulfilled.

On the contrary, it is the truth. If you feel otherwise, then support your claim of fulfilled prophecy.

All of them.

Irrelevant preaching.

Can you support your claims of fulfilled prophecy? Yes or No?

No one cares.

Can you support your claims of fulfilled prophecy? Yes or No?

Joan of Bark

For yet a third time, Jenny: how could Jesus be the messiah if He was not born in the Davidic line? In fact, if born of a virgin He was not born in any line.

Nor was He born in Bethlehem. The whole census story told in the gospels is silly and contradicts what we know from history. He was born in Nazareth, hence the title Jesus of Nazareth.

Those who most want the prophesies to come true are the Jews. Yet they weren't buying Jesus as the messiah 2000 years ago, nor are they buying it now.

bong_0000007

Prophecies is fulfilling now and Babylon represents USA this city was not yet burn and punished in the revelation it says that believers of God shall out from this city.I think many nation defiled from it.

Another possible representation to these two beasts are: the first beast which is the dinosaur (dragon)whom all athiest worshipped.
the second beasts come after which is the primates whom also the athiest worship to its image.

spin

I guess a prophecy can mean anything you want it to. That's helpful.


spin