reniaa

I know sheep-like atheists as well as theists, sheep-like suggestable behaviour is not the unique to one group.

Dogfish

No, but in my experience, it is dominated by one group.

Roger Pearse

Me too. Still, it makes one imagine creative uses for the rough end of a pineapple, and where to stick it.

Some people will believe anything, as Goebbels knew. Mind you it can wear thin after a while. I recall an anecdote by William Shirer about jokes told by Germans during the air-raids in WW2.

"Some come into the air-raid shelter and say 'good morning'. This means that they have been to sleep.

Some would come in and say 'good evening'. This means that they haven't been to sleep.

A few would come in and say 'Heil Hitler'. This means that they have always been asleep."

All the best,

Roger Pearse

No Robots

How about when they read The Jesus Puzzle and say, "Oh, didn't you know Jesus never existed?"

dog-on

...but that was my exact sentiment after reading the Gospels...

reniaa

hehe, I've met a lot of sleeping atheists but I might get mobbed for that :O

hi you

As you can see i'm still liking these weird but entertaining forums

take care

becky

Antipope Innocent II

That would be news to Rabbi Akiva, who didn't seem to have much trouble being taken seriously, despite not marrying until well into his 30s. He didn't marry until then because he was too poor to support a wife and family, which was a reason poorer Jewish men often delayed marriage. So no, an unmarried poor man in his 30s was not unusual at all.

Oh, that was thanks "the Vatican" deliberately destroying all those Gnostic gospels that mention his wife. Didn't you read the novel?

Toto

The idea that Jesus must have been married because that was the normal state of a Jewish male, so expected that it would surely have been mentioned if he were not, is from Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven. Women, Sexuality, and the Catholic Church (or via: amazon.co.uk).

It is a minor part of the book, and primarily serves as background for the main thesis, which is that patriarchal church fathers derived their anti-sex agenda from the gnostics, who were in opposition to the Jewish idea that sexual pleasure was a gift from G-d.

No Robots

Love it!

wordy

That could explain it.

Was not the Essenes that was living a monk? life also rather celibatic? While those living in cities allowed to have family.

When I am at my most "mythic" or midrash mode I see Jesus as a mythic symbol for the Essenes and that explains why they are not named in the bible.

Jesus is the whole of the Essenes. He doesn't exists as an individual.

He represent the goal of the Essenes. The way they wanted to be.