Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Minimalist · 06-18-2010, 05:12 PM

Jim is an interesting character but he is really (REALLY) uptight about atheists.

I doubt he'd come here.

meow · 06-18-2010, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minimalist

Jim is an interesting character but he is really (REALLY) uptight about atheists.

I doubt he'd come here.

Oh my, I certainly didn't mean to imply that Toto is Jim West. My point was simply that we don't know, and can't know, who he is. He could, in fact, be absolutely anyone, and that's fine with me. Yet he suggests that Geoff Hudson lacks "credibility," without indicating any manner in which Mr. Hudson's statement on what's going on in New York does in fact lack credibility.

And yes, Toto, there is a good deal of humor in the suggestion that all DSS bloggers are a single person, maybe not for the straight-laced American mindset (the "new honesty"), but Europeans seem to have a slightly more developed sense of irony and wit than many of us do.

More important than any of this, is the fact that judging from what Hudson says, we appear to be confronting a serious academic scandal. And in that light, the New York Jewish Museum exhibit, the St. Paul exhibit, and now the Paris exhibit all seem to have a remarkable significance. Compare the Jewish Museum's statement:

Quote:

Scholars have two basic theories about who used the scrolls. The first posits that the scrolls all belonged to a single religious sect [living] at the settlement of Qumran... The second theory proposes that the scrolls were a random collection of texts reflecting the beliefs of many Jewish groups of the period. They represented either a single priestly repository or public library or the sacred texts of various Jewish communities from Jerusalem and elsewhere in the land of Israel. During the Jewish revolt against Rome beginning in 68 CE, refugees from further north hid their precious texts in the Dead Sea caves. This hypothesis holds that there is no connection between the scrolls and the settlement at Qumran, and that the site was a fortress, a villa, a farm, an industrial site, or a commercial center.

and the Associated Press statement about the St. Paul exhibit:

Quote:

By incorporating new archaeological finds and recent scholarship, the exhibit is the first to fully present two competing theories: Were the scrolls written and collected by an ultra-religious Jewish group living in the desert? Or were the manuscripts smuggled out of Jerusalem on the eve of the Roman invasion in A.D. 70 and hidden for safekeeping in the wilderness?

"We could just tell one side and create a tight little story about who created the scrolls, but that wouldn't be telling the science," said Ed Fleming, the museum's curator of archaeology, who worked with other staff and Israeli authorities to design the exhibit.

Finally, we learn that the Parisian exhibit also casts doubt on the sectarian theory.

As has been said before, all of this contradicts the position taken by the curator of the San Diego exhibit, reported on in the Los Angeles Times, that "you don't want to confuse people with so many competing theories."

Minimalist · 06-18-2010, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Oh my, I certainly didn't mean to imply that Toto is Jim West.

Fear not. I did not get that impression.

Gawen · 06-19-2010, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minimalist

Quote:

Oh my, I certainly didn't mean to imply that Toto is Jim West.

Fear not. I did not get that impression.

Ah...but Toto may be Artemus Gordon....*chucklin*

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06-18-2010, 05:12 PM	#21
Minimalist Veteran Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Arizona Posts: 1,808	Jim is an interesting character but he is really (REALLY) uptight about atheists. I doubt he'd come here.

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