No Robots

The cure for boredom? Operationalizing the power of Christ in the age of atheism. Take a look at Constantin Brunner's Our Christ: The Revolt of the mystical genius. From the preface:

This book gives one the courage not to read the authentic words of Christ in the New Testament in the well-worn and traditional way. The author has with great skill and infinite patience removed all the paint and gilding that has been used to paint over the Son of Man, who is one with the spirit of the Father. The dressed up idol of superstition is destroyed and Christ, the human figure of radiant mysticism re-appears; he is resurrected as the greatest of humanity's Spiritual elite.

Dare to read the book.

There is no better cure for boredom than this book.

stephan huller

I don't know. What's criticism can one say about partisans? Hypocrites? That too strong. Partisans. Yes, biased partisans.

No Robots

Well, do be sure to let them know your criticisms.

outhouse

I dont do anti-science. Or mythical science


Im pro-science

Sheshbazzar

I'm that sure in a heavily Christian nation you or your favorite religion would win such a case, but the decision would not be based upon any preponderance of, nor accuracy of the evidence presented, but upon the skills of orators in playing to the biases of a Christian indoctrinated judge and jury.

Countless thousands of religious 'trials' have been conducted down through the centuries, and the defenders of Christian claims have quite consistently won.
You go ahead, chime in with their claims, and chant their mantras and prayers with them.

As for me, I am certainly glad that in the annuals of human posterity, I will be found not sitting on their side of the room cheering their insanity on.

stephan huller

This is a totally stupid discussion. As I have stated many times, most people haven't a clue what Judaism is or how Judaism has developed a 'historical window' on Jesus. Let's start with the obvious. To be a Jew in the modern world is essentially to define oneself negatively - i.e. I am not a Christian. As a Jew one doesn't celebrate Xmas. Perhaps one doesn't eat certain foods (but not necessarily). And indeed strangely the very fact that everyone else is celebrating Xmas is problematic. So Hanukkah was refashioned as a 'Jewish Xmas.'

Nevertheless unlike the Samaritans who continue to follow the Passover sacrifice demanded by the Pentateuch, the Jews have given up many of the essential details of their religion and pretend that somehow being a blood relative of Abraham is enough to ensure a special place in the world to come. I can't even follow this argument at this point given that genetic studies of DNA from people claiming to be sons of Abraham have little common genetic features.

Moreover most of the people who actively practice what they think is a "Jewish religious tradition" has very little to do with the Judaism of the Second Commonwealth period. I am not talking about the Talmud essentially taking precedent over the Pentateuch (the cause of the split with the Karaites) but more significantly and the under reported fact that many influential Jewish sects are actually rooted in teachings which developed in the seventeenth through twentieth centuries. The classic 'wailing wall' which everyone takes as being 'essentially Jewish' has for instance nothing to do with authentic Judaism. It's one of many examples of the evolution of Judaism. The claim that Jesus was a 'good rabbi' is only a new low point in the history of the people.

It is true that Jews have always argued that Jesus was a man. The earliest example of this is the testimony used by Celsus in his True Word. While this treatise is generally assigned to 120 CE by scholars (cf. Carrington) I have recently argued that it goes back to the Dispute of Jason and Papiscus which in turn was developed from lost demegories of Philo of Alexandria. The point is that on the surface at least it looks like a powerful argument in favor of the humanity of Jesus.

But then when you actually look at what appears in this Jewish 'True Word' you see that every time the author of this treatise cited by Celsus argues that Jesus was a man he does so as a response to the pre-existent claim of contemporary Jewish-Christians that Jesus was a god. As such all that the earliest Jewish response to Christianity proves is that Christians always thought that Jesus was a god - even the Son of God - and that Jews developed the argument that Jesus was really a man as a rhetorical polemic.

stephan huller

I am a Jew so I can talk to myself and have a discussion with a published Jewish scholar about the origins of Christianity.

No Robots

Brunner isn't anti-science. He simply confines science to the realm of relativity.

Brunner applies scientific technique to the investigation of myth and mysticism. What's wrong with that?

So am I. However, I am anti-scientism, ie. I am opposed to the abuse of science as a weapon of ideology.

No Robots

Sin of Onan?

stephan huller

Indeed I can see an argument that Marcionitism and other second century forms of 'heresy' have more to do with the Jewish religious forms of the Second Commonwealth period than modern Hasidism (who never stop sending me emails).