Bree

That's called a healthy amount of self-respect and self-realisation that one is good at what one does.

lpetrich

How is that supposed to be? I don't know anything in the Bible that demands that; it may have been a development in rabbinical Judaism.

lpetrich

Also, <a href="http://www.salon.com" target="_blank">http://www.salon.com</a> once ran a sample fantasy from a book of sexual fantasies written by a woman -- it was about Mary Magdalene and her relationship with Jesus Christ.

And if God Almighty decided to give himself a human body so he could have human experiences, why not several, so he could get a good sample size? And be members of both sexes? So, as a woman, he can experience giving birth, for example.

lunachick

Excellent point.

Starboy

GeoTheo,

I suppose atheists are of three minds when it comes to Jesus:

1. Jesus never existed, just a myth.
2. He existed but was just a regular human.
3. Don't know if he existed but if he did he would be a natural human like everyone else.

I fall into category three. If he did exist then during his own time he was no big deal. Later Christians have embellished the facts to the point of lies and fraud. Resurrection indeed! To all you superstitious Christians all I have to say is BOO!

Starboy

Amos

Don't go for it lunachick. He was a MAN and deserves your sympathy.

Opera Nut

An interesting book about the Jesus married Mary Magdalen theory and went to France:
THE WOMAN WITH THE ALABASTER JAR, by Evelyn Starbird.

The cultural part I find most convincing would be the mandate for Jews and rabbis in particular to marry and reproduce, as Jews are much more sex-positive than Christians, have much more positive attitudes about their bodies and marital sex, and tended to smell much better for many centuries, as both sexes went thru the ritual bath (mikva) for various reasons, which they picked up from the Romans and Greeks probably, and thus they were spared a lot of the plagues and fatal illnesses the no-bathing-cuz-your-naked-bod-is-sinful Xtians got.

Yet another case where modern science gives Xtianity a SMACKDOWN!!

lpetrich

Another fun speculation about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene was that MM had been JC's "beard", a fake girlfriend that JC had had for concealing his homosexuality.

Yes. some have speculated that JC had been homosexual -- consider the "beloved disciple" of the Gospel of John.

Mike Rosoft

&gt;Another fun speculation about Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene was that MM had been JC's "beard",
&gt;a fake girlfriend that JC had had for concealing his homosexuality.
&gt;Yes. Some have speculated that JC had been homosexual -- consider the "beloved disciple" of
&gt;the Gospel of John.

Unless the beloved disciple was, in fact, <a href="http://www.magdalene.org/articles.htm" target="_blank">Mary Magdalene</a> herself. :-)

Yeah. Speculation is fun.


Mike Rosoft

Proxima Centauri

I have known people with alzheimer as well. If praying has been a silly part of their daily routing for the bulk of their adult lives they will, (with encouragement) remember to do it till dementia has become advanced. None of this proves the divinity of Jebus. Pracitioners of othe religions would remember their religious practices just as well.
You say they are gentle sweet women who live for Christ. I was at a Convent School (A school run by nuns) for a year. Some of the nuns were gentle sweet women. Many (most) were miserable sexually frustrated women who took their frustration out on the girls.
No! We don't make outselves miserable shutting outselves away in Cloisters singing praises to atheism or agnosticism. We don't believe in selfish, tiranical gods who would require such sillyness of us.