agnawstick

As an agnostic, who doesn't believe in the abrahamic religions, I still find myself curious as to what exactly was going on. The dead sea scrolls seem to some to suggest that James and Paul had a fight, Paul won, and the message attributed to Jesus was corrupted by Paul. Does anybody know much about this, or good sources discussing this? I am fascinated by it, just historically, and because of the impact it has upon us all. If Paul died before he twisted around what Jesus allegedly said, what would the world be like today? I am convinced that "fundies" especially worship Paul before Jesus.

I think that in Christian theology Paul would have to be the anti christ. Jesus said to do great works, keep the kosher laws, and Paul 15 years later said basically that Jesus was teasing. But then again, what words are attributed to Jesus were often written after the time of Paul, so there ya go. There does seem to be evidence of the fact that the original folks did keep to the jewish laws, otherwise Paul wouldn't have had to come out and oppose them.

It makes me long for a really bad time travel movie, where one could go back, zap Paul in the head, and see how the world turned out 2,000 years later. Unlike others here, I think Jesus existed, he wasn't the messiah, because there is no God, but he was basically a reformist type of guy, kinda mellow, whose words have been twisted. I am wondering though if "Christianity" would have even survived without Paul though. Giving away your possessions, loving your enemies, and praying in secret is not as fun as Gold covered 10,000 seat cathedrals that you enter, walking over a homeless person, justified by faith that no matter what you do, it is ok if ya believe in jeebus, because Paul said so. Jesus forgot to mention it, but good thing Paul was around afterwards to "correct" all the errors Jesus made.

hingers

Paul actually discusses those who clung to the old covenant of Kosher laws and what not. (In Romans) he says that Christ supercedes the old law, as Jesus claims he did. Paul writes that we are free to do whatever in Christ, because he died for all our sins and we are all forgiven.

Anyway, the point is, that it doesn't matter whether I eat pork or not, or whether I eat meat at all, or not, because there are some things which are a personal preference thing. Christianity is a relationship with God, a friendship, and to a degree, we are all in different positions, and so we all react differently to his friendship.