They got people to join their cult for the sport of persecuting them for being in it. — Cuthbert
Why is all the erasing attention going to that same guy Jesus, always, as if the Buddha or Socrates did not even not exist? That's not fair. — Olivier5
I mean, have you ever heard anyone obsessing about whether Socrates or Buddha existed historically? Nobody seems to care about them... Why are the historical erasers not concerned about the Buddha's or Socrates' existence or lack thereof? Why is all the erasing attention going to that same guy Jesus, always, as if the Buddha or Socrates did not even not exist? That's not fair — Olivier5
Nobody seems to care about them... — Olivier5
BUT you had to include a statue of the emperor and accept him as overlord — universeness
I for one would make similar arguments against other cults such as Mohamed and Islam or the Hindu pantheon or Odin or Zeus etc. — universeness
Rather careless of them not to have included that in their cult. They could have saved a lot of bother with just one verse, e.g. "And the heavens were riven with angels singing: 'Don't forget to celebrate the Emperor's birthday and refer to him as 'Divine'. A little statue on the mantlepiece would be appreciated as well. Jus' sayin — Cuthbert
What is your take on Judaism? I note that you don't mention it here. Is that an oversight or do you make an exception for Yahweh?
BTW, I'm one of your brother atheists — Olivier5
Wasn't Judaism entirely made up by the Babylonians? — Olivier5
Colossians 1:15-20
[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
A person is most certainly a brain. You do realize that all functions you exhibit, including those which are subconscious, are produced by the brain? — Garrett Travers
I don't regard "suffer and die" as what I am meant to do, or that human life and consciousness is to be relegated to such as the decree of anyone or anything other than myself. We suffer as a function produced by the brain, we die because bodies are made of organic materials and elements that expire over time. Like all things do — Garrett Travers
Great Omniscient Diety. I just made that up btw, so please no one respond with "that's not what God stands for!" :naughty: — universeness
The Jesus of the Gospels seems disposable. Why do they bother with Jesus? This is my question. — Ciceronianus
Keep in mind that it is a brain that manufactures this idea. When I look around the world and I see brains and nervous systems, these are massive clusters of axonally connected nerve cells, which are, my that perceptive event, also just this. So if you want to reduce the affairs of being a person to what a brain is and does, then this reduction applies equally your own reduction. There is no finer definition of circular thinking. — Astrophel
ALL that you have before you is what is. You are not in an explanatory matrix like a laboratory looking for causal bases of things. Causal explanations say nothing about the ontology of a something in the world. E.g., you cannot explain pain by describing neuronal complexities. — Astrophel
No, no. You don't understand the question, which is forgivable since you haven't been properly educated in such things (not meant to be a unkind here. But it is simply a fact that philosophy is entirely neglected our culture's curriculum).
The question is about suffering qua suffering. Look at it. Put a lighted match to your finger and observe, to be a good scientist. You will find something qualitatively different her from the facts science generally deals with. Suffering is not a "fact" in the Humean sense. — Astrophel
Religion and Jesus? You have to step out of your comfort to se this. There you are, fingers blackened with gangrene, your children the same, each waking a moment nightmarish suffering as you yield to the black death....and so on. This is, of course, no fiction. Perhaps you'll be burned at the stake tomorrow. You raise your fist to heaven to no avail. Then you plead and beg, to no avail. You conditions screams for deliverance.
This is what Jesus is about, on the negative end of what we are. — Astrophel
But this has no analysis. Ask yourself, what is the existential foundation for these stories, that in the world that gives rise to them at all — Astrophel
As if there were a single uniform interpretation of the Christian gospel. History says otherwise. — Wayfarer
Well not being a philosopher and lacking in any qualifications in the field, I am quite limited in the philosophical terminology that I can call upon.
I would say, from the evidence of observing human behavior in my own lifetime and from human behavior recorded in the books I have read etc. My interpretation of such evidence suggests to me that the 'existential foundation' I refer to is human fear of that which they do not understand and therefore conceive as a potential threat. A natural reaction to such fear in the long term is to try to learn more about the phenomenon but meantime seek protection from potential harm by engaging in tribal or/and biological support and psychologically attempting to establish further support from imagined benevolent supernatural forces. I think that's what humans do and I think there is a great deal of evidence for it, both current and historical. — universeness
Because they are Christians. There is no Christianity without Jesus _Christ_. — baker
I think there is an important distinction between "a person is contained in or caused by," a brain and the idea that a person is a brain. Obviously a person, as a persistent entity through time cannot be defined as just the physical matter in their skull at any given time, since the composition of the matter, and its organization is constantly changing. In about a year, about 98% of the atoms in a human body are replaced. The fundemental parts that make up a brain have been parts of other brains before. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Information is isomorphic. If I am my thoughts and sensations, which are generated by the interaction of my brain and my environment, what does it mean that I can record these thoughts into language or images, and people can reconstruct them later. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Not to mention the whole issue of Post-Kantian metaphysics and access to the noumenal, which I find just leads to dead ends. Although, I think it is worth considering that the two value logic of correspondence definitions of truth that people utilize to support claims such as "a person is a brain," only work if there is someone to measure the correspondence. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Because they are Christians. There is no Christianity without Jesus _Christ_.
— baker
One would think so. And the answer may be that they're "stuck" with him if they want to be known as Christians. But I think that the Jesus of the Gospels is largely ignored by them (just as the God of the Old Testament, that fractious fellow, is ignored). They just don't fit in the theology they construct, or if they fit do so awkwardly. They're embarrassing, in fact, if Scripture is is to be believed as it is written. — Ciceronianus
Sorry for the ramble, hopefully that made some sense. — Noble Dust
I could chat for a long time on Judaism and its connection with Canaanite gods like El, Asherah, BAAL etc and Christianity.
How about the Judaic story of Lilith and her relationship with the garden of Eden 'snake' and its iconographic relationship with the 'flying snake' or dragon and Liliths' spat with Adam, way before Eve and her EVil and dEVil came on the scene.
All sorts of fascinating parallels in stories like the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, the Roman Mithratic cults, The classical pantheon etc. — universeness
No, information is not isomorphic for the human, information is ditributed across numerous domains of neural structures and cognition to for analysis and integration. And as such, that data is never processed by two people at once in the same manner. I invite you, kindly, to look up some studies on neuroeconomics, the stuff will blow you away.
Did you really need to use the slur "Jesus Freaks"? What if someone came along and used the slur "Atheist Freaks". I think you could have gotten the point across without the slur, and it will would have been an interesting topic. — Philosophim
One then asks, what is there in this one has to be afraid of, and hope for? Now we are talking philosophy.
What do you think it is — Astrophel
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