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I love when we get to the " if there were no god would we be good, nice, law abiding citizens.." thing.
Every human being has been given a conscience by God to know if they do right or wrong so that no one is without excuse.
And this is what happened after the fall. Man became his own god and from there on was war, killing, pillaging, incest, animal sex, and much more because he threw off God and sought to be as a god to himself.
Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. - Sherlock Holmes
reply to post by windword
I am punching you down for the coward that you are trying to insult me and denigrate my person.
Like I said, you never EVER would talk to me this way in person...because it is you that acts cowardly. I would scare you to the marrow.
I would summarize by listing the following guidelines for a viable recon-
struction of the early history of Israel:
1. Archaeology is the only real-time witness to many of the events
described in the biblical text, mainly for the pre-ninth-century b.c.e.
formative periods.
2. Biblical history cannot be read as a modern chronicle. It is dominated
by the theological and ideological themes of the authors.
3. Biblical history cannot be read in a simplistic way, from early to late.
Rather, the point of departure must be a thorough knowledge of the
social, economic, and geopolitical realities of the composition period
in late-monarchic times (and later, in some cases).
4. There are many old stories in the text, but they are described in a way
that fits the ideology of the later authors.
5. Many of the texts are comprised of several layers; only archaeology
and extra-biblical sources can help identify and separate them.
6. The starting point for the compilation of the biblical text is the sudden
growth of Judah to full statehood as a direct outcome of the fall of
the Northern Kingdom and the integration of Judah into the global
economy of the Assyrian Empire.
Had such guidelines been applied from the outset of the modern biblical-his-
torical enterprise, we would not have wasted a century on futile research.
- - pages 19,20
They got most of their morals from the conscience God gave to them, it didn't just pop into their heads.
Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by St Udio
the 12th century shroud was the actual burial cloth of the crucified Jesus, but was sent forward in time/space so that the mystery of the 'Christ' could become awesome...
I agree with everything you said except this one sentence above. Sent forward in time/space is unnecessary.
let me point out that my scenario is in accord with the Jesus person not being supernatural/Divine but had assistance by both mortals with a religious agenda and the assistance of some outside source (Angels/Aliens/Demons...take your pick) to place the burial shroud in another era...for the purpose of making the Mystery of Faith a very real thing!
so, in my plot... Jesus was a deluded but committed individual...but with a messianic complex that is commonly known to modern phychology/psychiatry
but aided and assisted (after his death) by both mundane mortal men and some metaphysical forces which we have a hard time proving exist in real science terms.... to become a larger-than-life Myth or even Archtype
i choose to think that exceptional events need extraordinary help in becoming reality.... Jesus as a redeemer/savior/messiah/son-of-god is just one exceptional event... not because it is fact--but Christianity has convinced billions of people to be for-or-against it's belief system