Faith closes the mind. It is pure idol worship.

[Gnostic Bishop]

[

One note on Josephus, and I'd have to go back to my texts to be able to give precise information, but there seems to be evidence that the supposed writings of Josephus concerning Jesus might be a forgery. .

Speaking of Josephus, this link will show how he is alledged to have basically re-written the N. T. for Rome. He was adopted in to Roman Royalty and I doubt anything he wrote due to that fact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJgvws0ZYUE

Regards
DL

I hadn't heard of it. Will definitely check it out. Thanks.

Let me know if you think it persuasive. I read his book and he does show many correlations.

Think harlequin romance and the same typology seemed to be at work.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell called Jesus a Hero of 1,000 Faces in a book of that name, if I recall correctly. That is hearsay though. I did not read that particular book.

Regards
DL

[Gnostic Bishop]

Speaking of Josephus, this link will show how he is alledged to have basically re-written the N. T. for Rome. He was adopted in to Roman Royalty and I doubt anything he wrote due to that fact.

Sorry Bishop,
I think you will find after a while that the mythicist world is rife with conspiracy theories all contradicting each other as do their versions of which Pagan myths supposedly influenced the gospels.
On Atwill's messiah here's Chris White performing a useful service for those interested in truth and facts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnV0cJgTRiM
Movie Nerd here's a link for you on Josephus and John the Baptist. Let me know how you read it?
The atheist experience thinks it's a fake? I can only quote the famous immortal words;" Well they would say that wouldn't they?"
http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/josephus/fjo2.html This website is being updated Nerd. Do a google search;The death of John the Baptist Livius and you will find the article. Thanks

That clip paints Jesus as anti-Rome.

Give to Cesar what is Cesar's, and walk 2 miles instead of one, which meant carry a Roman soldiers pack further than required, is hardly what a militant Jesus would do.

Rome, FMPOV, definitely took the Jewish freedom seeking messiah and turned him into a Roman ass kisser.

Regards
DL

[Movie Nerd]

Speaking of Josephus, this link will show how he is alledged to have basically re-written the N. T. for Rome. He was adopted in to Roman Royalty and I doubt anything he wrote due to that fact.

Sorry Bishop,
I think you will find after a while that the mythicist world is rife with conspiracy theories all contradicting each other as do their versions of which Pagan myths supposedly influenced the gospels.
On Atwill's messiah here's Chris White performing a useful service for those interested in truth and facts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnV0cJgTRiM
Movie Nerd here's a link for you on Josephus and John the Baptist. Let me know how you read it?
The atheist experience thinks it's a fake? I can only quote the famous immortal words;" Well they would say that wouldn't they?"
http://www.livius.org/jo-jz/josephus/fjo2.html This website is being updated Nerd. Do a google search;The death of John the Baptist Livius and you will find the article. Thanks

The "They would say that, wouldn't they?" argument is a cheap shot in and of itself; I have stated I before that I would look up the materials, but in reference to The Atheist Experience call-in show, based out in Austin, they do a pretty good job of being able to back up the statements they make if called to task. They don't just say stuff without having a little knoweledge on the subject.

[Gnostic Bishop]

He's just trying to discourage free thought, thats all.

He's also deep into conspiracy theories whenever they will bolster an argument of his.
That and the power of conspiracy theories can never be proven wrong, so - presto! He wins!

Same old stuff

Religious theories and Gods can never be proven right, so - presto. The non-religious wins.

Could you show where I am deed into conspiracy theories please.

That seems like quite the lie about me so a bit of evidence please.

Or do you have the same type of evidence for that lie that believers have for the lies they spout of their Gods?

Regards
DL

[Movie Nerd]

He's just trying to discourage free thought, thats all.

He's also deep into conspiracy theories whenever they will bolster an argument of his.
That and the power of conspiracy theories can never be proven wrong, so - presto! He wins!

Same old stuff

Religious theories and Gods can never be proven right, so - presto. The non-religious wins.

Regards
DL

Ant claims discouragement of free thought, and yet narrowly clings to whatever the heck his beliefs are. I've come to not know what to think about our dear old friend Ant here.

[Flann 5]

We hurt more children than we help with indoctrination into the supernatural and unproven world.

Hi Bishop,
I've been trying to understand what it is that you believe so had a look at the Gnostic church link you gave. It seems to be a kind of neo Gnosticism which parts company with older versions in a number of areas.
I have a couple of questions for you about this.First some statements from that link.
1 The only proper religion for mankind is humanity itself,for it is from humanity that God first evolved. God who is our future came from humans,who are their past.
2 God is a glorified and exalted human being. And God consists of two distinct persons;The heavenly Mother and heavenly Father.
My questions are; When did God evolve from humanity and where might this glorified and exalted human being who is God be found?
If the universe itself evolved and created this God,from what did the universe evolve?
And how could something created by blind evolutionary processes be God?
The overwhelming view of scholarship is that the Gnostic gospels and writings come later than the 4 gospels and that is easily checked on wikipedia and elsewhere. This is problematic for those who want to claim that gnosticism was the earlier and true version of Christianity.
You are happy to assert that the gospels are myths so where does your version of Jesus come from if you reject the Christian gospels as myth?
Your thread is about idol worship.How would self deification not be idolatry?
For anyone interested here's Dr Edwin Yamauchi a Christian scholar examining historic versions of "Christian" gnosticism.
http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDF/1 ... 0_JETS.pdf Bad link here. Google Yamauchi Gnosticism and history,if you are interested.
P.S that was a quip rather than a cheap shot at you Movie Nerd. I gave a link which briefly explains why the interpolation idea doesn't make real sense. It's not the scholarly view.

[Gnostic Bishop]

He's just trying to discourage free thought, thats all.

He's also deep into conspiracy theories whenever they will bolster an argument of his.
That and the power of conspiracy theories can never be proven wrong, so - presto! He wins!

Same old stuff

Religious theories and Gods can never be proven right, so - presto. The non-religious wins.

Regards
DL

Ant claims discouragement of free thought, and yet narrowly clings to whatever the heck his beliefs are. I've come to not know what to think about our dear old friend Ant here.

Whatever he is, he certainly does not know his history and how Christianity tried to annihilate free though by ushering in the Dark Ages and Inquisition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR02cia ... =PLCBF574D

He forgets that it was literalism, the antithesis of free thought, that cause a lot od useless death and that that same literalism is what is continuing to cause much death. Just look at Islam and I.S.

Faith and literalism should be replaced by logic and reason but blind and foolish faith will not let go of the foolish.

Regards
DL

[Gnostic Bishop]

We hurt more children than we help with indoctrination into the supernatural and unproven world.

Hi Bishop,
I've been trying to understand what it is that you believe so had a look at the Gnostic church link you gave. It seems to be a kind of neo Gnosticism which parts company with older versions in a number of areas.
I have a couple of questions for you about this.First some statements from that link.
1 The only proper religion for mankind is humanity itself,for it is from humanity that God first evolved. God who is our future came from humans,who are their past.
2 God is a glorified and exalted human being. And God consists of two distinct persons;The heavenly Mother and heavenly Father.
My questions are; When did God evolve from humanity and where might this glorified and exalted human being who is God be found?

Again you try to fudge discussion by going all over the place so I have ignored the other issues and speak to what is left.

God did not evolve initially. The Goddess did. She ruled for 20,000 years or so before the Bronze Age. Only after this epoch did man start to build fortified cities and developed a need for the Gods of war that replaced the Goddesses.

This scholarly link is a horribly long listen but quite enlightening. Enlightenment is not what you want though but some might give it a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU1bEmq_pf0

As to where that the Gnostic Christian God can be found. Why, in your own bible. Or have you forgotten that it is a Jewish tradition that Christianity usurped?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Council

You will note how nicely that fits the link that I use of what Jesus taught.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alRNbes ... r_embedded

Not that you care what Jesus taught.

Regards
DL

[Flann 5]

God did not evolve initially. The Goddess did. She ruled for 20,000 years or so before the Bronze Age.

What did the Goddess evolve from and where did she rule from?

As to where that the Gnostic Christian God can be found. Why, in your own bible. Or have you forgotten that it is a Jewish tradition that Christianity usurped?

According to you the bible is all myths so it's not historic or true. How could a book of myths be about a real Goddess?

Again you try to fudge discussion by going all over the place so I have ignored the other issues and speak to what is left.

O.K. Bishop but putting your fingers in your ears is not the way forward. If we pick and choose only those things we want to hear and discuss it really is a private echo chamber.

[Gnostic Bishop]

God did not evolve initially. The Goddess did. She ruled for 20,000 years or so before the Bronze Age.

What did the Goddess evolve from and where did she rule from?

As to where that the Gnostic Christian God can be found. Why, in your own bible. Or have you forgotten that it is a Jewish tradition that Christianity usurped?

According to you the bible is all myths so it's not historic or true. How could a book of myths be about a real Goddess?

Again you try to fudge discussion by going all over the place so I have ignored the other issues and speak to what is left.

O.K. Bishop but putting your fingers in your ears is not the way forward. If we pick and choose only those things we want to hear and discuss it really is a private echo chamber.

Says the one who from page two on has run from meaningful discussion.

Regards
DL