Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Jesus and alien abductions
I haven't posted one of these for a long time, so I figured it was time. This is an excerpt from the Atheist Experience TV show, episode #586, with hosts Matt Dillahunty and Jeff Dee.
Why do you believe the fantastic stories of the Bible, none of them first-hand (at least, none of the authors of the Gospels had ever met Jesus, let alone witnessed any miracles), while dismissing eye-witness testimony about alien abductions today?
It's not that there's any good evidence for alien abductions, but it's far, far better than what you've got in the Bible.
Why don't you believe the people who claim to have seen Elvis still alive after his death, but you believe the supposed claims of unknown people, related by other unknown people and edited by still other unknown people, who, you think, saw Jesus after his death?
It seems to make absolutely no sense at all. The Elvis claims aren't believable, but they're a far, far better source of information than ancient stories from anonymous primitive people. And any halfway intelligent god would know that, so what kind of idiot god would depend on those old stories to convince anyone with half a brain in his head?
The only reason you believe that stuff is because you want to believe it, and because you've been taught it all your life.
why don't atheists ever dismiss the other religions of the world? We have very little evidence, except here say, that siddharta gautauma was the man that became Buddha, and yet I don't ever see any atheists/skeptics dismiss him as not existing. Or what about the fact that most consistent historical records from Rome and Jews of the time don't mention the man Barrabbas, and that we have no other historical records of him than in the bible, yet most scholars and scientists state he empirically existed? Go on a tangent against the Qu'ran, or the Ramayana, maybe even try to dismiss the Native American mythos...fact of the matter is that atheism is simply anti-christianity. I believe in aliens, spiritual reawakening, reincarnation, etc...and a God: if you read into the meaning of the words, the Hebrew words used in the Bible, you find out that english is a poor vessel to carry their message. By reading only the surface words and accepting the name 'Jesus' as the only possible representation of this man in history, you are limiting your own thinking. The actual name for Jesus was 'Yeshua' and yet people look for the modern version as if that's what they called him back then. 'Joshua' is Jesus's actual anglified name. So, to say that the Bible is the only record of Yeshua (an incredibly common name of that time and this one) from Nazareth (which is actually a derivitive of the word 'Nazer' meaning 'branch' or a simplified version of the aramaic An-nasira) and to dismiss the possibility of this man's existence by using anglified terms for the accepted name today, shows little in the way of research and rather much more in the way of bias. There are accounts signed by Pontius Pilate, and even Herrod, that have thousands upon thousands of instances of the name Yeshua, many born all over the province, or known of in the provinces, that could account for Jesus of Bethelhem, which we know is/was a city/province in those times. Enlightenment for those who are serious in their scholarly pursuits.
Oh, where do I even begin, Anonymous? Atheists do dismiss the other religions of the world, but those of us here in America are surrounded by Christianity.
It's not Buddhists who are trying to get their religious beliefs taught in American public schools. It's not Hindus who try to get their prayers said at city council meetings. It's not Wiccans who dominate at every level of politics in our country.
All the time I grew up, I never knew a single other person who wasn't a Christian. So when I blog about these things, which religion would I focus most of my attention on? Of course, that doesn't mean I find the others any more plausible (although I also know less about them than I do about Christianity).
Second, why would I care what Jesus' actual name was? What difference does that make? I would even be willing to grant you the assumption that Jesus actually existed, although I believe the evidence for that is poor.
But so what? That wouldn't mean that any of the magic stuff in the Bible actually happened. Troy might have actually existed, but that doesn't mean that the gods in the Iliad and the Odyssey were real. It doesn't mean that Circe literally turned men into pigs, through magic.
London does exist, but that doesn't mean that everything else in the Harry Potter books is true. And you can't point to the Harry Potter books as evidence otherwise. (Further, you can't point to the existence of other people named "Harry" as evidence that Harry Potter exists, either - which is what you seem to be trying to do with "Jesus.")
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true. - Robert Wilensky
It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. - President Barack Obama
The formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat. - Shekhar Gupta
We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
Democracy is not about majority rule; it is about minority rights. If there is no culture of not simply tolerating minorities, but actually treating them with equal rights, real democracy can't take root. - Thomas L. Friedman
We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. - President Franklin D. Roosevelt
I have been attacked by Rush Limbaugh on the air, an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn't actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle. - Molly Ivins
In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
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5 comments:
This is just great! I'm gonna use that. Thanks for the headsup.
Thanks, Variable. I'm glad you liked it.
Like
why don't atheists ever dismiss the other religions of the world? We have very little evidence, except here say, that siddharta gautauma was the man that became Buddha, and yet I don't ever see any atheists/skeptics dismiss him as not existing. Or what about the fact that most consistent historical records from Rome and Jews of the time don't mention the man Barrabbas, and that we have no other historical records of him than in the bible, yet most scholars and scientists state he empirically existed? Go on a tangent against the Qu'ran, or the Ramayana, maybe even try to dismiss the Native American mythos...fact of the matter is that atheism is simply anti-christianity. I believe in aliens, spiritual reawakening, reincarnation, etc...and a God: if you read into the meaning of the words, the Hebrew words used in the Bible, you find out that english is a poor vessel to carry their message. By reading only the surface words and accepting the name 'Jesus' as the only possible representation of this man in history, you are limiting your own thinking. The actual name for Jesus was 'Yeshua' and yet people look for the modern version as if that's what they called him back then. 'Joshua' is Jesus's actual anglified name. So, to say that the Bible is the only record of Yeshua (an incredibly common name of that time and this one) from Nazareth (which is actually a derivitive of the word 'Nazer' meaning 'branch' or a simplified version of the aramaic An-nasira) and to dismiss the possibility of this man's existence by using anglified terms for the accepted name today, shows little in the way of research and rather much more in the way of bias. There are accounts signed by Pontius Pilate, and even Herrod, that have thousands upon thousands of instances of the name Yeshua, many born all over the province, or known of in the provinces, that could account for Jesus of Bethelhem, which we know is/was a city/province in those times. Enlightenment for those who are serious in their scholarly pursuits.
http://askdrbrown.org/portfolio/what-is-the-original-hebrew-name-for-jesus-and-is-it-true-that-the-name-jesus-is-really-a-pagan-corruption-of-the-name-zeus/
http://www.bibletruth.cc/Body_The_Messiahs_Name.htm
http://archive.archaeology.org/0511/abstracts/jesus.html
http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Bethlehem.html#.UmWJ7iTFYy4
Oh, where do I even begin, Anonymous? Atheists do dismiss the other religions of the world, but those of us here in America are surrounded by Christianity.
It's not Buddhists who are trying to get their religious beliefs taught in American public schools. It's not Hindus who try to get their prayers said at city council meetings. It's not Wiccans who dominate at every level of politics in our country.
All the time I grew up, I never knew a single other person who wasn't a Christian. So when I blog about these things, which religion would I focus most of my attention on? Of course, that doesn't mean I find the others any more plausible (although I also know less about them than I do about Christianity).
Second, why would I care what Jesus' actual name was? What difference does that make? I would even be willing to grant you the assumption that Jesus actually existed, although I believe the evidence for that is poor.
But so what? That wouldn't mean that any of the magic stuff in the Bible actually happened. Troy might have actually existed, but that doesn't mean that the gods in the Iliad and the Odyssey were real. It doesn't mean that Circe literally turned men into pigs, through magic.
London does exist, but that doesn't mean that everything else in the Harry Potter books is true. And you can't point to the Harry Potter books as evidence otherwise. (Further, you can't point to the existence of other people named "Harry" as evidence that Harry Potter exists, either - which is what you seem to be trying to do with "Jesus.")
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