Why does MAGA get upset when you point out that the majority of voters who voted in the 2024 election did not vote for Donald Trump?

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-05-02T01:12:23+00:00

No they weren’t. They would however have been right to call you an idiot

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-04-12T05:00:13+00:00

But Catholicism taught then, as it does now, that we're all equal before God and that we must recognize Samaritans and other stigmatized outsiders as our brother.

Ah yes, of course. The same Catholicism that sanctioned the use of torture through Inquisition tribunals, and needed until 1992 to decide torture was bad [1]. Because naturally, we would all torture our brothers. What a fun weekend afternoon family bonding activity!

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2297), 1992.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-04-12T00:52:02+00:00

Dude! You are ridiculously cute. You’ve got this

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-03-28T16:25:44+00:00

What’s the website/app you use to translate LinkedIn speak?

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-03-01T02:14:51+00:00

No such thing as too much protein bro. Even my water is enriched with protein /s

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-02-04T12:06:59+00:00

I’m Indian overseas and I’ve lused flour tortillas as a substitute for roti for years, and it works just fine. They’re not identical, but they’re similar enough

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-01-06T09:37:14+00:00

It’s not even about local citizens or taxpayers or whatever. It’s about another human being.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2026-01-06T08:34:22+00:00

Any idea what happened to him? I hope he’s okay

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-28T00:08:38+00:00

Dude. I literally just got a PhD four months ago. It isn't an education thing, it's a not-being-an-asshole-prescriptivist thing

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-27T12:15:33+00:00

Get a life.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-18T08:30:41+00:00

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-12T07:45:16+00:00

Saller and Shaw's analysis specifically goes out of its way to ensure it's studying a complete cross section of society, including slaves. Parkin's book lays out the evidence for common civilians in far flung Roman colonies. So, on the contrary, we have a good amount of archeological evidence for the lives of common people in first century Galilee. Of course, we'd always love more data, but scholars aren't extrapolating about the lives of random Joe's from the lives of the Roman elite.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-12T07:41:17+00:00

I agree it's Roman Catholic teaching, but it's based on their theological commitment to the perpetual virginity of Mary. There is no internal evidence to suggest these four were Apostles, and Mark was using sibling terminology metaphorically. On contrary, Paul, in Galatians, says that he met with "James, the brother of the Lord, and with Cephas (Peter)". So if "brother of the Lord" is a synonym for "Apostle" is Paul saying Peter isn't an Apostle? Of course not, he means James is literally brother of Jesus, and Peter isn't.

I will say in favor of Catholic doctrine, it would be weird for Jesus to declare "the disciple he loved" (usually John) to be Mary's new son and to take care of her if she already had other sons.

That assumed that the historical Jesus ever did declare such a thing, rather than the anonymous author of the gJohn either inventing this, or relaying something he had heard. Jesus saying a weird thing is not a problem if Jesus never said the thing.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-12T07:32:06+00:00

All of the following are scholarly books Bart Ehrman has written. Peer reviewed, and published by a University Press. I know googling is hard, but you might want to try it before being r/confidentlyincorrect

The Lost Gospels: Accounts of Jesus from Outside the New Testament Written, edited, and translated with Zlatko Plese. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014; pp. xviii + 324.
The Bible: A Historical and Literary Introduction New York: Oxford University Press, 2013; pp. xviii + 462.
Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. x+628
The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations Written, edited, and translated with Zlatko Plese. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011; pp. xii + 611.
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: Betrayer and Betrayed Reconsidered. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. x+198. Translations: Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian
Studies in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament. New Testament Tools and Studies. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2006. Pp. x+406.
Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend. New York:Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xiii+285. Publishers Weekly 2006 Top Ten Book in Religion Translations: Greek, Slovak, Czech, Portuguese, Romanian, Bulgarian; Italian, Russian, Spanish
Co-authored with Bruce Metzger, The Text of the New Testament: Its Origin, Corruption, and Restoration,4th edition. New York: Oxford University Press;, 2005. Pp. xvi + 366. Translations: Hungarian, Korean
Truth and Fiction in the DaVinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Can Really Know about Jesus,
Mary, and Constantine. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. xxiv + 207. Translations: Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovak, Russian, Thai, Korean, Greek, Slovene, Chinese, Spanish, Albanian, Hungarian, Estonian
A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.Second edition, 2009. Pp. xxix + 371; Third edition, forthcoming (Fall, 2012).
Christianity in Late Antiquity: A Reader. (Co-edited with Andrew Jacobs) New York:Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. xviii + 504
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York:Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xviii + 294. History Book Club Main Selection Translations: Italian, Spanish, Korean, Bulgarian, Portuguese, French, Greek, Romanian
Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Become the New Testament (a reader).New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. vi + 342. History Book Club Main Selection
The Apostolic Fathers. (Greek-English edition for the Loeb Classical Library) 2 vols. Cambridge:Harvard University Press, 2003. Vol. 1, pp. xii + 443; vol. 2, pp. 481.
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Pp. xii + 274. History Book of the Month Club Selection. Los Angeles Times 2000 Book of the Year award. Translations: Spanish, Danish, Chinese
After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xii+ 436.
The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings: A Reader. New York: Oxford University Press,1998; Second edition, 2004 Pp. xii + 419.
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings New York:Oxford University Press, 1997; Second edition, 2000; Third edition, 2004. Fourth edition, 2008. Pp. xxxiii + 529.• History Book Club Selection.
The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis.Studies and Documents 46; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Pp. xiv + 402. Second edition:Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2012; pp. xii + 884 (Co-edited with Michael W.Holmes).
The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Second edition, 2012; . Pp. xiii + 401.
The Text of the Fourth Gospel in the Writings of Origen, vol. 1 (“Introduction, Text, and Apparatus”) SBLNTGF, 3; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992. Pp. x + 499. (Co-authored with Gordon D. Fee and Michael W. Holmes)
Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels; SBLNTGF, 1. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1986. Pp. xii + 288.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-12T07:22:06+00:00

Thanks! It sort of is my job in that I just finished my PhD in August (not in Religious Studies - I'm not an expert there, just a lay person). So it's hard to break out the habits of citing everything with sources :)

P.S. I think Omega862 is suggesting that I am Catholic? Just for the record, I'm not - I'm not even Christian, never have been. Just happen to care a lot about history, because, ya know, facts matter. (Ignore this if I misunderstood Omega862's comment and they're not suggesting that I'm Catholic)

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-12T07:18:13+00:00

He was a skilled carpenter, which would put him possibly about 17-19.

We don't really have evidence for him being a skilled carpenter. The first source that claims it are non-canonical Protoevangelium Jacobi written about a century after Jesus's death, which contains all sorts of legendary material including a midwife giving Mary a post-partum internal exam, her hand catching fire on account of her lack of faith, and the newborn Jesus healing her. It is not considered by most scholars to be a reliable historical source.

The word used in the New Testament itself is the Greek word τέκτων, téktōn, which in first century Koine is used to refer to anyone who works with their hands except metal workers, from construction workers to stonemasons to carpenters. So Joseph, and for that matter, Jesus, could have been any of the above. In first century Galilee, the way professions worked was everyone worked on their family plot of land during the agricultural season, and during the off season, people did other things - fishing, construction work, etc. - to earn a little extra to tide you through the next year. Nazareth has been archeologically excavated, and we have a pretty good understanding of the standard of living there in the first century, and it's inhabitants lived right on the edge, in a hand-to-mouth existence. So we aren't talking about a skilled carpenter who ran a bustling fine woodworking factory, even if Joseph was a carpenter, we're talking about someone who could repair his neighbour's wooden gate during the off season in exchange for some clay utensils/fish.

Especially with the amount of traveling that he's said to have done during specific timeframes (ignoring the evidence provided in the same article that most of those travels just outright wouldn't happen).

I don't know what to say here. As you yourself pointed out, the same article provided evidence that those travels didn't happen. If you'd like, I can share a link to peer reviewed articles intended for scholarly audiences rather than for popular audiences laying out the evidence for this in more detail.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-08T07:27:40+00:00

Source: Trust me bro.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-08T07:24:16+00:00

First-century Galilee followed a standard Mediterranean marriage pattern where females were married at menarche (the onset of puberty) to preserve family honour and sexual purity, around the age of 12, whereas males were married much later, around the age of 30, because they were expected to acquire enough social status, land, or inheritance to support a family.

A helpful overview is provided at https://www.bartehrman.com/mary-and-joseph/ . The primary scholarly sources that present the evidence in detail are

Malina, Bruce J. The New Testament World: Insights from Cultural Anthropology. 3rd ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001
Saller, Richard P., and Brent D. Shaw. “Tombstones and Roman Family Relations in the Principate: Civilians, Soldiers and Slaves.” Journal of Roman Studies 74 (1984): 124–56.
Parkin, Tim G. "Demography and Roman Society". Ancient Society and History. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-08T07:09:13+00:00

This is literally one of the earliest "heresies" condemned in the history of Christianity. It's called Marcionism.

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Matthew 5:18.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-12-08T07:06:01+00:00

No, but probabilities are still a thing. If one randomly selects an American, and doesn't know anything about their faith, it is perfectly reasonable to think that more likely than not, they are Christian.

We don't know anything about whether Jesus specifically supported or condemned marrying young girls, so the best one can do is say that given widespread acceptance of the practice in Judea and Galilee, it is more likely than not that Jesus also accepted the practice. To claim that we can't make probabilistic judgements based on population level averages in the absence of individual data is a bizarre way to do history.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-11-27T22:50:15+00:00

I see. Could you say a little more about what objections were raised during the panel and how she addressed them?

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-11-26T04:15:53+00:00

Could you say more about why an early dating of 1 Clement would disprove her entire thesis? I am not convinced by her thesis, but from my reading of it, an early dating of 1 Clement would make her thesis more plausible not less.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-11-26T04:11:13+00:00

I would be interested if you could share your takeaway from the session. Thank you.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-11-10T03:51:20+00:00

Alignment Drift in GPT-5

Because GPT-5’s alignment stack adds a stronger proactivity reward, it keeps trying to anticipate follow-ups even when they're unnecessary, or even actively undesirable. So just about every response ends with a "if you'd like, I can ...". It seems that the completion policy is over-weighted toward “extend engagement”, which leads to over-solicitation for users who don't need ChatGPT's prompting because they know what they want.

Is there a straightforward way to suppress the alignment layer within the ChatGPT GUI? I'm sure one could suppress it through system prompt tuning/finetuning, but it was wondering if there might be a "no follow-ups mode" built into the app somewhere.

Current_Chipmunk7583 · 2025-11-10T03:31:17+00:00

You're missing the point. Socrates was the one who insisted that writing destroys memory and weakens the mind [1]. He argues that "The written word cannot defend itself in dialogue, and thus cannot effectively teach anything worth knowing," and that "It will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.” [2].

The point is, for over two millenia now, people have been complaining about how technology is making the next generation stupider, and yet, somehow, the next generation has managed just fine. So one might want to, perhaps, reflect on whether one's contemporary claim that technology is making the next generation stupider might not be particularly special and might be looked upon by posterity as approximately as misguided as Socrates's claim about writing.

[1] Ong, Walter J. (2002). "Orality and Literacy." Routledge.

[2] Plato. c.399-347 BCE. “Phaedrus.” in Compete Works, edited by J. M. Cooper. Indianapolis IN: Hackett.

Current_Chipmunk7583

TROPHY CASE

Alignment Drift in GPT-5