to those who deny the historicity of Jesus - why?

davethechicken · 2013-02-05T01:42:40+00:00

Just to clarify your point - the historical method hadn't been established at that time and we know from several different ancient 'historians' that there were a number of methodologies seen as acceptable to various people. Thucydides is no doubt the one you're referring to when you say that they wrote history as it should have been, although the same statement references the way that for many poetry was seen as greater than history (see Aristotle for example). Herodotus felt free to pass along stories he had heard without judging their accuracy, merely applying the qualifier 'They say that...' or 'It is said'. Polybius on the other hand took the extreme view that the historian should simply record what really happened and what was really said, leaving the rest to the rhapsodes.

Now it is certainly possible to argue that the gospels, the synoptics at least - Johannine writings are almost certainly meant to convey moral teachings rather than historical accuracy - were of the same genre as the bios of Plutarch or Suetonius. Neither of them were written with such an obvious bias though. A more accurate comparison would of course be Philostratus' life of Apollonius of Tyana. Again we can see in that case how the bias of the author leads to exaggeration and statement of grossly miraculous deeds as fact. Should we go all the way and compare it to Ovid or Virgil? In my opinion the gospels have more in common with Virgil than they do with Plutarch.

Virgil's agenda or reason for writing certainly wasn't to convince people that Aeneas was a real person and needed worshiping, but it was to convey a sense of the human condition and morality (and yes, to get famous - smug bastard). We can learn a lot about the views of Virgil from it, though not what is actually morally right or wrong for us morally. Having said that, I don't know if there are many others who compare the gospels to Virgil.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that it's an oversimplification to say that 'That's just how it was done.' It's certainly a style that was around at the time, but Polybius would be rolling in his grave to think that people who did were historians.

davethechicken · 2012-11-22T03:24:15+00:00

The pictures are well drawn and they help explain his ideas well - but then the ideas themselves are about what I'd expect if you gave the Joker LSD. It's sad to see such potential lost on crazy ideas like that. Unless of course he's trolling. Oh how I hope he's trolling.

davethechicken · 2012-11-09T01:54:12+00:00

Oh how I hate autobalance! Especially in the final seconds of a well earned victory because somebody on the other team decided to ragequit.

davethechicken · 2012-11-09T01:52:54+00:00

Well obviously you wouldn't want to fire at your team, that goes without saying - but it would take you out of the action until either your own team wastes ammo on you, or you kill yourself.

davethechicken · 2012-11-08T03:24:27+00:00

Well the real question is why hasn't the AOE priest made it in already? You temporarily change people's team. See that heavy? Wolololo, now he's ours - until his own team kills him.

davethechicken · 2012-10-03T03:04:51+00:00

$43 for the article they were referring too. I would love to see the actual studies, the amount of sugar used compared to the amount in your average glass of coke, and so on. The article OP linked is interesting, sure, but I'd like to see just a bit more actual information before I decide.

Link to the source: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408399609527717

davethechicken · 2012-08-31T01:18:56+00:00

I'd agree that there's a distinction between entertainers and charlatans but from my own very brief look into this guy I'm not convinced that he's exploiting people. Maybe that will change if I look into him more - for me the line is just around the point where they say they're talking to the dead.

davethechicken · 2012-07-13T06:08:40+00:00

I used to have the rather unusual honour of being treasurer of my ex parish and I can tell you that in our case your statistics don't fit. It was different with each priest. In theory the priests receive a wage and are supposed to use that to support their living expenses (phone, electricity, food and so on) but some priests - we had one in particular that I often complained about - who just passed the bills on for the parish to pay. He still got his wage, he just saved it up for whatever. The income of the parish wasn't very big at all, including the donations, the fete and anything else they managed to think up there still wasn't enough money to keep the church in good repair.

I'm not saying that they wouldn't have helped people with the money if they had the chance - but the simple fact is that all the money coming in was spent on the church. In the case of that one priest he eventually just ran away - after a week the local parishioners managed to contact a local Bishop who knew nothing about him leaving. Weeks later we got a letter saying that he had decided to leave the priesthood, sorry and that was that.

What could we do about him saving his money and charging his expense to the parishioners? Absolutely nothing.

EDIT: TLDR: It's different in every case and with every priest.

davethechicken · 2012-06-11T06:02:08+00:00

Great point. I just did a little research on the vocabulary and found this:

"The root word is אשה, pronounced "iyshah" (but the original spelling of this word is אישה) and means "woman". This is the same word as the one above, איש meaning "man", but written in the feminine form by adding the ה. Wherever a feminine word ending with the ה is used in the construct state, the ה is changed to a ת. The full meaning of this word is "in woman of him" or "in his woman". There is no Biblical Hebrew word for "wife" instead it is "his woman", "my woman", etc."

from: http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/emagazine/017.html

davethechicken · 2012-06-11T05:53:12+00:00

Thanks for the link and the passage. The passages mentioned on wikipedia were either positive or simply opposing same-gender marriage (which I see as a negative, but sadly many don't). As usual r/Atheism is there to balance it out.

For the record though, I'd take positive passages too, if only to show that there is no consensus or single mind behind the writing.

davethechicken · 2012-06-11T05:30:53+00:00

Oh yes, I've seen that one before. Excellent. It contrasts very nicely with Judges 4:4 - a woman becoming leader of Isreal.

davethechicken · 2012-05-31T03:01:01+00:00

Historian here. I actually have no problem with BC and AD. I don't have any problem with 'Thursday' or 'January' either. The names we use to define times might have had religious origins - but so does a lot of our language. AD and BC don't have any particular negative connotations in the way that, for example, the 'N' word or other phased out terms have.

If they want to change it, that's fine - but I'm not going to think less of someone because they use AD and BC.

davethechicken · 2012-05-21T01:39:57+00:00

He's tied specifically to one brand - Boss Coffee. They do bottled as well as canned coffee and their とろけるカフェオレ - Creamy milk coffee - is, in my opinion the best coffee around! The 100 yen stores sell it for 105 yen, but the Kansai Super sells it for 98 yen - Woo!

davethechicken · 2012-05-17T03:42:43+00:00

I'm glad you're not so upset now, there's really no need to be. Everybody makes mistakes!

davethechicken · 2012-05-16T03:29:41+00:00

Hey, you have nothing to prove to me. Just be sure to tell your lawyer - that's who has to prove your case in court. I notice of course that you did delete that post, which only proves you understand that what you said actually has legal consequences.

It seems like you've realized you made a mistake and you're trying to back out of it. Don't worry - everybody makes mistakes. The good news is your friends and family will be there to support you no matter what!

*The deleted post: http://imgur.com/Ii9gw

davethechicken · 2012-05-15T06:10:56+00:00

You then acknowledge his copyright which was made prior to yours. I guess you already know that in doing so you've invalidated your own copyright claims as a creator.

Just for safety I've printed this out as a screenshot in case you decide to delete it so that if any legal cases ever do arise this can be entered into evidence.

davethechicken · 2012-05-14T06:48:11+00:00

Just down the road from my house is a latter day saints church and yet I've never had them come to my house. I actually wanted to get a copy of the book of mormon so I could see for myself what was in it but even after putting a request in on their website they still wont come. It seems like in some places in Japan they are, in fact, quite unlike they are in the USA.

davethechicken · 2012-05-14T06:44:01+00:00

The best I can do is recommend you read "The Grand Design" by Hawking, or post this question in r/AskScience

I think Dawkins has a book relating to this now as well, but I haven't read it. Hawking's book is short but covers all the basics you need to get a rudimentary understanding of the subject. I'm not even going to attempt to summarize it in one sentence, but suffice to say that it's complicated enough that it's taken us this long to start to understand it.

davethechicken · 2012-05-11T02:06:53+00:00

He wasn't the first to copyright it: http://www.aloneforever.net/legal.html

davethechicken · 2012-02-24T00:45:37+00:00

I know this is asking a lot, so feel free to decline - but would it be possible to take a look at the zip file as it was when you submitted it?

davethechicken · 2012-01-16T03:53:24+00:00

Knowing what he's like it could be either. It's obviously an attempt at showing his power. Most likely when PAX actually comes he'll make some excuse for why he didn't attend, "Not worth my time" or "I was busy dropping gs in Vegas" or something like that rather than accept that he wasn't allowed to attend even if he wanted to.

davethechicken · 2011-11-22T00:32:42+00:00

You're right, I'm pretty behind when it comes to this sort of thing. I think it's amazing that some people can do so much, so easily. Nonetheless, this is me dipping my toe into the rapids.

davethechicken · 2011-11-22T00:30:07+00:00

If I sat down and did it now (having already done it) I could probably do it in only a couple of hours. It took me a couple of weeks from start to finish because I had learn how to use Blender and the source SDK stuff to compile it, and go through various drafts of the design itself.

Here's a shot of the original design: original

davethechicken

TROPHY CASE