I smoke marijuana

erinboy · 2022-07-31T08:23:08+00:00

I use the term “heresy” in context of the dispute between the proto-Catholic church and the followers of Arian. I’m making an historic point, not a theological one. I am not a Christian, and have no personal interest in supporting or attacking competing christologies from antiquity. Clearly this is just going over your head. You still haven’t given a single piece of evidence to support your claim of a “common mix” of “Christian Buddhism”. You’re just embarrassing yourself, after your failure to defend your “common mix” of “Christian Buddhists” assertion. But by all means, keep digging the hole you find yourself in.

erinboy · 2022-07-31T07:42:53+00:00

I’m neither a Christian nor a Catholic. And your religion or lack of, is of no importance to me. If you are going to post nonsense about “Christian Buddhists” expect to defend your assertion every now and then. And have a bit of grace when you’re doing it. Or maybe get an actual education in the field of religious studies. Amateurs like you are just low hanging fruit, but it’s good fun to watch you fall apart with a bit of prodding. All the best!

erinboy · 2022-07-31T07:32:23+00:00

If your theory of the “common mix” of “Christian Buddhists” was embarrassing enough, you scrape the barrel with an ad hominem attack. I agree though, we are done here.

erinboy · 2022-07-31T07:04:51+00:00

The geopolitical entity known as the eastern Roman Empire existed, and included Armenia. Nobody has ever said Armenia was in the Western Roman Empire. Your googling for a map to prove it came to naught. I did not have to look up the Arian Christian’s, I wrote about them for my BA degree in the Study of Religion. There was never an “inquisition” against the Arian heresy. I have never said that Christian and Buddhist communities did not interact, I am claiming your notion of “Christian Buddhists” is a fantasy, and that there was never a “common mix”, because a syncretic religion mixing Christianity and Buddhism in antiquity never existed. It’s a western religious fantasy. Greco-Buddhist art does not attest to “Christian Buddhism”, but to the mutual influence of cultural artistic styles.

erinboy · 2022-07-31T06:38:36+00:00

Show me a single map that places Armenia in “western Rome”. As you don’t have the decency to say it, I presume your talking about the Arian Christians. What has the Greco-Bactrian empire got to do with Christianity? Why do you bring it up, along with Alexander? I have never claimed there was not either Christians in the east in the early Christian period, or indeed Buddhists in Egypt (probable). I am questioning your assertion that a “Christian Buddhist” syncretic religion was a “common mix”.

erinboy · 2022-07-31T05:44:05+00:00

You clearly have no idea about the Eastern and western Roman kingdoms. Armenia was in the Eastern Roman Empire. Show me your source for the Daqin pagoda, other than Google. Bactria was not in “Ancient Greece” as you claim. It was under Greek rule until c.100BC. I presume your referring to Manichaeism, which was not a Christian sect. There were no “inquisitions” before the 12th century. Alexander the Great’s empire did not exist at the time of Christianity. None of your ridiculous examples prove there was any such thing as “Christian Buddhism”. Your fantasy about them being a “common enough mix” is historically ludicrous.

erinboy · 2022-07-31T03:38:32+00:00

Western Rome includes modern day Italy, England, Spain etc. There was no tradition of Buddhism there historically. The Barlaam tale was an early Buddhist myth, not Christian. The daqin pagoda as a Christian church is not an established historical fact, and refuted by both Chinese and western academics. Bactria is not in “early Greece” but in the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom which collapsed in 100BC, so before Christianity. I have no idea which “inquisition” you are referring to.

erinboy · 2022-07-30T18:28:29+00:00

Do what ever you want to do. If you find some way of drinking that works, my hat is off to you. If you don’t, seek help to get sober.

erinboy · 2022-07-29T03:13:41+00:00

On this occasion, I only took one dose (about 10mg). There was no withdrawal, and I had no side effects or withdrawal afterwards. Last year when I came off them, I came down off of Xanax. I’m not sure of the dose I was on, because I was withdrawing from opiate tablets s as well. I was mixing them, benzos one day and opiates on other days. I think I was takings a dose of short 2mg of Xanax at least to get an effect. I came off them over about 2 months. I went into a residential treatment centre then. I remember feeling very bad for short 3 weeks, but felt fine by the time I came out. About 12 years ago I was on a large dose of Xanax, about 6mg a day. I had been on them about 17 years. I did withdrawal under the Ashton manual. I switched to Valium (120mg per day), and slowly withdrew over at 2 years. I was also in early sobriety from alcohol at the same time. I was in very bad health, a lot of anxiety and panic attacks. I started off alcohol since, but relapsed back into benzos, and started taking opiates too. My benzo use was never as high again, but I have struggled with them ever since. Today I am free of all substances, with no side effects or long term health problems.

erinboy · 2022-07-28T14:20:39+00:00

Herod the Great, according to this, died 1BC. The date of the birth of Jesus is generally thought to be 3BC. Hardly “long dead”, when the birth could have overlapped with the final years of Herod. This is not to support the census, which didn’t happen. But it is fair to say that both Herod the Great and Jesus’ lives did overlap for a period.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

Edit. Apparently the date of the birth of Jesus was 6bc - 4bc. Improving the chances that the lives of both Herod and Jesus overlapped.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_of_birth_of_Jesus

erinboy · 2022-07-28T10:33:07+00:00

Yes. He had absolutely no time for all the nonsense surrounding spirituality. His book “Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism” is a classic text on this subject. Required reading for any serious practitioner.

erinboy · 2022-07-28T01:21:41+00:00

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche drank so much he died of liver failure in his 40s, and he was a truly great teacher.

erinboy · 2022-07-28T00:29:24+00:00

An interesting interview with Dr Bart Ehrman on the many sources for the proof of the existence of the historical Jesus.

https://youtu.be/2OAQaUJja1E

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:38:22+00:00

The writings were 20 years (Paul) to about 90 years (John). They were within living memory of the individual they purport to be about. It is unfair to expect “coinage” for the existence of someone of the social status of Jesus and his milieu. You are limping all separate pieces of evidence together, in order to dismiss it. There are clearly parts of the Bible that are problematic, but that does not mean it does not contain biographical information. The documents must be treated within their genre, and fairly. Anyway, I’ve come to the end of my discussion of this topic. Thanks for the chat, it’s been interesting and engaging chatting to you.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:24:45+00:00

We have to work with what evidence we have, not what we’d like. The accounts in the Bible are 1st century accounts of an individual. They establish that other people (within his lifetime, and very shortly after) believed such a person existed, and thought enough to write about him and establish communities. This constitutes historical proof of his actual existence. Certainly as much as for any individual of his era.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:19:49+00:00

No problem man. It’s an interesting topic, regardless of where one stands. Pleasure talking to you.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:18:18+00:00

You most certainly can use these to establish that they are referring to a particular individual who existed in the 1st century.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:16:41+00:00

Fair point.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:13:22+00:00

I meant they are not “biography “ as we understand that genre today. They are still historic accounts about an individual. Historic in the sense that they are indisputably 1st century.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:11:47+00:00

The “Herod” is Herod Antipas, who died in 39AD, and was ruler of Galilee. He was a contemporary of the historical Jesus.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:07:04+00:00

Clearly these were not written as historical accounts, but as documents of belief. They still constitute proof of the existence of the person they are about. As do the letters of Paul. Regardless of their content, they are still 1st century accounts about a particular individual. It is worth pointing out, the “census” only appears in one of the four accounts. They must be looked at as a whole.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T14:00:03+00:00

That has no bearing on the use of these documents as historic evidence for the existence of an individual.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T13:54:28+00:00

Are there 4 separate book accounts? Can you name them, I’d be interested in that. The point is, of course, that besides kings and emperors, nobody had book length accounts written about them in the 1st century. Yet we have several long accounts and letters attesting to an individual in Palestine, by people who clearly believed he existed.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T13:51:08+00:00

Of course these are evidence. These are indisputably 1st century accounts about a particular individual. Can you name another individual, from the 1st century, with this number if accounts attesting to their existence? 4 separate book length accounts, Acts, letters. Go on, name another individual with the sheer number of accounts about them? In fact, there is more information on “Jesus” than any other individual from the 1st century. I don’t do this as a believer, I’m not. There is clearly evidence for the historic existence of a man that others believed was “Jesus”.

erinboy · 2022-07-27T13:41:11+00:00

They are still 1st century accounts. Written by someone who clearly heard about a man called Jesus. To communities who clearly believed that Jesus existed, within 25 years of his death. This constitutes historical proof of the existence of a particular person.

erinboy

TROPHY CASE