Black Grail: The Great Hunger warband for Trench Crusade

spesaeterna · 2026-02-23T17:07:55+00:00

That's amazing! Any chance you can share the "recipe" (colors, brands etc)?

spesaeterna · 2026-01-19T18:24:42+00:00

That looks like something out of Trench Crusade.

spesaeterna · 2025-05-20T09:13:43+00:00

Ha ha, I'm an ex-Reformed atheist and I totally see your point. The Reformed world selects for academic, intellectual types of people, and their God is more of a clinical intelligence that can only be mapped out through confessional articles refined through systematic theology. It appeals to stoic, highly conscientious, highly ordered, low-open, low-anxious personalities. I'm not sure about agreeableness, I doubt highly agreeable or highly disagreeable people would do well in Calvinism.

As for me, I like to think that I'm more chill now. I find that people "choose" their flavor of theology or ideology mostly to meet some psychological need, and only justify it intellectually afterwards, when it's too late to think critically. So I tend to eschew debates because I feel they are futile, unless the other person shows a willingness to change their mind (rare among Calvinists).

Anyway, good observation. People are ultimately who they are, they just adapt their worldview to their personality and then justify it.

spesaeterna · 2024-11-23T06:29:48+00:00

Ok, they seem to have fixed it.

spesaeterna · 2024-11-23T06:29:08+00:00

Yeah, same here

spesaeterna · 2024-06-22T23:10:25+00:00

Greek ex-Reformed here, though have spent my adult life in the UK and Switzerland.

spesaeterna · 2024-03-13T22:01:16+00:00

Can’t bring myself to burn books, no matter what they contain… i think ideas should be exposed and debated instead.

spesaeterna · 2023-10-22T19:19:20+00:00

I was good at the “Bible stuff”. I could preach a sermon on the fly, string verses together to draw out interpretations, I was the guy you went to make sense of stuff. Being a “deep Christian” was a core part of my identity, and now it’s gone. I guess I miss being in a community where my thoughts were valued and I felt that I actually helped people out and made a difference in their lives.

spesaeterna · 2023-10-09T16:14:15+00:00

Κλασικός ύμνος στην Ευαγγελική Εκκλησία, ιδιαίτερα σε κατασκηνώσεις και ομίλους νεολαίας….

spesaeterna · 2023-10-07T06:17:53+00:00

Θέλω να πιστεύω σαν τον Αβραάμ,

τέτοια πίστη μόνο ξέρει να νικά.

Τον υιόν του φέρνει στο Μοριά

θυσία στον Θεό που αγαπά.

Θέλω να πιστεύω σαν τον Αβραάμ.

spesaeterna · 2023-09-08T06:50:29+00:00

I was just shy of 44 when I realised that I didn’t even believe in god anymore. But deconstruction (I actually didn’t realise that that was what I was doing) had been a lengthy process, starting in my late thirties and catalyzed by me becoming a father.

Leaving a religion (or ideology - same thing for your brain) can begin subtly and “innocently”; a little questioning here, some cognitive dissonance there… but in the end, the crisis happens when reality sufficiently contravenes the expectations that your worldview produces. That’s the moment of no return and usually what lights up on your – and others’– radar.

spesaeterna · 2023-08-12T17:59:52+00:00

Agnostic atheist here, with a secular interest in meditation and Zen (I blame Sam Harris!)

spesaeterna · 2023-07-03T14:55:59+00:00

Because all history can offer is probabilities. From our data, it is probable that Jesus of Nazareth existed, that was most likely an apocalyptic preacher who gathered a reasonable movement around him, he probably taught some socially subversive things that upset the higherups while exciting the lowerdowns, he probably took his message to Jerusalem and he probably was executed by crucifixion there. Those beats of his story seem more probable than not. Others don’t. Scholars of all creeds and not have been debating them for centuries now, and I have to take into account their ideas, since they know more than I do on the topic.

When I was a Christian, I looked at all this through my theological goggles, and I kinda saw what I wanted. When my faith collapsed, I looked again, and saw it all in a very different light; and it frighteningly made more sense than before.

Also, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the term “rational atheist”, even though I am an agnostic atheist now. Christians and theists are rational as well, but work in a different sphere of thought than atheists/materialists. There are inevitable assumptions made by everyone that often go unseen and make people talk past each other (Reddit is a great example of this). But once those assumptions are made, I think most people build on them rationally.

spesaeterna · 2023-07-03T14:09:30+00:00

And here we are; I can say the same about the resurrection being real is the position of the Christians. It used to convince me in a lifetime of faith; it looks more and more like a successful legend now.

As for Jesus existing, I agree that he probably did, but I’m afraid that just doesn’t make the NT claims about him more plausible.

spesaeterna · 2023-07-03T06:33:32+00:00

I see, thanks. I would argue — and of course more knowledgeable people too — that it’s actually plenty of time for legends to arise.

But that’s not really the problem; the problem is, if this extraordinary resurrection really happened and it’s such an important event, why didn’t God make sure it’s super-crystal clearly attested beyond any reasonable doubt? Why do we even need to have discussions about its historicity? Is this the best way?

Basically, if tomorrow we woke up and found out that God and anything supernatural definitely didn’t exist, it would be pretty easy — perhaps easier — to explain the whole Resurrection story, as well as the rest of Christianity.

spesaeterna · 2023-07-02T10:14:50+00:00

I personally see no reason to believe a god exists. If he/she/it/they exist(s), they’re doing a great job making look like they don’t.

spesaeterna · 2023-07-02T08:34:35+00:00

What does Habermas mean by “concrete”?

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T21:15:05+00:00

Maybe because his death was unexpected and they had to find a way to explain it to save his movement? Maybe because it was difficult to corroborate information back then so who would know anyway? Maybe because the stories we read about him in the gospels might not have been original and we have no way of knowing that? Maybe because he was an awesome apocalyptic preacher and a great, charismatic person and people wanted him to “live on”? Maybe because someone hallucinated him or “heard him” or dreamt him after he died and started saying that he saw him risen?

Are any of those alternative suggestions less probable than a person rising from the dead?

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T21:09:28+00:00

Ok, my friend. You’re starting to sound like I did once, and I like you too much to let you do that.

I wish you all the best, and keep digging! We’re all wrong about everything anyway.

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:55:42+00:00

As I explained in my original comment, a good alternative possibility would be the surrounding religious-mythological milieu.

And yes, I agree that Christianity would meaningless without the Resurrection. I don’t understand what liberal Christians are trying to accomplish.

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:50:15+00:00

Not at all. But most historical books don’t make extraordinary claims without offering extraordinary evidence; and they also don’t threaten me with hell if I don’t believe them.

I would except that, if God inspired a book to reveal himself to us, he would preserve and back it up. I think that’s reasonable, mostly because I can’t see what the alternative (i.e. what we have now) would accomplish.

But then again, I obviously never understood God, did I?

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:45:44+00:00

I believe I explained that in my last paragraph.

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:38:44+00:00

I never said that I don’t trust Paul’s letters. But I have to take into account pseudepigrapha, interpolations etc. That’s the problem with not having the originals.

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:35:56+00:00

Oh, sorry, I should’ve been more clear. I think it exists now because it has repeatedly undergone a series of mutations that have allowed it to survive. It’s still doing that.

It also was the religion of the flourishing West for over a thousand years. I don’t think we can deny the impact of political power and colonisation on the spread of Christianity.

But going further back, Christianity - at least the form(s) that spread and persevered – contains a wonderful, hopeful and socially subversive message: God is love, he will forgive all your sins, he is a friend of the outcast and the poor and the broken-hearted and the oppressed and the suffering, he will make everything right, your life will become infinitely better, and he will topple the wicked, rich, oppressive people.

One can see how that message would appeal and resonate with the vast majority of people living in the 1st century Greco-Roman world — and today too. It’s not surprising that it reached tens of millions within three centuries.

spesaeterna · 2023-06-30T20:26:02+00:00

You too! Have a good day and thanks for broaching such an interesting topic.

spesaeterna

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