The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

[Jax]

'Stuart' signed one of his more recent posts as an acronym - sgw I think. My guess is that he is a real person named Stuart who has some academic background probably on the West Coast, probably published or nearly published something on Marcion. It's a parlor game just as the 'historical Jesus' question should be a parlor game. We shouldn't go back to earnest seriousness just because Carrier has been defeated. What was it that Oscar Wilde said 'every thing in moderation even moderation.'

?????????

[Jax]

It's our seriousness that infused Jesus's existence with certainty. Carrier's book was too serious. Trying to invent a new myth to replace the old. Make Jesus's historicity a parlor game, a beer drinking game. Wasn't there a Star Trek episode where the crew has to defeat an enemy by laughing at him? It's the same thing with historical Jesus studies.

Day of the Dove, TOS.

Actually, they just had to quit being hostile towards each other. The laughter just helped things along.

[Ben C. Smith]

Couldn't Bart Ehrman creating an online personality 'John C Smith' in 2005 and 'reactivating' this alias from time to time be kind of like Paul creating 'Jesus'? What's the difference?

^ Oh yeah. Ben C. Smith is really Mark Goodacre.

For any whose curiosity might inexplicably lead them to wonder as to my identity, I am neither Bart Ehrman nor Mark Goodacre, nor any other professional or published scholar operating under a pseudonym. Ben C. Smith is my real name; 2005 is the year I registered on the old FRDB/IIDB forum. My chosen career has nothing directly to do with biblical studies, which is the way I like it. I offer no proof of any of this, (A) because I value a certain degree of privacy, (B) because I like the idea of my arguments and observations standing or falling on their own merits, and (C) because I find it a bit flattering that someone might suspect I am a professional scholar in disguise, so why take the trouble to dispel a notion that is congenial to me?

[Secret Alias]

I just grabbed an example out of the air. But it is interesting to see the steps needed to prove that someone had existence in the modern age and then use them as some sort of a yardstick for antiquity.

[Jax]

Couldn't Bart Ehrman creating an online personality 'John C Smith' in 2005 and 'reactivating' this alias from time to time be kind of like Paul creating 'Jesus'? What's the difference?

^ Oh yeah. Ben C. Smith is really Mark Goodacre.

For any whose curiosity might inexplicably lead them to wonder as to my identity, I am neither Bart Ehrman nor Mark Goodacre, nor any other professional or published scholar operating under a pseudonym. Ben C. Smith is my real name; 2005 is the year I registered on the old FRDB/IIDB forum. My chosen career has nothing directly to do with biblical studies, which is the way I like it. I offer no proof of any of this, (A) because I value a certain degree of privacy, (B) because I like the idea of my arguments and observations standing or falling on their own merits, and (C) because I find it a bit flattering that someone might suspect I am a professional scholar in disguise, so why take the trouble to dispel a notion that is congenial to me?

^ Ah Ha!

Just what we expected you to say.

[Secret Alias]

just because Carrier has been defeated

I mean the salacious lifestyle choices and volatile personality did him in. Come on. These are serious scholars. They'd never use ad hominem attacks against a living peer (remember the panel of psychologists examining a dead Morton Smith at that SBL conference). But Carrier isn't quite a peer. They ignore you as a tactic and then when you break through the door they turn around and bill you for the damage for battering down the door they closed to keep you out.

[Secret Alias]

I suppose keeping the door closed was necessary when society depended on Christianity for moral guidance and certainty. I don't know what the excuse is now.

[Secret Alias]

True story. I was a psychology major originally at university. That was until I was called into a meeting and the whole department told me - politely (it was Canada after all) - that they strongly advised I change my major. It was hilarious. I was something back then. You got to be serious to be an academic. Nietzsche corrupted me. Walking around with 'the Gay Science' was bad enough in university. I ended up attracting all these people asking me rhetorical questions like - don't I want to know what a female orgasm feels like. They used to translate the book Joyful Wisdom but I had the wrong translation. Now at least you can be a gay scientist without being harassed. We've made progress. But you still have to be serious.

[Jax]

just because Carrier has been defeated

I mean the salacious lifestyle choices and volatile personality did him in. Come on. These are serious scholars. They'd never use ad hominem attacks against a living peer (remember the panel of psychologists examining a dead Morton Smith at that SBL conference). But Carrier isn't quite a peer. They ignore you as a tactic and then when you break through the door they turn around and bill you for the damage for battering down the door they closed to keep you out.

When the apologists write a book of the same caliber as OHJ then I might be willing to concede your point.

Don't hold your breath though.

[Secret Alias]

See here as coincidence would have it my brother just sent me a photo of myself from university proving that I have historical existence!



Around the time I ran for President of my college and lost by a massive margin but won my wife as a consolation prize (I am sure she would love to described as a 'consolation prize'). The article itself is more astounding as it is a preservation of me doing something I can no longer do - engage in a 2 hour debate in French! My foreign language aptitude is now a myth. That voluminous hair is now a myth too.