Re: Skrbina's view about Jesus
Posted: Sat May 01, 2021 3:01 am
Paraphrasing Peter's words:
The great anomaly is this: that both a Doherty and a McGrath (to cite only two people so different between them) believe that Paul didn't lie with a specific end in mind.
Bob Price betrayed this anomaly in himself, in his review of Joe Atwill, writing the following words:
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/rev_atwill.htm
Pace Bob Price, "the sublime quality of so much of the New Testament" doesn't prove at all that their authors didn't lie.
According to Skrbina, Paul created Christianity as a Jewish psychological warfare operation against Rome—the exact opposite conclusion from that of Atwill's “Caesar’s Messiah”, who argues that Rome created Christianity as a psychological warfare operation against the Jews. The qualitative difference between the two theses is simply... ...enormous!
...I can say equally:Peter Kirby wrote: ↑Fri Apr 30, 2021 11:48 pm Yes, I do believe that people find it important to know whether Jesus existed. There exists a kind of spirituality, within and outside Christianity, that finds some measure of comfort in the idea.
Yes, I do believe that people find it important to know whether Paul (or who for him) was a liar or not, beyond if Jesus existed or not. There exists a kind of spirituality, within and outside Christianity, that finds some measure of comfort in the idea that Paul was not a liar.
The great anomaly is this: that both a Doherty and a McGrath (to cite only two people so different between them) believe that Paul didn't lie with a specific end in mind.
Bob Price betrayed this anomaly in himself, in his review of Joe Atwill, writing the following words:
Similarly, only the most obtuse reader, the most tin-eared, can possibly fail to appreciate the sublime quality of so much of the New Testament (agree or disagree with it), which is necessary to do if one is to dismiss the whole thing as an elaborate joke on the reader. Rather, the joke is on Atwill, whose great learning has apparently driven him mad. Just think of someone advancing the same theory about, say, the Buddhist scriptures. The worst of them are far too tedious and turgid to have been composed to fill out a hoax (who would have gone to the trouble?), while the more readable and winsome (like the Dhammapada) are filled with a wisdom beyond the reach of a worldly-minded scoffer. As to Jesus’ teachings, Atwill declares that “those who see spiritual meaning in his words are being played for a fool” (p. 234). Such a statement is only a damning self-condemnation, revealing the author’s own absolute inability to appreciate what he is reading. This is why one must not throw one’s pearls before swine.
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/rev_atwill.htm
Pace Bob Price, "the sublime quality of so much of the New Testament" doesn't prove at all that their authors didn't lie.
According to Skrbina, Paul created Christianity as a Jewish psychological warfare operation against Rome—the exact opposite conclusion from that of Atwill's “Caesar’s Messiah”, who argues that Rome created Christianity as a psychological warfare operation against the Jews. The qualitative difference between the two theses is simply... ...enormous!