Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

maryhelena wrote:Oh, nice start to Casey's book (received via Kindle for PC this morning).......It seems, according to Casey, that in the internet "both groups consists largely of people with closed minds who are impervious to evidence and argument,..."

Did you leave off the rest of the sentence?

The normal charge is that mythicists have totally closed minds and will believe pretty much anything if they read it on a blog.

stevencarrwork wrote:

maryhelena wrote:Oh, nice start to Casey's book (received via Kindle for PC this morning).......It seems, according to Casey, that in the internet "both groups consists largely of people with closed minds who are impervious to evidence and argument,..."

Did you leave off the rest of the sentence?

The normal charge is that mythicists have totally closed minds and will believe pretty much anything if they read it on a blog.

Here you go........

.........a quite different world from the critical scholars among whom I am happy to have spent most of my life, whether they were Christian, Jewish or irreligious. These wonderful people were not concerned by ‘peer pressure’ or the ‘constraints of academic tenure’, except that we were united by an absolute determination to oppose any threat to the academic freedom of people in our universities, regardless of status, colour, race, religion or creed.

Casey, Maurice (2014-01-16). Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? (Kindle Locations 173-177). BLOOMSBURY
PUBLISHING. Kindle Edition.

Casey has been happy to spend most of his life among critical scholars - it's these that are, to Casey, the "wonderful people". What hope in hell do ahistoric/mythicists arguments have of getting an open-minded hearing from the mind of the academic scholar Maurice Casey? The great unwashed verse the hallowed halls of academia.......what a very silly line to draw. He should have learned by now - the internet, like the printing press before it, has opened the doors to knowledge, making it freely available to the hoards of the great unwashed..... As the printing press helped to educate, and free, the many from the clutches of the church - so the internet is educating and freeing many from the clutches of academic theology and NT 'history'.....

Oh, my, Steven - you got into Casey's book!!!

Among bloggers, Doherty refers especially to Steven Carr, 19 to some of whose comments I shall accordingly refer . Doherty cites him as if he might be some kind of expert on Josephus, which he is not.

Casey, Maurice (2014-01-16). Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? (Kindle Locations 305-307). BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING. Kindle Edition.

I really don't know if I have the heart to finish reading this book.....

Maurice Casey

It slowly dawned on me that, if I did not strive mightily to tell the truth about Jesus, no one else would.

Casey, Maurice (2014-01-16). Jesus: Evidence and Argument or Mythicist Myths? (Kindle Locations 923-924). BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING. Kindle Edition.

I have to admit, I don't get this 'controversy' about whether Jesus existed or didn't exist. I mean, the faithful have faith he existed and faith is defined as something beyond logic or outside reason. Ok. Now along come the mythicists and they are equally certain that Jesus didn't exist but their 'proofs' are no better than the faithful. But the mythicists attack professional scholars for being unreasonable because they 'take the side' of 'the faithful.' But is the idea that we can prove Jesus didn't exist a reasonable position?

Casey is not a religious man as far as I can determine. He might overstate the evidence for the existence of Jesus. Sure. But what exactly is the point of this debate?

If we call the other side those 'of faith' and we appropriate the title those 'of reason' - do any of the 'reasonable' people really think it is possible to disprove Jesus's existence? I mean not to the level of 'personal conviction' (because conviction is basically faith). But I mean, can any of this really be 'proved' either way? I just don't get the point of all this emotion.

Yes they attack us. I was assaulted by this cabal for revealing an email where Casey rejected Stephen Carlson's Gospel Hoax. So I know these guys are vicious and that leads people like myself who spend a lot of time on the internet to 'fight back.' But when I look back it was a big waste of time and I ended up looking stupid in the process.

If we all take a deep breath isn't a lot of this like having heated debate over whether Jessica Alba is a good lay? Or perhaps in less provocative terms, fighting over the shadow of an ass. I mean, we're not going to find out. So why the excitability?

Most I know would define faith as believing something without proof, not believing something that is illogical or unreasonable, though those could be included in faith-based beliefs.

I agree with you though, I think the whole debate is pointless and with the current evidence there is no way to prove or disprove Jesus' existence.

Most I know would define faith as believing something without proof, not believing something that is illogical or unreasonable

Obviously you're new here.

My guess is that the internet has given voice to a lot of bored people with plenty of time on their hands. I don't understand why atheists care so much about this. Get on and live your lives now that you've been freed from the shackles of god! It's like the escaped slave who returns home just to bitch about his master. Get on with it, then. Do shit!

I think the atheists who waste their time on these things are secretly quasi-religious anyway. It's like the preacher who's obsessed with the 'sin of homosexuality' probably secretly wants to get poked in the ass.

Andrew stupidly said:
Most I know would define faith as believing something without proof, not believing something that is illogical or unreasonable

stephan happy huller considerably less-stupidly said:
Obviously you're new here.

Yes, I'll try to shut up. I don't have anything worth contributing here right now, but I'm trying to change that and I find it very interesting here.

No by all means - speak, write, live. I was making a joke.