Post by aaaPost by SkyEyesPost by aaa<Snippage>
The teaching of Jesus is a philosophy proven in real life by
real people. It's real knowledge. As real knowledge, it can
only come from the real person whose name is Jesus. It is the
timeless evidence of Jesus.
I hate to tell you, but that's called "circular reasoning," and
it's a logical fallacy. If you want to sell your philosophy in
this newsgroup, you're gonna have to try harder.
There is nothing circular. The teaching of Jesus is the evidence
of Jesus just as the theory of Einstein is the evidence of
Einstein. It's perfect logic.
You could plug *any* religious figure into that line of reasoning.
"The teaching of Krishna [down, Jesper] is the evidence of Krishna."
See how that works?
Not at all. The teaching of Jesus is a living philosophy. It has been
proven true by countless Christians.
Not at all. The teaching of Krishna is a living philosophy. It has been proven true by countless Hare Krishnas.
Post by aaaIf real science can be the evidence
of the scientist, real philosophy can be the evidence of the philosopher
too.
Yeah, ideas travel and are passed from person-to-person, where they get elaborated upon. Or hadn't you heard? That's as true of philosophy as it is of science.
Post by aaaPost by SkyEyesAs for Einstein, we have pictures and video tape of him - he died in
my lifetime. I need no faith to appreciate his teachings.
What *you* do is assume your conclusion - that Jesus was a real,
single person - and then insist that teachings attributed to him
somehow "prove" he was real.
That is not true. It's just simple logic that the teaching proves the
existence of the teacher.
That's not a fact. Many people can contribute to a body of teachings - check out the Old Testament to see such.
At any rate, as I told Oko tillo elsewhere, I have no problem with the teachings of Jesus, whether Jesus was a single individual or whether the character is an amalgam of the sayings and adventures of several first century preachers. (That Palestine was lousy with apocalyptic preachers who went against the establishments of both Rome and of traditional Judaism is a stone fact, one that you don't have to take my word for - look it up for yourself.) I actually dig it: be kind, love others as you love yourself (something the christians on this group do very little of), work for justice, don't be worried about material things. All very wise. What I *don't* believe is that Jesus, or any other preacher, was the son of some god, mainly because *nobody* - and that includes you - have presented one single iota of evidence that any god exists.
Furthermore, there's another Middle Eastern holy book - the Quran - that tells us that there is a god, but he had no son, and therefore had to inspire the Quran to disabuse people of that notion. A metric shit-ton of people around the world believe the Quran to be "true"; care to refute it?
Post by aaaThere is no assumption necessary. If you can't
refute the teaching, you must acknowledge the existence of the teacher.
I *don't* refute the teaching. I refute the supernatural nonsense. The teachings are fine, whether they come from one man, or from several.
And while we're on the subject of Jesus' teachings, you need to remember what Jesus taught in Luke 18:
18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.
21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
So, triple-a, have you sold everything you have, and given the proceeds to the poor? That would include the computer you're using - unless, of course, it belongs to someone else.
<Snippage>
Post by aaaActually yes. Nowadays, it often shows the market price for different
souls. I'm not sure I want to sell my soul.
Yeah, the "soul" is another theological conceit left over from the days when humans believed everything had a motivating spirit, including animals, trees, rocks, lightning, you name it. Funny that in all the attempts to study the soul, the only thing science finds is that in humans there is the neural system - the main feature of which is the brain; consciousness; and its product, the mind. There's not the least shred of evidence that there is such a thing as the soul, unless, of course, you care to provide it.
Brenda Nelson, A.A. #34
BAAWA Knight of the Golden Litterbox
Professor of Feline Thermometrics and Cat-Herding
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