Attn: harmonizers

[steve7150]

Many falsehoods endure, because they are perpetuated by persons who have various reasons of their own. But one does not have to wait until "the last day" to recognize a myth for what it is.







Well one thing we can agree on is that both us can acknowledge you think the NT is a myth, and i think it's true so since we have reached an impasse therefore i'll be moving on. Have a great week amigo.

[kaufmannphillips]

Shavu'a tov.

[selah]

Shavu'a tov.

Hi kaufmannphillips, I hope you don't mind my written presense in this thread, but after sharing a couple of posts with you in the "Jehovah Witness" thread, I was curious to know more of the context for your views, so I visited this site to read NOT every line, but to get a general "feel" for your perspectives on scripture. Pardon me if I am being too bold at the onset.

• In previous posts, you make mentioned that you view the NT as a myth. Fair enough; I did too for about 24 years.
• According to your posts, you believe in G-d. Who is G-d?
• Where did you learn about G-d? By what authority do you assert your knowledge of Him?
• Because I have read that you keep the seventh day Sabbath, am I correct to believe that you submit to the authority of the OT (at least part of it)? If this is so, on what basis do you recognize the OT as viable, yet view the NT as myth?
• What dose "Shavu'a tov" mean?

I hope it means something good!

[kaufmannphillips quote:]The problem is not that clodhoppers were used to do great things, Steve. The problem is that clodhoppers did not do great things - and millions of people lived, suffered, and died without the supposed illumination of Christianity or the opportunity to embrace its life-changing power.

For decades, the issue of suffering has been of paramount importance to me. I have asked, "what loving God would allow such suffering?!" Perhaps this is a question for another thread.

Shalom, Emmet,
Selah*

[kaufmannphillips]

Hi, selah –

selah wrote:
I hope you don't mind my written presense in this thread, but after sharing a couple of posts with you in the "Jehovah Witness" thread, I was curious to know more of the context for your views, so I visited this site to read NOT every line, but to get a general "feel" for your perspectives on scripture. Pardon me if I am being too bold at the onset.

Don’t worry. You’re not disrupting a current conversation.

selah wrote:
In previous posts, you make mentioned that you view the NT as a myth. Fair enough; I did too for about 24 years.

I would take a more nuanced position: there is mythic material in the NT, along with other materials.

selah wrote:
According to your posts, you believe in G-d. Who is G-d?

G-d is who G-d is. (Of course, that draws upon classic material from Jewish tradition, cf. Exodus 3:14.)

(Then again, if you are inquiring about the convention “G-d” – Jews sometimes use this instead of “God.” I often use it, but have avoided doing so in previous discussion with you. More discussion of the practice here.)

selah wrote:
Where did you learn about G-d? By what authority do you assert your knowledge of Him?

This is like asking “Where did you learn about love?” I have heard a lot of people talk about it (so to speak), and I have experiences that might be relevant to understanding it. After many years, some of all that seems more reliable, and some of that seems less.

As for authority and knowledge – my thought often runs in different currents than Christian thought. I do not assert knowledge; I articulate thought ... sometimes aggressively. Many people think that they “know” things, when really they are just thinking things. I have a very cautious epistemology, and am reluctant to categorize many things as “known.”

So my thought draws upon external ideas and personal experience.

selah wrote:
Because I have read that you keep the seventh day Sabbath, am I correct to believe that you submit to the authority of the OT (at least part of it)? If this is so, on what basis do you recognize the OT as viable, yet view the NT as myth?

I do not regard the OT as authoritative, and like the NT, it contains mythic as well as other materials. I keep the “Wilderness Code” in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers as a matter of religious discipline. Such is a matter of personal history, commitment, and taste.

selah wrote:
What dose "Shavu'a tov" mean?

“(Have a) good week.”

selah wrote:
For decades, the issue of suffering has been of paramount importance to me. I have asked, "what loving God would allow such suffering?!" Perhaps this is a question for another thread.

It is worthy of its own thread.

Shalom,
Emmet