Feb 8, 2012 -- 5:06PM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

Feb 8, 2012 -- 4:36PM, davelaw40 wrote:

Feb 8, 2012 -- 4:10PM, Heretic_for_Christ wrote:

... What Jesus taught was profound spiritual truth, and the truth is not dependent on a miracle to validate it...

Could you please name a truth that Jesus taught that was different and distinct from His contemporaries.

How about the idea that not only is murder wrong but the rage that might impel one toward murder is wrong (Matthew 5:21-22)? Most Christians interpret this as meaning that we are guilty merely for feeling anger, which is nonsense; I believe it means that we must not stew in anger but let go of it--because anger is one of the things that cloaks and supresses the light of God from within.

I am no expert in the teachings of the ancient world, but I have believed that this is a unique insight.

Feb 8, 2012 -- 4:58PM, wohali wrote:

"Parrots sit on their branch and repeat what they've heard, and never leave that tree."

Methinks you have never seen a parrot in the wild.

Methinks you worked hard to miss the point.

Feb 8, 2012 -- 6:01PM, davelaw40 wrote:

Could you please name a truth that Jesus taught that was different and distinct from His contemporaries.

How about the idea that not only is murder wrong but the rage that might impel one toward murder is wrong (Matthew 5:21-22)? Most Christians interpret this as meaning that we are guilty merely for feeling anger, which is nonsense; I believe it means that we must not stew in anger but let go of it--because anger is one of the things that cloaks and supresses the light of God from within.

I am no expert in the teachings of the ancient world, but I have believed that this is a unique insight.

Babylonian Talmud, Bava Mezia 58b - One who shames the face of his fellow, it is as if he has murdered him.

Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 85b - Yom Kippur atones for all sins, but first you must reconcile your conflict with others.

I was not aware of the first of these Talmudic teachings. I am not sure how it corresponds to the teaching attributed to Jesus. Causing public shame to another person does not seem analogous to a private feeling of anger. I am familiar with the principle of reconciliation as prerequisite to Yom Kippur, and that seems more closely related to the teaching about anger, although I am honestly unsure whether the principle applies to hidden anger as well as to unresolved open hostility.

In any case, it doesn't really matter to me whether other people have said the same things. Maybe the very point is that spiritually enlightened people do come to see the same truths. That does not diminish their truth or their power.

Feb 8, 2012 -- 12:47PM, jlb32168 wrote:

Feb 8, 2012 -- 12:29PM, koolpoi wrote:

"Taking every thought captive" sounds disturbingly similar to CCP ideology.

Nothing you’ve said sounds appreciably different from any other skeptic, koolpoi.  The same goes for Bob.  Do you simply parrot things you've heard other skeptics say?

You’d say we were rude were we to say that the Taoist “He, who knows, does not speak. He, who speaks, does not know” sounds disturbingly like the Khmer Rouge’s crusade against intellectualism, where those who spoke out were culled and simply disappeared.

I wouldn't say your comparison is rude but if you are serious,I would invite you to present my quote and yours to some intelligent friends (unaware of the the true source, of course) and ask them which sounds more like communist doctrine (CCP or Khmer Rouge).

I'm thinking the dichotomy that works best might be naturalism v. supernaturalism.