Mar 17, 2010 -- 10:49AM, teilhard wrote:

Mar 17, 2010 -- 8:07AM, Dennis wrote:

 Hitchens is not a biblical scholar, so he really has no impact on Historical Jesus research. (In other words, another who just makes a buck off of religion... Another side of the Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell ilk, just the other side.)

With Hitchens, what's old is new again... As the author of Ecclesiastes said, "There is nothing new beneath the sun!"

Dennis

I DO agree ...

its the same old thing if the christians could refute it they would but they dont because they cant.

Mar 20, 2010 -- 7:22AM, Dennis wrote:

Mar 20, 2010 -- 3:09AM, Andy wrote:

Mar 17, 2010 -- 10:49AM, teilhard wrote:

Mar 17, 2010 -- 8:07AM, Dennis wrote:

 Hitchens is not a biblical scholar, so he really has no impact on Historical Jesus research. (In other words, another who just makes a buck off of religion... Another side of the Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell ilk, just the other side.)

With Hitchens, what's old is new again... As the author of Ecclesiastes said, "There is nothing new beneath the sun!"

Dennis

I DO agree ...

its the same old thing if the christians could refute it they would but they dont because they cant.

Again, he's not a scholar. He is a journalist who has made more money from Christianity than almost any preacher/priest/scholar out there. What does that make him? A leech. An uncredentialed leech. The only ones I know who have read him and his clone Dawkins are those too lazy to research. They just need an "amen corner." There are a number of authors, past and present, who have served that role. For instance, the authors of Ecclesiastes and Jonah were, in the first case, questioning their religion and in the second case, actually satirizing their religion! 

(Practically all who consider themselves "mythicists" are uncredentialed. They make money with fairly ludicrous theories based on very little of substance.) It's part of the "Jesus business." Hitchens and Dawkins and many more are parts of this business. What they are saying has been a big seller for quite some time. From what very little I have read (not much, actually), there is nothing really that anyone other than a fundamentalist would bother to refute. Not all Christians are fundamentalists and not all non-theists (like me) waste our time with unscholarly (related) literature, unless it is a wonderful Dan Brown (highly formulaic) mystery or those Laurence Gardiner "Bloodline of Jesus" books that are just so funny one can't put them down!

Dennis

for 2000 years the christian church has has manipulated their myth to suit themselves, making themselves both financially wealthy and very powerful which wouldnt be a bad thing if they put their power and finances to good use, i cant see any god being happy with the representation the church has provided for it.

Mar 20, 2010 -- 7:22AM, Dennis wrote:

Mar 20, 2010 -- 3:09AM, Andy wrote:

Mar 17, 2010 -- 10:49AM, teilhard wrote:

Mar 17, 2010 -- 8:07AM, Dennis wrote:

 Hitchens is not a biblical scholar, so he really has no impact on Historical Jesus research. (In other words, another who just makes a buck off of religion... Another side of the Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Falwell ilk, just the other side.)

With Hitchens, what's old is new again... As the author of Ecclesiastes said, "There is nothing new beneath the sun!"

Dennis

I DO agree ...

Again, he's not a scholar. He is a journalist who has made more money from Christianity than almost any preacher/priest/scholar out there. What does that make him? A leech. An uncredentialed leech. The only ones I know who have read him and his clone Dawkins are those too lazy to research. They just need an "amen corner." There are a number of authors, past and present, who have served that role. For instance, the authors of Ecclesiastes and Jonah were, in the first case, questioning their religion and in the second case, actually satirizing their religion! 

(Practically all who consider themselves "mythicists" are uncredentialed. They make money with fairly ludicrous theories based on very little of substance.) It's part of the "Jesus business." Hitchens and Dawkins and many more are parts of this business. What they are saying has been a big seller for quite some time. From what very little I have read (not much, actually), there is nothing really that anyone other than a fundamentalist would bother to refute. Not all Christians are fundamentalists and not all non-theists (like me) waste our time with unscholarly (related) literature, unless it is a wonderful Dan Brown (highly formulaic) mystery or those Laurence Gardiner "Bloodline of Jesus" books that are just so funny one can't put them down!

Dennis

Yes ... Crack-Pots DO show up in ALL Varieties ... And as long as "Suckers" continue to be born with GREAT Regularity, The Crack-Pots will "cash - in" ...