Okay, so the Jehovah's Witnesses left me with an epiphany...

Post #165,375 by danreck 7/21/04 12:53:42 PM Reply	Okay, so the Jehovah's Witnesses left me with an epiphany... They had just quoted John 3:16 (see the end zone of any football game for more details) after a long speech about a kind and loving God, etc... It says, depending on which Bible you use, roughly : "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I had a Gestalt just as they left... What kind of "sacrifice" was this. God knew the result... That he would "be back in a flash" in an eternal since... When I was a kid, this seemed sort of profound and deep that God would "give up" his only son for us... What did he give up? I mean, the whole Trinity thing aside, this is akin to a cheap parlor trick for the Supreme Being, no? Not really looking for a response, but if I'm missing something here...? Just a few thoughts, Danno
Post #165,377 by deSitter 7/21/04 12:57:14 PM Reply	Great, great point THANK YOU for understanding this - in order for it NOT to be a parlor trick, in order for Jesus not to be simply a spiritual fishing lure to be cast out then immediately reeled in, you have to accept the idea that Jesus was in fact a HUMAN BEING who DIED. Only then does it make sense - the Trinity then becomes Body, Spirit and Soul - everyone is divine insofar as they have a soul. The soul is the "third way" that connects spirit and body. -drl
Post #165,396 by hnick 7/21/04 1:45:34 PM Reply	Great Point? Umm... I thought that the death was essentially 3 bad days and rotating home to a desk job. Compared to somebody spending half a year or so dieing of cancer, that's a walk in the park. The people I have cared about that died stayed dead. If it's not a parlor trick, JC should have done so as well. That's only my take of course...
Post #165,402 by deSitter 7/21/04 2:15:18 PM Reply	Re: Great Point? Exactly - the original Christians ruined the entire thing right off he bat with the resurrection fantasy. Of course I think this is a general feature of religion, rather than a reductio ad absurdum - the features of one religion are deficient in precisely the way that will provide the model for the new one. Religious thought is bound to "decentralize" and become human-focused instead of Skygod-focused, and God will evolve into a more subtle concept to meet the needs of the new viewpoint. -drl
Post #165,378 by Andrew Grygus 7/21/04 12:59:12 PM 7/21/04 1:11:26 PM Reply	Hey! You're not supposed to . . . . . reveal how the card tricks are done. Actually, Christianity was a paste-up of elements of what was going around at the time in religion. Some of the parts didn't fit quite right so you have to expect inconsistencies. The basic core (Jesus & Mary) is just a rewrite of the Mediterranean religion of the "dying god", probably picked up from the Isis/Osirus cult which was popular at the time. Naturally there were problems fitting this to the "one father God" of Judaism so there are cracks in the plaster. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx] Edited by Andrew Grygus July 21, 2004, 01:11:26 PM EDT Expand All History
Post #165,383 by deSitter 7/21/04 1:08:00 PM Reply	ROFL -drl
Post #166,142 by Ashton 7/26/04 4:09:57 PM Reply	Well.. they couldn't do the "trapped in a tree trunk" shtik (After bein tricked into 'trying out' a form-fitting sarcophagus, after which the Bad Guy snaps it shut.. and they bloody well couldn't give cuth to the means of Isis's son-begetting; I mean.. necrophilia and all) -- because of \ufffd laws -- surely there were lawyers then, too. We've always supported a host of parasites.
Post #166,143 by deSitter 7/26/04 4:12:37 PM Reply	"Watch me pull a prophet out of my hat!" (out comes a snarling Cthulhu...) Must be the wrong hat... -drl

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