What do we learn from the gospels?

[struggle4progress]

Poll question: What do we learn from the gospels?

[sam sarrha]

1. even if the meek do inherit the earth they still wont be able to turn left

in traffic..

[varkam]

3. Reminds me of another joke...

How many drivers does it take to make a left-hand turn?

A. Three. One to block oncoming traffic. One to rear end that driver, and a third to get impatient and jump the median.

[bluerum]

2. That before the invention of the printing press, biblical scribes

could write whatever the hell they felt like.

And after the invention of the printing press anybody could do it.

[NAO]

4. Every single detail in the Gospels has been shown to be false

Nearly every "pericope" or story in the Gospels has been shown to be the product of "Midrash" which was a technique of re-telling older stories to give them new meanings. There are Old Testament stories or other Jewish lore that pre-date the Gospels and tell the same stories.

The best book that goes thru the Gospels and discredits every single story as non-historical is Robert M. Price's "The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man".

You can listen to Robert M. Price live every week on Freethought Media and ask him Bible questions:

Robert M. Price
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com

The Bible Geek - Robert M. Price's Weekly LIVE Streaming Internet Radio Show
http://www.freethoughtmedia.com

***

Further, it appears that originally Christians worshiped a cosmic, heavenly Christ and only later came to believe that this being had become a man and recently lived on earth. This argument is presented very well in the DVD "The God Who Wasn't There" and in the writings of Earl Doherty.

The God Who Wasn't There
http://thegodmovie.com

Earl Doherty - The Case that there was no historical person, "Jesus"
http://jesuspuzzle.com/

[sam sarrha]

5. i feel that Buddhism had 500 years to come down the Silk Road from India

and inspire an altruistic youth in a time of social upheaval and social injustice.

where else could Jesus come up with a belief in unconditional compassion in a time where people dutifully if not gleefully stoned to death their friends and family for bat shit crazy transgressions that wouldn't get a Sssush in a library today.

Jesus redefined god..if he were even referring to one in his teachings.. from a murderous vengeful bloodthirsty sacrifice glutton to a fuzzy warm California 'sinner it looks like you need a hug'..god

that is just too weird a sudden change.. Jesus essentially preaches Buddhism..

[manic expression]

6. Buddhism...

with eternal damnation? With original sin? With a "my way or the high-way", intolerant mentality? With a "repent or be damned" mentality? Hardly. Moreover, there is very little historical basis for what he said, and even less for the supposed stories of him.

Jesus' own words:

"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John 12:48

Is that Buddhism?

Interestingly enough, Buddhism does have sects which see Buddha as a savior (you probably knew that), but I still think the theory that Jesus, even if he existed and even if he said what he is said to say, was influenced by Buddhism.

[sam sarrha]

7. i dont know where you got lost here.. but you missed th point..

[manic expression]

8. I was responding to this

"...Jesus essentially preaches Buddhism.."

[sam sarrha]

9. unconditional compassion.. not something stoning your neighbors involves..

[manic expression]

10. I fail to see

unconditional compassion in damning someone to hell because they don't accept what you say.

[sam sarrha]

11. Christ did not damn, he only spoke of compassion and peace,it is the later

Popes and religious fascists that used that crap to acquire power.

jesus spoke in Aramaic, a language constructed on metaphor and parable.. when it was translated into Greek it lost 90% of its meaning, then into latin

[manic expression]

12. When

he claims that he is the only way, that can scarcely be called a metaphor or a parable. When he says he will judge someone for their acceptance, that is hardly one as well. Please don't chalk it up to being lost in translation, because something that is inclusive cannot become automatically exclusive simply by translation.

[sam sarrha]

13. i said it was mis translated from Metaphor..i am saying he didn't say that

i am not supporting the fundies.. i am a BUDDHIST, i am trying to draw a picture how he might have been inspired by Buddhist concepts, because there is no president in the patriarchal kill you friends and family for god Judaism in that time..

changes rarely pop up on their own.. they are influenced by outside forces..

even the buddha was influenced in his quest.. the Middle Way was realized when a raft passed by while he was meditating, a father teaching his son to play the sitar said, if you tighten the string to taught it will break, too slack it will not play..

if you dont relax you will never 'get it', the fundies are too lax in inquiry, they will never look to ever find.

[manic expression]

14. OK

and I'm simply disagreeing.

One of the biggest things to this is that there isn't really any evidence that Jesus did or said any of what the Bible says he did. Let's just say it all happened like it did in the Bible (and let's just ignore the inconsistencies and contradictions while we're at it). I do not think that statements such as "I'm the only way" (paraphrased) or "I'll judge you if you don't believe me" (also paraphrased) can be significantly "mistranslated". That's really all I'm saying.

It is only right for me to point out something that I see as ignorance (not you, parts of the Bible I mean). To not do so is to not play the sitar altogether, and I intend to make as much music as I can. Regardless of what is too tight and what is too slack, being at a point of playability is the objective. That point is what the sitar should be played at, it is its role, its dharma. Likewise, it is the player's responsibility to play it at the right tension, making the correct notes. The father, or any sitar player, would surely correct the mistaken playing of another, and that is what I seek to do here.

[sam sarrha]

15. i agree entirely, but there is some indication there was but he was like a

union organizer for the poor.. or this guy is interesting

check out this link> http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/
http://jesuspuzzle.com/

[struggle4progress]

17. Buddha actually entered the Catholic world as Saint Jehosaphat

[struggle4progress]

16. Such a remark may have been scandalous in the 19th century but ..

.. but by the early twentieth century Albert Schweitzer had already written his work "The Quest of the Historical Jesus" and had pointed out clearly that efforts to locate Jesus as historical figure appeared doomed to failure:

"... In the very moment when we were coming nearer to the historical Jesus than men had ever come before, and were already stretching out our hands to draw Him into our own time, we have been obliged to give up the attempt and acknowledge our failure in that paradoxical saying: 'If we have known Christ after the flesh yet henceforth know we Him no more.' And further we must be prepared to find that the historical knowledge of the personality and life of Jesus will not be a help, but perhaps even an offence to religion.

But the truth is, it is not Jesus as historically known, but Jesus as spiritually arisen within men, who is significant for our time and can help it. Not the historical Jesus, but the spirit which goes forth from Him and in the spirits of men strives for new influence and rule, is that which overcomes the world.

It is not given to history to disengage that which is abiding and eternal in the being of Jesus from the historical forms in which it worked itself out, and to introduce it into our world as a living influence. It has toiled in vain at this undertaking ..."

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/schweitzer/