Charles
On Wed, Dec 25, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Arthur Maisel <arthurmaisel at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am far from being an expert on 1st-century Judean history, but I think
> the evidence that the Jesus of Christianity is based on someone who
> actually lived is pretty good, attested by sources nearer to being
> contemporary than the New Testament. As with Shakespeare, Occam's razor
> suggests that it is more likely that there was someone recognizably
> connected to the figure who has come down to us than that it was someone
> else or no one. Of course, the Jesus of Christianity is a fictional
> character, and no one event in the story can be implicitly relied on,
> including the crucifiction. Some of his sayings, however, are thought to
> date from a contemporary compiliation, now lost, that was incorporated by
> the writers of the Gospel accounts. We ourselves can witness how a person
> we all know was real is being changed into a fictional character in the
> case of MLK.
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 25, 2013 at 2:38 AM, Chuck Grimes <cagrimes42 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Today, as the world pauses on the birthday of one of history's greatest
>>> men, whose teachings continue to benefit the entire human race, let us join
>>> in toasting the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and of all the giants on whose
>>> shoulders he stood.
>>>
>>> Jim Farmelant
>>> http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
>>> http://www.foxymath.com
>>> Learn or Review Basic Math
>>>
>>
>> ----------
>>
>> The annual reminder, reminded me of a question I've never been able to
>> answer.
>>
>> Did Jesus exist? Is there any independent information that he did?
>>
>> Is there any historical support that any of the original apostles ever
>> existed or were there any groups like them? There had to be something, but
>> what?
>>
>> Given Shlomo Sand's Invention of the Jewish People and his rant on the
>> second temple, which was the nearest contemporary event rests on dubious
>> ground, and given that most `people' are inventions of some sort, well you
>> get the idea.
>>
>> This is coming from my own ruminations on Strauss and his concept of
>> classical Greece, which he seemed to think had a very specific worldview,
>> which I think is a laugh ... beause ... He seemed to have forgotten that
>> his idea of antiquity was an invention of the Renaissance with the late
>> recovery of Plato in Florence, and more particularly the Enlightenment (his
>> bete noir)...
>>
>> Strauss had a real axe to grind on the concept of history, which is
>> ridiculous since without enligthenment history, he would have no idea how
>> to construct a worldview from the texts and fragments of ancient
>> thought---which were endlessly mediated by a couple of thousand years of
>> translations. The texts that were used in Florence to recover Plato came
>> from Constantinople. Not sure of the dates, but probably about the time
>> that Justinian abolished pagan texts. ...
>>
>> Anyway happy birthday Newton, you old bastard.
>>
>> CG
>> ___________________________________
>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk