Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
- Felix
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
https://amzn.to/2m0WzxW
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
Indeed, I am more materialist prone but that's not written in stone either. You continue to denote me as nominalist because I don't subscribe to any paradigm of Plato's forms including that of soul. I tried to convey the message a few times that your nominalist designation is also erroneous and doesn't yield that conclusion; but alas, it's useless so believe as you like. No skin off my back.GaryLouisSmith wrote: ↑September 18th, 2019, 9:40 pmI suppose you, as a materialist, would have to think like that, wouldn't you? Ooops, I put a label on you and nominalists hate labels. Oh god, I did it again. Sorry. Yes, I am afraid of magic. I believe in magic. I have my own counter-defenses against it. I am a fan of William Burroughs, who also believed in magic. Magic and deception always go together and that is why Westerners who come here are always taken in.
For me forms are designed by function, a chair for instance upholding my butt at some distance from the floor since it's unlikely that the floor will be coming up to meet it. Why would that require some abstract a priori version of it out there somewhere in the ether in order for us to come up with a design for a chair? Sounds ridiculous! Is the Large Hadron Collider which must host a million different designs in its operation also a Platonic entity existing independently? There are no such ghosts in the machine. Plato's ideas re forms are PURE fabrications, brain farts devoid of reality which explain nothing...though it may have been a good idea at the time, perhaps even a necessary one as being the most potent definition of an abstraction as incipient to and a prime mover of Western thought.
Best way to describe the usefulness of Plato's forms is what Lear spoke, nothing will become of nothing..
Also, if magic and deception always go together, which is true, forgo the deception and the magic disappears. Everyone, the audience and the magicians, know it's all just clever deception regardless of how miraculous it seems.
I keep squashing my intentions not to reply. I really got to stop this. There are much better ways to spend my time.
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
I am unable to examine the book you recommended because here in Nepal I can only get ebooks. My guess it is a positive, healing type of shamanistic magic and a path to higher consciousness. Maybe I’m wrong.Felix wrote: ↑September 18th, 2019, 10:17 pm I was fortunate to have known Doug Boyd, who wrote a few books about shamans and magicians, this one is my favorite:
https://amzn.to/2m0WzxW
Here in Nepal and Bengal there are two types of magic or the paranormal or mystical power. There is positive and negative. Right-handed and left-handed. Modern yoga and old style yoga. Daksinacara and Vamacara. If what you are after is higher consciousness and enlightenment then you want modern, right-handed, positive, daksinacara yoga meditation. If what you want is vamacharya, left-handed, negative siddhi power, then you want to be an old style sinister yogi. The left-handed type is more popular, including mantras and rituals against vamacara yogis and yoginis. Modern or raga yoga is for the educated, urban elite. The villages are a much more sinister place.
When I write of yogis and the Hindu paranormal, I am speaking of old style left-handed yoga. That is much more prevalent among the people I hang out with. Any questions?
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
OK, you are not a nominalist, but you sure to sound like one with your "nominalistic" ideas. One cannot forego deception, because deception is a real thing existing external to the mind. It is not something that a magician or any other human being does or fabricates. I don't expect a nominalistic rationalist to be able to understand that.Jklint wrote: ↑September 19th, 2019, 12:16 amIndeed, I am more materialist prone but that's not written in stone either. You continue to denote me as nominalist because I don't subscribe to any paradigm of Plato's forms including that of soul. I tried to convey the message a few times that your nominalist designation is also erroneous and doesn't yield that conclusion; but alas, it's useless so believe as you like. No skin off my back.GaryLouisSmith wrote: ↑September 18th, 2019, 9:40 pm
I suppose you, as a materialist, would have to think like that, wouldn't you? Ooops, I put a label on you and nominalists hate labels. Oh god, I did it again. Sorry. Yes, I am afraid of magic. I believe in magic. I have my own counter-defenses against it. I am a fan of William Burroughs, who also believed in magic. Magic and deception always go together and that is why Westerners who come here are always taken in.
For me forms are designed by function, a chair for instance upholding my butt at some distance from the floor since it's unlikely that the floor will be coming up to meet it. Why would that require some abstract a priori version of it out there somewhere in the ether in order for us to come up with a design for a chair? Sounds ridiculous! Is the Large Hadron Collider which must host a million different designs in its operation also a Platonic entity existing independently? There are no such ghosts in the machine. Plato's ideas re forms are PURE fabrications, brain farts devoid of reality which explain nothing...though it may have been a good idea at the time, perhaps even a necessary one as being the most potent definition of an abstraction as incipient to and a prime mover of Western thought.
Best way to describe the usefulness of Plato's forms is what Lear spoke, nothing will become of nothing..
Also, if magic and deception always go together, which is true, forgo the deception and the magic disappears. Everyone, the audience and the magicians, know it's all just clever deception regardless of how miraculous it seems.
I keep squashing my intentions not to reply. I really got to stop this. There are much better ways to spend my time.
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
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- Posts: 1719
- Joined: February 23rd, 2012, 3:06 am
Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
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- Felix
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
I don't think there is as clear a divide between the two as you suggest, e.g., Aurobindo believed that the Gods actually existed and Ramakrishna had extremely vivid visions of the Divine Mother.GaryLouisSmith: When I write of yogis and the Hindu paranormal, I am speaking of old style left-handed yoga.
Mad Bear, the Native American shaman that Doug Boyd wrote about, was certainly not a new age kind of healer, he practiced a Coyote trickster kind of occultism - quite a colorful character.GaryLouisSmith: I am unable to examine the book you recommended because here in Nepal I can only get ebooks. My guess it is a positive, healing type of shamanistic magic and a path to higher consciousness. Maybe I’m wrong.
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
Too bad it didn't happen more often.
- Newme
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
I searched but didn’t find the book. What’s its name?h_k_s wrote: ↑September 12th, 2019, 3:37 pmGoogle "Eusebius" and try to find a copy of his classic book dating to the 4th Century C.E. (A.D.).Newme wrote: ↑September 8th, 2019, 11:08 pm
Sound advise - which also applies to the cognitive distortion or fallacy of jumping to conclusions. OTOH, Being paralyzed with indecision or skepticism doesn’t work either.
The bottom line seems to be to take the symbolic, spiritual truth and don’t insist on literal historical truth - of scripture etc.
This pretty much explains everything about the early Christian/catholic church leading up to Constantine.
Will you summarize what you know about Christian origins & what you religious leanings (if any) are?
- h_k_s
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp ... 2760054690
This should give you the Amazon citation for the book.
Title is "Church History."
Author is Eusebius.
This is written sometime around 325 A.D. -- the 1st Council of Nicea. Eusebius was there and chronicled it.
- h_k_s
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
There are various authors on Christian origins beginning with St. Paul, then St. Mark, then St. Matthew, then St. Luke, then St. John the apostle (not to be confused with the other John's). These are then followed first by Josephus around 79 A.D. and then later by Eusebius in 325 A.D. After Eusebius it gets cloudy together with the history of Rome, Byzantium, and the Catholic Church (big-C, after the 1054 split-up from the Eastern Orthodox Greek Church).
- h_k_s
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
MY leanings?
I am a Romantic philosopher like Augustine, Aquinas (more like Aquinas though), Descartes, and Leibniz.
That makes me a Deist, not to be confused with a Theist nor with an Atheist nor Agnostic.
There are 4 flavors of peoples, you know?!
- Felix
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Re: Is Christ Myth Theory Credible?
Up, Down, Charmed, and Strange, right?h_k_s: There are 4 flavors of peoples, you know?!
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