Various thoughts on current events with an emphasis on politics, legal issues, books, movies and whatever is on my mind. Emails can be sent to almostsanejoe@aol.com; please put "blog comments" in the subject line.
Web episodes is the thing these days ... not bad with a good lead.
2 comments:
JackD
said...
This is really a comment on your post about gospels/miracles below since you did not provide a comment opportunity on that post. It may be appropriate to recall that the gospels were written after the deaths of the protagonists of the various stories and that the process sometimes called "confabulation" may have been involved. Of course outright prevarication may also have been involved to some extent. The political struggles within and among various factions of the survivors has been well documented (see, e.g. Pagels and Ehrman, among others).
I've always thought that something involving Jesus made an incredibly striking impression on his followers that gave rise to the various stories and traditions but that the reality of of that something was simply unknowable.
I don't think it really prevarication as such generally speaking. The full reality is unknowable, but some of what might have influenced them can be -- what causes people to believe in "miracles" has been examined and others in that era were seen as doing them. Jesus might have been of note as a matter of scope, on balance of probability, but far from unique in various respects. Some of that literature would help understand the times.
2 comments:
This is really a comment on your post about gospels/miracles below since you did not provide a comment opportunity on that post. It may be appropriate to recall that the gospels were written after the deaths of the protagonists of the various stories and that the process sometimes called "confabulation" may have been involved. Of course outright prevarication may also have been involved to some extent. The political struggles within and among various factions of the survivors has been well documented (see, e.g. Pagels and Ehrman, among others).
I've always thought that something involving Jesus made an incredibly striking impression on his followers that gave rise to the various stories and traditions but that the reality of of that something was simply unknowable.
I don't think it really prevarication as such generally speaking. The full reality is unknowable, but some of what might have influenced them can be -- what causes people to believe in "miracles" has been examined and others in that era were seen as doing them. Jesus might have been of note as a matter of scope, on balance of probability, but far from unique in various respects. Some of that literature would help understand the times.
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Thanks for your .02!