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- Mar 11, 2019
It's almost like culture is an operating system that gets periodically patched...But seriously, who would have guessed that Arab cultures could have influenced the Abrahamic religions??????
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It's almost like culture is an operating system that gets periodically patched...But seriously, who would have guessed that Arab cultures could have influenced the Abrahamic religions??????
After reading that it seems to me like the survival of Jewish monotheism is attributed to the survival of its people (who were no doubt wide spread o'er the lands as happy merchants are wont to do). The Jews were probably finding themselves alone in foreign lands rather often and so I'd imagine that the laws proscribed in their orthodoxy unwittingly (or knowingly) equipped them with survival strategies tuned for the pitfalls of the day. They don't eat pork, follow certain codes and keep to their own. They, in turn, avoid many risky situations and get to survive, as does Jewish Monotheism, for another generation. And so on.Interestingly, I ran a site-search on pocm.info for "monotheism" and the only returns I got for "pagan monotheism" were in regards to Greek monotheism, which antedated (and may well have borrowed from) Jewish monotheism. Here's a little bit of background on the possible roots of Jewish Monotheism, which I think is the more likely candidate for an influence on Christianity (I know, I'm a maverick).
All religions do this. Some are more open about it, but they all do it. Good example: Vodoun taking bits of errythang while still remaining uniquely itself.
Every piece of human culture is built upon the pre-existing. Polyglot ideologies are the only ideologies, no matter how effectively they mask their roots in new aesthetics.
Jesus mythers are one of the reasons that atheism and autism are so highly correlated- they have this weird absolutist stance that either Jesus existed exactly as depicted in the Bible (i.e. the literal son of God/God Himself incarnate in some capacity) or he didn't exist at all, as though no middle ground exists between those two positions.
Richard Dawkins may have been the main harbinger of both wings of militant atheism (even if he later disavowed them) but for all the times he would sperg about how evolution disproved the existence of God, he never claimed that Jesus never existed or was a repackaged Osiris or Mithras.
So the only reason you're not murdering, raping and stealing your way through life is because you're expecting a reward? That's not a mark of the importance or goodness of a religion, its a mark of your qualities as a person, and only speaks to a lack of morality and decency on your part.If there is no Christ, then kill yourself. Philosophies do not offer an eternal reward, so what is the point of behaving when you presume your end to be nothing? Steal, murder, and forsake the whole Law of God if Jesus did not exist. Maximize your time on earth because you will be dust soon again. Or, more logically, kill yourself because this is a life of suffering. Who is to say that a minute from now you will not be in immeasurable suffering compared to the previous minute? How could you blindly trust a universe without any rhyme or reason? You would have to be profoundly ignorant or stupid to remain in a purely chaotic world without any eternal reward for its sufferings.
Being is its own reward! That which does not exist can have no appreciation for its unbeing. Please try not to kill yourself. Someone somewhere will miss you!You would have to be profoundly ignorant or stupid to remain in a purely chaotic world without any eternal reward for its sufferings.
Something I noticed about fedora atheists and SJW's alike is that both of them are extremely fixated on hating Christianity and they will try to use evidence of pagan influences on Christian practices, whether it be things like Christmas trees or the Greek influences of Christian philosophy to discredit the credibility of it.
Does Christianity have pagan influences? Yes. Most successful religions have syncretic elements just like any other cultural concept.
But something else I noticed is that a lot of the anti-Christian hardliners, be they fedora men or SJW danger hairs is the fact that the ones who push the discredited meme of the "Christ Myth" or harp about paganism being an influence on Christianity are almost all American.
Richard Dawkins may have been the main harbinger of both wings of militant atheism (even if he later disavowed them) but for all the times he would sperg about how evolution disproved the existence of God, he never claimed that Jesus never existed or was a repackaged Osiris or Mithras.
I think a lot of this may have to do with the popularity of Evangelical Protestant Christianity in America and that movement's influence on the old Religious Right. One of the big things about Evangelicals is the idea of "false Christianity" that is actually paganism in disguise, a claim most often leveled at Catholicism.
This meme is an old one dating back to the OG Protestant Reformation but it largely died off in Europe by the time of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The Puritans were among the most fervent believers in the idea of "Paganism masquerading as Christianity" and they were one of the largest groups of the original English settlers in America.
Since SJW's and fedora skeptics both emerged out of an atheist backlash against the dominance of the Religious Right, a lot of the people in this crowd try to discredit Christianity by invoking obvious influences from ancient paganism since it does disprove a lot of the more exceptional claims of the Evangelicals that were so prevalent in late 20th Century America.
Basically, the main school of logic behind these idiotic atheist websites is that Evangelicals claim that Paganism is a false religion and that any branch of Christianity with overt Pagan influences (whether it be organized clergy or certain holidays such as Christmas) is false and does not actually follow the word of God.
Since there was obvious pagan influences in the development of the early Judeo-Christian traditions, these militant atheists assume that if the pagan religious are false, then so is Christianity since it was influenced by paganism and the Evangelicals are wrong.
While the Evangelicals are wrong on a lot of things, so are the atheist hardliners.
The existence of cultural diffusion does not really contradict and disprove the theology and doctrine of any other major Christian denomination nor does it automatically disprove the existence of God (or any other deity)
Basically, this fedora idiocy is the equal and opposite reaction to the idiocy of guys like Jack Chick, Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson. The sad part is that neither the fedora men or the SJW's fully realize that Chick and Phelps are dead (and any influence they once had died long before they did) and Robertson is a senile elderly geezer who doesn't even really have any major clout in the remnants of the Evangelical movement anymore, let alone any other major denomination of Christianity.
[redacted]
You’re confusing not needing the promise of a reward in the afterlife with not needing any reward within lifePractice what you preach. If you do not need a reward to function in life, then volunteer your entire humanity and do not accept payment for your labor. Are you holier than me? Then prove it, I am certain your reward in Heaven will be great if you can.
I would personally argue that Christopher Hitchens had a larger role in the rise of militant atheism. He was loud and boisterous, but he was otherwise extremely witty and intelligent.
Check out YouTube and you can listen to those autistically named "Hitchslap" videos for days. I really believe he inspired an entire generation of fedoras to go out and try to present themselves as more intellectual than they really were.
[redacted]
This is something I realized when I was talking to a friend of mine about their atheist faze when he was a young teenagerSomething I noticed about fedora atheists and SJW's alike is that both of them are extremely fixated on hating Christianity and they will try to use evidence of pagan influences on Christian practices, whether it be things like Christmas trees or the Greek influences of Christian philosophy to discredit the credibility of it.
Does Christianity have pagan influences? Yes. Most successful religions have syncretic elements just like any other cultural concept.
But something else I noticed is that a lot of the anti-Christian hardliners, be they fedora men or SJW danger hairs is the fact that the ones who push the discredited meme of the "Christ Myth" or harp about paganism being an influence on Christianity are almost all American.
Richard Dawkins may have been the main harbinger of both wings of militant atheism (even if he later disavowed them) but for all the times he would sperg about how evolution disproved the existence of God, he never claimed that Jesus never existed or was a repackaged Osiris or Mithras.
I think a lot of this may have to do with the popularity of Evangelical Protestant Christianity in America and that movement's influence on the old Religious Right. One of the big things about Evangelicals is the idea of "false Christianity" that is actually paganism in disguise, a claim most often leveled at Catholicism.
This meme is an old one dating back to the OG Protestant Reformation but it largely died off in Europe by the time of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The Puritans were among the most fervent believers in the idea of "Paganism masquerading as Christianity" and they were one of the largest groups of the original English settlers in America.
Since SJW's and fedora skeptics both emerged out of an atheist backlash against the dominance of the Religious Right, a lot of the people in this crowd try to discredit Christianity by invoking obvious influences from ancient paganism since it does disprove a lot of the more exceptional claims of the Evangelicals that were so prevalent in late 20th Century America.
Basically, the main school of logic behind these idiotic atheist websites is that Evangelicals claim that Paganism is a false religion and that any branch of Christianity with overt Pagan influences (whether it be organized clergy or certain holidays such as Christmas) is false and does not actually follow the word of God.
Since there was obvious pagan influences in the development of the early Judeo-Christian traditions, these militant atheists assume that if the pagan religious are false, then so is Christianity since it was influenced by paganism and the Evangelicals are wrong.
While the Evangelicals are wrong on a lot of things, so are the atheist hardliners.
The existence of cultural diffusion does not really contradict and disprove the theology and doctrine of any other major Christian denomination nor does it automatically disprove the existence of God (or any other deity)
Basically, this fedora idiocy is the equal and opposite reaction to the idiocy of guys like Jack Chick, Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson. The sad part is that neither the fedora men or the SJW's fully realize that Chick and Phelps are dead (and any influence they once had died long before they did) and Robertson is a senile elderly geezer who doesn't even really have any major clout in the remnants of the Evangelical movement anymore, let alone any other major denomination of Christianity.