Memes

58 thoughts on “Jesus, After Dark

  1. The part that gets me is that like the “accepted” scriptures, this gospel was discovered centuries after the fact (almost 20!). For millennia monks – under the cover of darkness and blankets whispered: “Did you hear about the man in the linen cloth? Come here, let me show you…”

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  2. oh my (in best Takei voice).

    so, is that bit in the Secret Gospel of Mark, have its finale in the supposed “actual” gospel of Mark?

    Mark 14:51 A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, 52 he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.

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  3. This kinda lends new meaning to “suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me.”

    But hey — what happens in Judea, stays in Judea. Or perhaps it’s “When in Rome…” Either way, the priesthood seems committed to honoring the the sacred tradition established by its founder.

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  4. No, but I’m not surprised. And the evangelicals are no better. The next time someone claims you can’t be moral without belief in their Middle Eastern god (I’ve really taken a shine to that term because it’s so totally apropos) just send them over to this site and ask them to explain how that’s working out. Then patiently count down the seconds to the “No True(tm) Christian” response.

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    • Holy crap, that’s a depressingly long list. I’ll say “thank you,” but that seems wildly inappropriate considering the content.

      So we’ve dumped Potato, i see. Good. Chalk another one up for nonsensical Christian apologetics 🙂

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      • One of the benefits of such exchanges is the wealth of new information gleaned from the research you’re forced to conduct to debunk their ad-hoc explanations. In that particular one I learned stuff I never knew about Herod Archelaus, the lack of archaeological evidence for the existence of the town of Bethlehem during Herod’s reign, and Josephus’ story about the impostor who duped people into giving him money by assuming the role of Alexander, Herod’s executed son. That last one is detrimental to the resurrection claims because it provides ample evidence of just how easily people could have been deceived by someone claiming to be the “risen” messiah (pun intended); which is why Potato dismissed it with “ROFL” and protests of being off-topic. (And in my experience, increased usage of superfluous invectives like “HAHA”, “ROFl” and “LMFAO” are telltale nervous signs indicating your opponent realizes s/he’s been caught naked in the headlights.)

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      • Agreed… That exchange has been good from a purely education perspective, not least of all for learning about CMJC! 🙂

        Are you talking about Bethlehem or Nazareth? By all archaeological accounts Nazareth wasn’t settled until the early to middle 2nd Century. This is yet another blunder in the gospels.

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      • Apparently, the archaeological digs indicate the town of Bethlehem in Judea was unoccupied during Herod’s time, but there was a town of Bethlehem located in Galilee close to present-day Nazareth. I cant find the full article online, but here is an abstract.

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      • Ahhh, so we have no Bethlehem and no Nazareth. Well, the nativity is pretty clearly an invention, but if we add that now to no hometown either then this story just gets weaker and weaker. Soon someone’s going to tell me Jesus didn’t slaughter a gaggle of fire-breathing dragons on his way to Egypt when he was 2 years old. 🙂

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    • BTW… Yes, “Middle Eastern god” does seem to get Christians riled in ever so precious ways. Seems to be a sore point for them, something they really, seriously, positively hate hearing… So, go forth and spread the Good Word 🙂

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      • I certainly will! I also like to pose epistemological questions (“how do you know that?”) so they can’t just run off and copy-paste canned answers from some apologetics site.

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      • I saw that in your comment to Diana. I think she’s gone, though. You should pop by her site… it’s odd. She’s a full-blown young earth creationist. Check out her Evolution/Medicine article and the one on Hitler.

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      • Of course “Middle Eastern god” gets them riled up. Too damned limiting, too understatementish—theirs is the one sole only unique true God of the entire universe*, no?

        * And any/all of the myriad universes beyond that one. (I get a bit lost sometimes)

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