Thomas_More
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” They can write hundreds of books and publish thousands of videos, but the reality is that Jesus never existed; his apostles never existed either; his crucifixion and resurrection never happened;
The writers of the Gospel never existed; and everything is based on a combination of Greek and Egyptian mythology, and the whole bible is a book of fantasies, legends and human inventions.”
Agree.
But the US churches do not constitute a single church (unless they all unite and form one), so which one would be the state church and the state clergy?
Google: ” In the earliest centuries of the church, Christianity was highly diverse, and the foundational events of Jesus’ life were intensely debated. While the narrative of a literal crucifixion and bodily resurrection became the mainstream orthodoxy, several influential early groups fundamentally rejected it.These varying perspectives generally fell into two major camps:1. Docetism and Gnosticism (The “Illusion” View)Many early Christians—particularly within Gnostic communities—held a belief called Docetism (derived from the Greek word dokein, meaning “to seem” or “to appear”).The Belief: They believed that because the material world was inherently corrupt or evil, a purely divine being could not possibly have a physical, flesh-and-blood body.The View on the Cross: Therefore, they believed Jesus only seemed to be human. His suffering and death on the cross were entirely spiritual or an illusion.Historical Evidence: We know this was an active, first-century debate because the canonical First Epistle of John strongly condemns anyone who denies that Jesus Christ “has come in the flesh”. Later, the early church bishop Ignatius of Antioch explicitly railed against Gnostics who claimed Jesus didn’t actually suffer.2. The Substitution TheoriesSome Gnostic sects went a step further, teaching that someone else died in Jesus’ place.The Followers of Basilides: Early theologians like Basilides taught that Christ was an invulnerable, purely spiritual being. At the crucifixion, Jesus swapped places with Simon of Cyrene (the man forced to carry the cross), and it was Simon who was actually crucified while Jesus watched from the sidelines, invisible and laughing.* The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter: This second-century text—found in the Nag Hammadi library—explicitly outlines that the divine, spiritual Christ could not be harmed, and that the physical suffering was happening to a mortal substitute while the real Jesus looked on.3. Wisdom and Gnostic GospelsCertain early texts, most notably the Gospel of Thomas (found among the Nag Hammadi texts), do not mention the crucifixion or resurrection at all. Instead of portraying Jesus as a sacrificial savior whose primary purpose is to die for sins, these writings present Jesus as a dispenser of secret wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.”
*(My emphasis)
Britain has state churches (Anglicanism in England, Presbyterianism in Scotland), and we aren’t generally obsessed with religion, whereas the US has no state church and is over 40% fundamentalist/creationist lunacy.
Any thoughts on that?
Also, the USA churches are not viable as a state church because they are not a single church, but hundreds of loose sub-protestant “denominations.”
What? Christian Nationalists want to be forbidden to kill? I can’t believe that.
Practically all the bizarre backwater killings in the U.S. are in the Bible belt, aren’t they?
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and into the hole he goes.”
Except for Unitarians, and possibly Quakers, all modern Christians, no matter how different their rites and look, subscribe to Nicaean, Athanasian, trinitarian Christianity. They assume the writers of their New Testament did as well. But none of them did. Because trinitarian Christianity was very, very late on the scene. 4th century to be precise. “Orthodoxy” did not exist when the New Testament was completed.
Even after Athanasius of Alexandria had forced through the Nicene Creed, the emperor Constantine remained sympathetic to the unitarian Arians. Constantine’s son was an Arian and so were four other emperors. Constantine was baptised on his death bed by an Arian bishop, and Athanasius was exiled. So Nicaea consolidated nothing.Btw, the Protoevangelion states that Joseph was 80 when Jesus was born, and Mary 13. (Not something publicised today in school Nativity plays!😀)
Plus, even had David existed, Jesus wouldn’t be in his line of descent, because Joseph wasn’t his father and hadn’t lain with Mary.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/58967/pg58967-images.html
THE PROCURATOR OF JUDÆA
by Anatole France.“Squashing wasps?”
The type of people who would, just to frustrate someone trying to help the wasp.
Small, nasty minds. Pathetic people. People who think they are the end-all of evolution, and that the extermination of over two million kangaroos per year plus their young is nothing to think about if the shoes help to win a match.
They are like the old fools on the bus with nothing to occupy their minds but to remark what people look like and how they dress.
Or the old bugger who deliberately squashed a wasp on the window of a café as he saw me approach with a cardboard cup for letting the wasp outside, and smirked at me.
That’s what those people are. I see them sometimes on this forum.
