LIGHTNING BOLT from Gawd! Paul's turnaround? (page 2)

LittleToe

Paul had kids?
That's a new one on me. I know there was some speculation that he once had a wife...

LT whats a matter wit ya? Of course he had kids. Think about it. Anyone who had the energy he had, to run all over palestine and israel, yellin at people to straighten up and live life as he demanded, had to be a horney little devil.

Ya need to be careful yaself ya no. Ya get too tight on this christian thing and ya can turn into a horney little devil over night. It happened to me once. I sure enjoyed,, oh ah got off subject there.

Yeah it wasn't MY fault.

Outoftheorg

LittleToe

It's a b*tch having all that energy, huh?

LittleToe

I wonder if it attrracts lightening???

Leolaia

I agree that it was always risky to speculatively diagnose someone long dead, but I mentioned it as a possibility pursued by quite a few scholars and critics (cf. Robert Funk's THE ACTS OF JESUS). Epilepsy was not at all a rare affliction in the ANE, being mentioned quite a bit in the gospels. It accounts for Paul's statements on his disability as well as the details about his conversion experience. Positing a psychological or neurological impetus to Paul's experience would not in any way negate the life-changing power the experience had on him -- especially if this was his first such experience (some forms of seizures only appear in adulthood, such as those caused by a brain tumor). The realization that the Christians were right after all about their Jesus, added with guilt about being complicit in their murder (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13), could naturally lead one to change both their beliefs and their course of action. Like many people, his identity and beliefs and many personality characteristics changed throughout the course of his life and in response to his new role in the community. I just find it very feasible that his religious awakening did not have a paranormal cause.

Narkissos

Just think of the role of epilepsy in Dostoievsky's Idiot. Dostoievsky himself was an epileptic, and one important aspect of his work is enlightening the relation between pathology and religious experience. In fact admitting this relation where it exists doesn't belittle the value of religious experience in any way -- except in the eyes of very shallow minds.

LittleToe

Leo:S'ok, I was only funning ya

I guess from a skeptical POV it might be viewed that way.
Who knows??

outoftheorg

I have noticed that very shallow minds also do not have a sense of humor.

They are quite easily and deeply offended over the smallest of statements having to do with religion.

If it does not agree with their personal beliefs. No matter how ridiculous they seem to others.

The shallow mind cannot keep from a shallow remark, that proves nothing and does not further their cause.

Outoftheorg

myelaine

And a complete reversal of one's life is never merely an act of whim.

Perhaps it was an affermation of his life more than a reversal?

Matt 10:39

LittleToe

Out:
Does that make you and I shallow, since we also mix in some humour?
(or does only shallow humour count)

LIGHTNING BOLT from Gawd! Paul's turnaround?

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