Posts by Terry

26

Pacquiao vs Mayweather

by Clambake in

i have a ton of filipino friends and this is huge.

manny is a huge underdog but it is literally good vs evil.

go manny .

Terry

I'm fairly sure you can listen "live" here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra/on-air

Be sure to take into account the time differential!

184

Why are people burning their city to the ground in Baltimore? How doe Looting and Mob Violence Help?

by PokerPlayerPhil in

it's hard enough for businesses to enter these areas the government once had to offer up tax breaks to service them.

in watts, california it took decades for city residents to get a grocery store after the thugs burned their businesses to the ground.

you can see the insanity taking place, when you allow mobs and fools to burn building down nothing good comes from it.

Terry

There is a huge difference between a cause and its effect calling for proportional action, and a pretext.

A PRETEXT is the reason given in justification of a course of action that is not the real reason.

If there is a wrong to be righted, then the goal is to right the wrong--not create new wrongs.

But, if the goal is to act out and punish indiscriminately, the pretext is merely the excuse.

These communities suffering mob violence are communities without social boundaries, personal respect, or genuine human solidarity. Anarchy finds its birth in the breakdown of social norms beginning with FAMILY.

Broken families without boundaries are chaotic and breed chaos.

End of story.

26

Pacquiao vs Mayweather

by Clambake in

i have a ton of filipino friends and this is huge.

manny is a huge underdog but it is literally good vs evil.

go manny .

Terry

Nothing is certain in this 'sport' where a man like Buster Douglas, whose mother had died recently, beat the living cream cheese out of the human killer whale, Mike Tyson in Tokyo.

Psychology is part of the human being, and it is fragile, unpredictable, and potent. Mayweather is a 'troubled' soul. He really needs this fight for the money. Those attorney fees are astronomical. I really don't think he actually __wants__to fight Manny Pacquio. Mayweather knows what sort of man lives inside Pacquio's soul.

The possibilities for this fight have been examined by the experts on laying odds. The science of numbers has spoken. But, on this planet, on this night, with these two men. . . it isn't numbers which determine the outcome. No. No way.

If this 'sport' really is as corrupt as Don King has proven it to be in the past, the ideal outcome will call for 3 fights. A close call would demand it. This, followed by another close call the opposite way, and finally the rubber match. Milk those dollars while you can--eh wot?

If there is integrity in the fight game (I did say 'if') Manny will pull off an upset. But, Mayweather is formidable.

So, there you have it--I don't know and neither does anybody else.

I would be satisfied with a definitive knockout. G'nite Floyd. Dream the dream of Kings.

66

BART EHRMAN answers my question

by TerryWalstrom in

as a member on bart ehrman's blog, i am able to ask him direct questions.is jehovah in the bible?.

question:.

how firmly grounded in reality is the claim of jehovahs witnesses that the divine name (jehovah) belongs in the new testament?.

Terry

The following was on Bart Ehrman's Blog this morning:

(Begin quote)

The comment that I sometimes get from readers that I find puzzling or disheartening is when they tell me that if there is something in the Gospels that is not historical, then it cannot be true, and if it is not true, then it is not worth reading. My sense is that many readers will find it puzzling or even disheartening that I find this view puzzling and disheartening. But I do.

It is true that to do the work of the historian requires one to be extremely critical about the sources of information that are available about the past. Some readers seem to think that this is only what atheistic, hard-headed, liberal historians with anti-supernaturalist biases who are out to destroy religion do. But in fact, it is what all historians do. The reason some readers find this approach to the Gospels objectionable is that they simply aren’t accustomed to dealing with the Bible as history.

But even though I do deal with the Bible as a historian, I do not personally think that is theonly way to deal with the Bible, and I find it disheartening when readers think that once the Gospels are shown to have discrepancies, implausibilities, and historical mistakes that we should just get rid of them and move on to other things.

I find that disheartening because the Gospels are so much more than historical sources. They are memories of early Christians about the one they considered to be the most important person ever to walk the planet. Yes, these memories are all distorted, when seen from the perspective of historical reality. But that doesn’t rob them of their value. It simply makes them memories. All memories are distorted.

And yes, the New Testament memories are all different from one another in one way or the other. But that doesn’t mean that we should then throw them all away because they are not trust worthy. Everyone’s memories – even of the same event – will be different from everyone else’s. That’s just how memories work.

And yes again, these memories have all been shaped by the lives, histories, and concerns of the people who recorded them, so that the “present” of these authors affected what they remembered about the past and how they remembered it. But that doesn’t mean that we should just go on to read other books instead. All memories of the past are chosen and shaped by the present.

At the end of the day, I find it very puzzling that so many people think that history is the only thing that matters. For them, if something didn’t happen, it isn’t true. Really? Do we actually live our lives that way? How can we? Do we really spend our lives finding meaning only in the brute facts of what happened before, and in nothing else?

Think about the things that matter to us: our families, friends, work, hobbies, religion, philosophy, country, novels, poetry, music, good food, and good drink. Do we really think that the brute facts about the past are the only things that matter?

To pick one just one of these examples: is literature unimportant because it does not deal with the brute facts of history? Is Dickens’s great novel David Copperfield of no value because its main character didn’t actually live? Well, that’s different you say, because it’s fiction. Yes indeed, it’s fiction. And fiction can be life-transforming because it is full of meaning — even though it never happened. Or consider further: can historical discoveries undermine the power of great literature? Does the earthshattering force of King Lear evaporate if it can be historically proved that someone other than Shakespeare wrote it? Does Dover Beach really fail to grip us with its powerful pathos if we learn that these were not actually the author’s thoughts the last time he was looking out over the English Channel?

Literature speaks to us quite apart from the facts of history. So does music. So does sculpture. So do all the arts. The Gospels are not simply historical records about the past. They are works of art.

They are also written forms of memory. The truth is that most of us cherish our memories – memories of our childhood, of our parents, of our friends, of our romantic relationships, of our accomplishments, of our travels, of our millions of experiences. Other memories, of course, are terribly painful – memories of pain, of suffering, of misunderstandings, of failed relationships, of financial strain, of violence, of lost loved ones, of millions of other experiences.

When we reflect on our past lives, when we remember all that has happened to us, all the people we have known, all the things we have seen, all the places we have visited, all the things we have experienced, we do not decide, before pondering the memory, to fact-check our recall to make sure that we have the brute facts in place. Our lives are not spent establishing the past as it really happened. They are spent calling it back to mind.

When we do so our memories may be frail, and faulty, and even false. But they are how we remember. And that is how we live our lives, with these memories. If someone tells us that something happened to us differently from how we remember, we may change how we think about it. But that’s not usually what happens. More often we’ll simply say that we don’t remember it that way. And we stick to our memories. If we do shift what we think about our remembered past, we don’t jettison our memories, but we transform them.

We live not only with our own memories, but also with the memories of others. We share our lives. Others share their lives with us. The only way to share a life with someone outside of that non-existent nano-second of the present is to share a life of memory. Our presents are affected by these pasts – both ours and those of others. Just as these pasts are molded by our presents. And our reflections about the future are molded by both. Living life is never a matter of isolation – from either our past or the pasts of others. The living and sharing of memories is what makes up our lives.

The Gospels are shared memories of the past. Yes, they can be scrutinized by historians who want to get a better sense of what actually happened in the life of Jesus. That’s what I do for a living. But if they were only that, they would be dry, banal, and frankly rather uninteresting to anyone except those with rather peculiar antiquarian interests. The Gospels are more than historical sources. They are deeply rooted and profound memories of a man whose memories ended up transforming the entire world.

It is easy to make the argument that the historical Jesus did not transform the world. He does not transform the world today. You may wonder how that could possibly be, if Christianity became the religion of the West. Look at it this way. There are two billion people today who are committed to the memory of Jesus. How many of those two billion have what I, as a historian, would consider to be a historically accurate recollection of the basics of Jesus’ real life and ministry? Some thousands? It’s a tiny fraction. The historical Jesus did not make history. The remembered Jesus did.

For me as a historian it goes without saying that we should pay close attention to what can be learned about the historical Jesus. But we should not neglect the remembered Jesus.

Does it matter if Jesus really delivered the Sermon on the Mount the way it is described in Matthew 5-7? It matters to me historically. But if Jesus didn’t deliver the sermon, would it be any less powerful? Not in the least. It is, and in my view deserves to be, one of the greatest accounts of ethical teaching in the history of the planet.

Does it matter if Jesus really healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead? Does it matter if he himself was raised from the dead? But if these stories are not historically accurate, does that rob them of their literary power? Not in my books. They are terrifically moving accounts. Understanding what they are trying to say means understanding some of the most uplifting and influential literature that the planet has ever seen.

Does it matter if Jesus considered himself to be God on earth? As a historian, it matters to me a great deal. But if he did not – and I think he did not – the fact that he was remembered that way by later followers is terrifically important. Without that memory of Jesus, the faith founded on him would never have taken off, the Roman Empire would not have abandoned paganism, and history as we know it would never have transpired.[1] History was changed not because of the brute facts of history, but because of memory.

Memory can certainly be studied to see where it is accurate and where it is frail, or distorted, or even false. It should be studied that way. It needs to be studied that way. I spend most of my life studying it that way. But it should also be studied in a way that appreciates its inherent significance and its power. Memory is what gives meaning to our lives – and not only to our own personal lives, but to the lives of eeryone who has ever lived on this planet. Without it we couldn’t exist as social groups or function as individuals. Memory obviously deserves to be studied in its own right, not only to see what it preserves accurately about the past, but also to see what it can say about those who have it and share it.

Christian memory is particularly and uniquely important. Christian memory transformed our world. Christian memory brought about a revolution in the history of Western Civilization. Christian memory continues to influence billions of lives in our world today. Ultimately, of course, Christian memory goes back to the earliest memories of Jesus. These too need to be studied, both for what they can tell us about the historical person who stands behind the memory, but also about those who came in his wake, who remembered him and passed along their memories to those of us living today.

[1] This is my argument in Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2014).

38

I want to take them down

by cookiemaster in

hey guys!

some of you might know about my latest clash with the elders.

i see the pressure this cult is putting on my family.

Terry

The best revenge is the good life well-lived by you--in stark contrast to the wasted life lived by THEM.

To defy their low expectations for you is pure bliss!

Meanwhile, you are happy, free and unconcerned with their daily / nightly commitments to fear.

Bring them down, you say?

They are so low already! How much lower can they get?

It is the full-time job of their Governing Body overhauling the entire doctrine like keeping a banged up junker of a car running with constant repairs.

But, you are free to learn the latest breakthroughs in Science, Technology, Medicine and Biology without some white-haired religious cult leader pre-chewing it for you and spitting out the parts he doesn't like.

Bring the Organization down?

They've wrecked it themselves time and again! But, the teeming tribe of ignorant slaves inside the gates of their matchstick kingdom can't keep up with the Old Light, fast enough to appreciate the need for changes to the New Light!

Relax. Stick a fork in JW's and their silliness--they're done already.

30

Would you give your life for those that shun you?

by Esse quam videri in

'no one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.'.

many have been hurt by the practice of shunning.

family members, [former?

Terry

Cults and high-control groups have reduced the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of millennia down to one simplicity: "Do as you are told!"

Instead of rational inquiry, loyalty to the group is offered as a superior value. To Obey is to be accepted as provisionally worthy of use.

The most dangerous aspect of cult control is the damage it does to the concept of the individual as a person of merit. Contrarily, cults chop the individual off at the knees and bring him low.

Religious cults instill worthlessness instead. Man is dust on the scales, a worthless sinner, and an enemy of God, the believer is programmed to believe of himself. You cannot, must not, and should not ever consider living your own life for your own good!

Is there any wonder how easily the duped, misled and down-trodden slave easily mouths the words, "I would gladly die for ___such and such___?"

It is heroic to LIVE and cowardly to die so easily, reducing one's self-worth to a pitiful transaction for praise by one's leaders.

I look back on my twenty years as nothing short of mental illness as I traded my youth, energy, time and loyalty for persons and beliefs which held me in utter contempt as one of their stooges.

I'd have "died for" whatever blank they filled in with me signing life away on that dotted line with as much mindful reasoning as a bug smashing into the windshield of a speeding car.

Idiots do idiot things and must not be rewarded for it.

That's the job of the Messianic leader. . . the 'dying for' part of it. I leave that task to the professionals.

66

BART EHRMAN answers my question

by TerryWalstrom in

as a member on bart ehrman's blog, i am able to ask him direct questions.is jehovah in the bible?.

question:.

how firmly grounded in reality is the claim of jehovahs witnesses that the divine name (jehovah) belongs in the new testament?.

Terry

In an honest debate over facts, each side argues the evidence.

In a debate without honest rebuttal, one side argues ad hominem.

"Address the issues under discussion? No way--I'd rather poison the well."

A group of fundamentalist Christians started a YouTube propaganda smear effort called THE BART EHRMAN PROJECT to undermine the Professor personally. You can still see some of their videos. That effort has been abandoned now.

I feel it demonstrates the pettiness and poverty of honest engagement over evidence which has left evangelicals in the sorry state they are in. What is that state? Clinging to pre-Enlightenment ideas despite advancing scholarship.

Why not simply argue the facts and let the viewer decide?

54

The Divine Name in the NT: Some Reflections

by Let go of fear in

i've been fascinated with this topic for some time now, almost to the point of obsession.

after researching the issue for several years, i have come to a conclusion/theory that i would love to receive some feedback on.

this theory of mine is one that will be somewhat unsettling to both those who believe the divine name was used in the original nt scripts as well as those who believe it wasn't.

Terry

This previous post might be of some use . . .

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/156150002/bart-ehrman-answers-my-question

54

The Divine Name in the NT: Some Reflections

by Let go of fear in

i've been fascinated with this topic for some time now, almost to the point of obsession.

after researching the issue for several years, i have come to a conclusion/theory that i would love to receive some feedback on.

this theory of mine is one that will be somewhat unsettling to both those who believe the divine name was used in the original nt scripts as well as those who believe it wasn't.

Terry

The evidence is evidence.

You either have evidence or you don't have evidence.

If you have it, you cite it--if you don't have it, you must make a choice requiring personal integrity.

Do you manufacture your own personal preference into shape and try bending the facts to support it----OR----do you wait on more evidence and go along with the consensus by experts?

The Watchtower religion is dishonest intellectually and factually. The belief system is corrupt and counterfeit. The basic reason for this is the dishonest manipulation of available evidence.

Jehovah's Witnesses are way outside mainstream scholarship. They ignore what they do NOT like because it doesn't fit their pet beliefs.

The corruption of their character is evident by the dishonest way they partially quote 'experts' to support their theology.

So, why do Ex-JW's follow down the same path?

Because it is the only thing they know. It is a procedure they've absorbed into their own reasoning.

Leave brain surgery to brain surgeons. Don't go drilling holes in your own head or practice on the head of others. Trepanning was attempted by primitive man with the same dire results.

55

why did man go from living 900 years to 90?

by sowhatnow in

i cant recall the scripture, where it says than only a few men will he live to be 80 years or so, can anyone recall that?.

so then im wondering, if it is a fact that men lived long years 900 in some cases, for what reason would god limit our lifespan if our time is so short compared to his?.

how on earth does man go from living 8 and 9 hundred years down to 80 to 100 ?.

Terry

There were no NUMBERS in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin. . . only LETTERS of the alphabet.

Those letters did 'double-duty' being used as symbols for quantity also.

That should clue all of us today about how lame civilization was--not even creating separate figures for purposes of arithmetic.

But, the ancients grew accustomed to using the letters both ways.

However, as you may well imagine, there were many digressions into confusion.

If you ever have a spare moment, read all about the nonsense which resulted from mixing letters as numbers.

Superstitious people relied on mystics (bullshit artists pretending to have special knowledge) to divine things using GEMATRIA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria