Jesus and Siddhartha Gautama

[Cypress]

Agreed people wrote differently in those days, which is why modern people can misunderstand certain concepts or take a certain translation literally instead of understanding a translation can include a lot of opinion or bias on the part of the translator. This, too, also figures into the cultural bias of the translator.

As anyone who has ever playing the game “Telephone” or “Gossip” or has met a fisherman knows, stories change through the retelling. Legends grow. This explains why there are differences between the Gospels on certain identical events such as how many, if any, angels were in Christ’s tomb. IMO, due to the human-induced flaws, to understand Christ requires reading all of the Gospels and trying to understand the general gist of what he was teaching rather than cherry-picking specific quotes to define everything Christ was teaching.

Good insights.

Don't even get me started on the problems induced by multiple attempts at traslation of the New Testament, from the archaic Greek, to Latin, to the verbacular German and Middle English. There is no way that some original nuance, intent, and intangibles were not lost in the transliteration beween languages.

I will give Islam credit for discouraging translation of the Koran from the original Arabic into other languages, thus circumventing any corruption of what is purported to be God's actual words as delivered in Arabic by the archangel Gabriel

[Cypress]

Sure....


On this site I have always been surprised, in a mostly disappointed kinda way that some of the more prominent self proclaiming hard ass Christian never start threads on the topic, & some almost never started any threads when I arrived, & that is out of several thousand posts..

They're here to defend trump, not their faith, whatever that may mean or be.......

Have a great night!!!

My message board experience is that interested agnostics frequently know more about Christian history and theology than bible thumping right wing posters who self identify as supposedly devout Christians

[Bill]

Good insights.

Don't even get me started on the problems induced by multiple attempts at traslation of the New Testament, from the archaic Greek, to Latin, to the verbacular German and Middle English. There is no way that some original nuance, intent, and intangibles were not lost in the transliteration beween languages.

I will give Islam credit for discouraging translation of the Koran from the original Arabic into other languages, thus circumventing any corruption of what is purported to be God's actual words as delivered in Arabic by the archangel Gabriel

I wonder why Gab told Joseph Smith the American something totally different??

21 And again, the voice of God in the chamber of old aFather Whitmer, in Fayette, Seneca county, and at sundry times, and in divers places through all the travels and tribulations of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! And the voice of Michael, the archangel; the voice of bGabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers cangels, from Michael or dAdam down to the present time, all declaring their edispensation, their rights, their fkeys, their honors, their majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood; giving line upon line, gprecept upon precept; here a little, and there a little; giving us consolation by holding forth that which is to come, confirming our hhope!

[Bill]

My message board experience is that interested agnostics frequently know more about Christian history and theology than bible thumping right wing posters who self identify as supposedly devout Christians

Mine as well......

I have posted on some Religious boards & Christian boards but not in quite a while.. Most were strongly moderated & the mix of minds (not thoughts) was about the same as any boards I been on..

A long time board friend, he even posted here for brief moment TCat was exactly that.. Never meet anyone more knowledgeable. @ one time he was a Catholic I think, or was raised so but was agnostic & really knew his stuff......

In their defense I have often heard that defending the faith/religion etc is not why they are here but @ the same time hold that their beliefs & values are reflected in their politics.

Be that as it may

[TexanManWithPlans]

Jesus and Buddha never existed. They're mythological religious figures. For the first couple of centuries, Christians couldn't even agree on when Jesus lived. Buddhists still debate what century Buddha lived in.

[Cypress]

Jesus and Buddha never existed. They're mythological religious figures. For the first couple of centuries, Christians couldn't even agree on when Jesus lived. Buddhists still debate what century Buddha lived in.

The historicity of Jesus is well established, and is supported by multiple independent sources - Christian, Roman, and Jewish - written within a few decades of his execution. That is a renarkable trove of written documentation about someone who was essentially just a peasant by ancient standards.

Siddhartha Gautama is less well established historically since sources which discuss him were not written until several centuries after his presumed death. However, I believe the consensus opinion among religious scholars is that there is a kernel of historicity about the stories of Siddhartha Gautama

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

I dispute that either of them said shit about the greater good. that's a totalitarian overlay. very masony.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

you goons need to watch a video on mark passio and natural law.

[Bill]

Jesus and Buddha never existed. They're mythological religious figures. For the first couple of centuries, Christians couldn't even agree on when Jesus lived. Buddhists still debate what century Buddha lived in.

Do you base that on something??

[StoneByStone]

This was originally posted on another thread. Slightly edited from the original.

Although not a Christian myself, at least not a conventional Christian, I was raised as one and my wife is a devout Christian. I strongly support Christian values even though I doubt the divinity of Christ.

There is a lot of commonality between Jesus of Nazareth and Siddhartha Gautama. It would not surprise me if there was eventual proof that the missing years between when Jesus was 12 and 33 were spent in India.

Regardless of religion or spiritual beliefs, people can see the glass as half full or half empty, they can see people as mostly good or mostly bad and they can seek to fly with the good angels or the dark ones, with group with good people or bad.

I forget who, but a Zen master once said (and I paraphrase) "Jesus and Siddhartha are the same except one was the son of a carpenter and the other a son of a king". Both had a religion formed around them even though I strongly doubt that was their intent. Both espoused points of view that emphasized forgiveness, peace and trying to better oneself for the greater good.

Please try to stay on topic. No one is banned from commenting and derails are expected but if someone ignores warnings to stay on topic or keep the conversation civil, they will be asked to leave.

I really don't get this whole "I'm not Christian but I respect Christianity" thing. All religion is stupid, but religions like Christianity and Islam preach that if you don't worship a god that is literally a mass murderer, then you get punished for eternity. These are not religions that produce a healthy mindset.
I don't know if Jesus ever really existed, but if he did, he wasn't a great teacher or spiritual leader. He was probably mentally ill and preached tyranny.

[Doc Dutch]

I really don't get this whole "I'm not Christian but I respect Christianity" thing. All religion is stupid, but religions like Christianity and Islam preach that if you don't worship a god that is literally a mass murderer, then you get punished for eternity. These are not religions that produce a healthy mindset.
I don't know if Jesus ever really existed, but if he did, he wasn't a great teacher or spiritual leader. He was probably mentally ill and preached tyranny.

All of which is a good reason for more people to understand the difference between faith and religion.

[StoneByStone]

All of which is a good reason for more people to understand the difference between faith and religion.

Spiritual faith is believing things without evidence, which is stupid and dangerous. Religion is basing a whole philosophy around spiritual faith.

[Bill]

I really don't get this whole "I'm not Christian but I respect Christianity" thing. All religion is stupid, but religions like Christianity and Islam preach that if you don't worship a god that is literally a mass murderer, then you get punished for eternity. These are not religions that produce a healthy mindset.
I don't know if Jesus ever really existed, but if he did, he wasn't a great teacher or spiritual leader. He was probably mentally ill and preached tyranny.

In what way did he preach tyranny.....???

[StoneByStone]

In what way did he preach tyranny.....???

He preached the worship of a god that demands strict obedience to insane rules under penalty of eternal punishment. This produces a mindset that easily lends itself to Fascism. It teaches people that behaving like a madman dictator is ok.
And it's no coincidence that Europe was most oppressed when it was ruled by the Catholic Church. According to the Bible, we're supposed to obey our kings and emperors without question.

[Bill]

He preached the worship of a god that demands strict obedience to insane rules under penalty of eternal punishment. This produces a mindset that easily lends itself to Fascism. It teaches people that behaving like a madman dictator is ok.
And it's no coincidence that Europe was most oppressed when it was ruled by the Catholic Church. According to the Bible, we're supposed to obey our kings and emperors without question.

He laid out a choice, IMHO.

He never forced it upon anyone, "you decide what you want"..........