Sam Harris.org Reader Forum

Historical Interaction with Bible

2013-05-19T14:22:38+00:00

When Scripture was essentially one long word, having no spaces between words, no vowels, and no punctuation; it also had a language the people didn’t speak and was a book to be read aloud (not quietly) making the felt experience of the book as something utterly mysterious, which only the priests could handle. The movement from Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic to Latin reached its height as the vernacular moved from Latin into Italian, Spanish, and French. Only as the work became accessible by printing, by vernacular, by word spaces, vowels, punctuation did we discover the internal contradictions created by copyists. Luther never guessed that his movement would one day culminate in undermining Luther.

Historical Jesus

2013-05-11T02:05:51+00:00

Jesus the Jewish Rabi that lived around the 1st of the century, who was crucified by the romans. Did he historically exist? After doing the research, I was shocked to find out as to not only the limited amount of writings, but how far they turn up after the event. The earliest known writings that can be found, are dated 40 years after Jesus death. To add poison to the wound, the only non-Christian historian that most biblical scholars can agree on is Josephus, a Jewish writer that wrote about the history of the Jews. Josephus mentions Jesus twice in his writings one debated and the other known to be….(I forgot the biblical scholar word for it, not forged but added too or changed). The reason why they know it was tampered with, is because it does not match up to what a Jewish Rabi would say about someone. In other words no Jewish Rabi would ever claim that someone was God, or the messiah. Who ever attempted to change that was a fool, because if he would of left it alone would of done more to prove that Jesus actually existed, and would of went a lot farther for his cause. That’s Karma for you. However, somewhere else Josephus gives reference to James brother Jesus and I believe that somewhere he even makes mention to John the Baptist. There are a lot of other writings that mention Jesus, however biblical scholars destroy them for one reason or another and I DO NOT have time to go through them all. I, in the end, believe that a man named Jesus did exist. But this does nothing to prove Christianity. In fact, I believe if Jesus the Jewish Rabi, were to somehow come back to life, he would be horrified as to how the Christians not only what they did in his name, but they claimed him to be GOD!
A good reference for Biblical scholarship for the Atheist would be Bart Ehrman, I watched a lot of his interviews and debates on YouTube…a must see. And I will be buying his books.

charwiz

Now the fundies are against reason and the enlightenment

2013-05-06T21:38:04+00:00

I recall Sam saying that even religious people would be very unlikely to declare themselves against reason and the enlightenment.
But now that has actually happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFtXvX9Eoe8

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, or something else.
I’ll try laughing hysterically so I won’t have to think about it.

I have to admit I desperately need people like “The Four Horsemen” to try to bring some reason to the world, and fight the retardation of the human race, that religion generally seem to bring.
Otherwise I see myself turning to George Carlin like cynicism, and becoming an entropy fan.

Padre Pio and Jiddu Krishnamurti

2013-04-04T17:53:35+00:00

From 1973 to 1975 I was authorized to bring the gloves of Padre Pio to the sick; in 1980 via the physicist David Bohm I dialogued with Jiddu Krishnamurti. I told the latter he did not have a superficial anti-theology but he undermined all non- scientific systems of thought. Jiddu and I agreed that Padre Pio had extraordinary mystical phenomena, encouched in a system that could look proven due to the phenomena. At the Jung Inst. in Zurich (1984) I lectured that there is no correct path in life…only a correct act: get off your path. The act of getting off moves ahimsa, wu wei, zazen into satori…the I in great awareness moves into the temporary disappearance of the I and vast awareness.

Suddenly a new Pope

2013-03-14T20:46:53+00:00

HI,
I would like to hear from any Catholic, or anyone else, who can explain how a man can be elevated closer to God because of a two thirds majority vote and can now have more power than what he had before he was the Pope. I mean, to every Catholic being blessed by the Pope is better than being blessed by a mere Priest or even a Cardinal.
And what about the Pope who just recently “retired” does he maintain his blessing power, presumeably he got this from God, or does he have to leave that power on the small table near the front door of the Vatican when he leaves.
Also, where does it mention in the Bible we need to have a Pope, Cardinals, Bishops etc. who have to vote with a two thirds majority for an new Pope who will now stand between God and the rest of us.
Do you think the Catholic church tends to give itself some sort of divine power that no other doctrine seems to have.

“If you really really believe it, It must be true”

Our sin debt has been settled

2013-03-14T20:37:56+00:00

The great secret that was revealed to Paul is a gift of grace, a free gift. In God’s sight our sin debt has been settled, we stand in righteousness before him right now. He sees us seated with Christ in heaven, we are right now the praise of the glory of his grace throughout eternity. It follows logically that this secret must not be read into the four Gospels or into the book of Revelation.

Paul’s insistence upon the reality of our union with Christ, as having died and risen again in him. The Apostle unfolds to us, we died with Christ, our standing being complete and perfect in Christ, we cannot grow in this standing. We may grow in the knowledge, experience, and enjoyment of it, our life is the outcome of our belief.

If we are ignorant of this free gift, we are easy prey for every minister of righteousness who may rise up. Nothing more is needed to be added, their is not a ordinance on the face of the earth that can make us complete. We don’t need to pass a satisfactory examination, or take another class, we stand in righteousness before God right now.

As Ambassadors of the Ministry of Reconciliation

2013-03-11T20:49:12+00:00

We see that we need to die to self, although our salvation is not dependent upon how well we accomplish this. Yet, as ambassadors of the ministry of reconciliation, our witness is dependent upon how well we accomplish this. Dying to self, is never portrayed as something optional, it is the reality of being born anew; unless we are willing to see our old lives crucified with Christ and begin to live anew in obedience to him. Dying to self is something you can take very literal; you will die in every way possible in order to be someone you are not.

This does not mean that when we “die to self” we become inactive or insensible, nor do we feel ourselves to be dead. The entire concept seems a bit strange to our natural eyes. Rather, dying to self means that the things of the old life are put to death, most especially the sinful ways and lifestyles we once engaged in. Dying to self is not fun or easy, but what is particularly difficult about fighting this tendency is that it is not exactly a behavior or action. It can certainly manifest itself in those forms, but underneath them is an attitude.

Dying to self is a real change of mind and attitude towards sin itself and the cause of it. Dying to self is a change in our principle action from what is by nature the exact opposite. Seeing that our old lives are being crucified with Christ is an experience of every one who is the subject of the grace of God. Dying to self is not the experience of one man in two successive stages, but the co-existence of the two experiences in the one man at the same time. Which experience will we feed the most, the old nature or the new nature?

Reconciliation, an accomplished fact

2013-03-08T22:19:03+00:00

Reconciliation is an accomplished fact. It is entirely outside of yourself, and it is simply to be received. There is a new view of living, no longer for self, but for God; to die to self and live to Christ.

God has taken the initiative to reconcile man back to himself. God is not reconciled to man, as though God were partly to blame for the enmity. Rather, man is reconciled to God, for it is man who moved away from God. When people need to be reconciled to one another, it normally involves a situation where fault lies on both sides to some degree. Not so with the case between man and God, man has moved away from God, and it is man who needs to be reconciled back to God, not God back to man.

The basic idea of reconciling is to change or make otherwise. This is the reverse of Hellenistic religion, where it is the human being that seeks restoration of the gods’ favor, and also of Judaism, where confession of sin and repentance are the means by which reconciliation with God is sought. It is not that we must reconcile ourselves to God. Rather, we are to be reconciled, that is, to accept what God has already achieved.

It is not merely that we acquire a right standing or do good works; we actually become righteous. For through what Christ had accomplished, we truly assume his righteousness, just as Christ assumed our sin. If our debts are not posted to our account, it is because someone else has legally assumed them. Christ righteousness ours, and our sin his.

God is Asleep ...

2013-02-27T15:47:42+00:00

“As his papacy entered its final hours, Pope Benedict XIV admitted on Wednesday that his eight-year spell as head of the Roman Catholic church had had its “difficult moments” when he felt that God ‘seemed to be sleeping.”

Article

Maybe God was just too busy, helping decide the outcome of sporting events, dealing with natural disasters, and blessing the various nations and people asking for his time and attention. If God is sleeping at times of need for His Holiness, that would not seem to bode well for the rest of us.

Seriously, this seems to be a very telling insight, both as a personal observation and in the context of the resignation of man serving as the Vicar of Jesus Christ and successor of St. Peter. Perhaps one more teaching/learning moment in the evolution of our species.

Paul’s gospel must be accepted

2013-02-16T16:00:41+00:00

Paul’s gospel must be accepted, it must be believed today, and you can be sure that confusion concerning that gospel through the use of a counterfeit gospel; a gospel that looks so much like Paul’s gospel that you’d not know the difference, if you didn’t clearly know Paul’s gospel, will be Satan’s focus in this age of grace.

One of Satan’s purpose in this age of grace is to confuse Paul’s gospel with a gospel so nearly to it, and there are many people out there today saying all you have to do is to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and you’re saved. They believe this in almost every church across the board that Christ died, was buried and rose again, but what do they believe was accomplished by that death, burial and resurrection?

In their minds, they were separating themselves for God by their sin, and Paul is saying that God has already reconciled you where your sins are concerned. God is reconciled where the sins of the world are concerned, because he imputed those sins to Christ, that all who would believe what he imputed to Christ, that that resolved the sin issue forever, and are now joined to his son and have his righteousness freely counted to them, or imputed to their account.

Paul called it the ministry of reconciliation, Christ fulfilled the law for us, so we are identified with the righteousness of Christ the moment we take God at his word, obedient to the faith, concerning what Christ accomplished on our behalf. Today our service comes not out of apprehension to any of those things; our service today comes based solely on our appreciation for what Christ has already done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dcdkkkgEcE