HISTORICAL METHOD and the Question of Christian Origins

zyzygy said:

Stay tuned to what you post. Do you have any science that supports creationism?

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PLEASE -- stay with the topic. Don't let the goading get to you.


Recent readings have me looking at the multiple versions of the faith which existed in the late First and on into the Fourth Centuries. What we know today of the origins is primarily a result of the melding of what is called "orthodox" Christianity with the structure of power found in the Roman Empire. One of those groups deleted from history was known as the Nazorians or Nasoreans, who believed that Jesus lived and died in the early First Century BCE, approximately 50 to 70 years before the time attributed to the Jesus we know. Another sect were those who believed they still had to observe all the laws found in the Torah, including male circumcision, to be seen as true followers of the Messiah - this dispute is mentioned in Galatians 2.

Physical - legal and military - power seems to be as crucial to the formation of the faith that came into being by the Fifth Century, as any of the preachings and teachings by those designated Apostle.

zyzygy said:

Witnessing what? Is the Mahabharata a history book?

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Witnessing is the way how humans recorded down we they claimed to have encountered/happened. History is referred by humans to be history because the recorded documents are comprehendable to them. As for religious documents, they can be records of encounters not comprehendable to humans. Unless you think that humans have already understood everything both inside and outside this universe, the one and only way for humans to reach a truth not understandable to may come first as an account of witnessing, that is, a record written down by humans who have a direct encounter to this uncomprehendable truth.

Hawkins said:

Witnessing is the way how humans recorded down we they claimed to have encountered/happened. History is referred by humans to be history because the recorded documents are comprehendable to them. As for religious documents, they can be records of encounters not comprehendable to humans. Unless you think that humans have already understood everything both inside and outside this universe, the one and only way for humans to reach a truth not understandable to may come first as an account of witnessing, that is, a record written down by humans who have a direct encounter to this uncomprehendable truth.

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Or they may be fiction.

zyzygy said:

Or they may be fiction.

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That's possible. So when it's said that "there's a bomb", it's always possible that it's a hoax. It's a matter of if you choose to stay because of that possibility.