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For some the origins of the caste system are found in the poem, Purusha Sukta, in the 10th book of the Rig-Veda, whose ten books are generally judged as dating back to the second half of the second millennium b.c.e. In the Purusha Sukta, the four chief castes -- the Brahmin (essentially, the...

Nothing that you say here has anything at all to do with anything I've said here. I'm talking here about Jesus's apparent self-image of himself, which has nothing to do with what he may or may not have actually been -- an entirely different question. It's obvious that you're making no effort...

Or at least, not a biological son of god in the way understood by most fundamentalists. I trust modern scholarship from the professional modern largely skeptical and entirely secular academic community more than I do the more traditional take by however many traditional believers. Modern...

A story which is not entirely unlikely, BTW. Cheers, Operacast

Uh-huh, I see. Evidently, for you, caps lock is the only way to get through: FOR THE HUNDREDTH TIME, I'M TALKING ABOUT JOSEPHUS'S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF JAMES'S EXECUTION IN JOSEPHUS'S ANTIQUITIES XX. YOU'RE TALKING -- AND TALKING AND TALKING AND TALKING -- ABOUT THE PARAGRAPH IN...

You're talking in circles. "Getting his story straight" when Origen cites Josephus's entirely autobiographical Antiquities XX reference to James no fewer than three times? Origen refers to Josephus's autobiographical account of James in Origen's Contra Celsum I.4, Contra Celsum II:13 and in...

Excuse me: We're not talking about Josephus acknowledging some kind of cloud boy. We're talking about Origen's triple confirmation of Josephus's citing an entirely human individual instead: a human brother of a man who was executed exactly where/when Josephus himself was living as a young man...

I would make these points myself, save that a certain Tim O'Neill at "Secular Cafe" makes them more pithily and clearly -- "[Josephus] was a 25-26 year old aristocratic Jew [quite unsympathetic toward Christians, BTW -- ed.] and a member of the dominant priestly elite. In 63 AD he ha[d]...

At the same time, I've found, to my surprise, that thinking along those lines is not entirely unprecedented among (some of) today's skeptics. If you want to know to what degree that which is tongue-in-cheek in one context (the bizarre thread referenced in the OP) may be deadly serious in...

Is this really meant as a joke?! Or not? And if it is a joke, then ....... just what kind of joke is this supposed to be? rationalia.com • View topic - So... the First Great Atheist Holy War, who's up for it? Thoughts? Operacast

Are you being serious here? The events referenced in the pertinent sentence in Antiq. 20 are not even addressed in Galatians or Mark. There is no analogy here to what you're describing at all. Instead, what emerges in Antiq. 20 are a different series of events in which James figures...

And however common the names of James and Jesus, we have, first of all, a tradition, however scanty, of 1. two brothers called James and Jesus; 2. James called up for a capital trial by the Temple priesthood; 3. Jesus acquiring the nickname of "Christ" by the great unwashed. These are three...

Time to let the other shoe drop on this OP. A few of the mythers do get the distinction between the entirely human Jesus of Nazareth and the magic man called Christ. But they often pretend that it doesn't exist and that Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ are one and the same in order purely to...

I'm curious: What might be your takeaway from this paragraph? What kinds of implications do you find in what the writer says, and can you give a detailed paraphrase of what's written here, please? "There are earlier references, but they aren't any good. They either just repeat what...

Have finally checked that up. Thanks! (Have been snowed under with deadlines!) That isn't really the posting I've been looking for -- although it is a section of the overly humongous post I submitted to this thread. The chief question here is "how did you come to believe or follow a...

BINGO! Thank you! 'Tis fixed -- dummy me: I run a web site; I should think of these things myself. Anyway, problem solved; I'm back in business. Again, thanks and cheers, Operacast

HELP!! Something's terribly wrong. I've lost all access to my private INBOX!! I click on the Notifications link, and there's no sign of the usual drop-down menu at all. The whole page just flickers a bit -- and nothing!! I go onto my profile page, and all I see is a profile of recent...

Thanks for saying that. I just have to tell you that I've been driving myself bats trying to find that other thread. Can't. I wanted to provide that link originally and not impose the full nine yards on readers here twice. But as it is, I put it here too. Could you possibly direct us to...

Fair enough -- not surprised. <shrug> Cheers, Operacast

Chapter #19 As far as I'm concerned, any figures with "keys" to ultimate divine understanding remain primarily the three I've singled out. Yes, I'm aware that very few others may view things in quite this way, but for me, the texts associated with these three appear to deal with reasonably...