Is the Christian story a myth?

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Mendalla said:
UUs have religious education curricula that do precisely this. It's kind of our thing, really, given that our fourth principle is a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning" and our sources include pretty much all of human thought once you unpack them a bit.

One interesting point: I have known at least one person raised UU who ended up evangelical Christian. So, even someone raised with a fairly rationalist, critical approach to religious and philosophical ideas can be drawn to that tradition.
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It happens quite a bit. The thing is, it's then an informed choice. I myself identified as Christian for a few years despite my upbringing. I sought ordination back in the '80's since I was involved so heavily in my church community and had encouragement to do so. I was dissuaded though when I went back to university and my world expanded and I was exposed to different views. Also, I was defeated by the necessity of learning OT Latin or NT Greek.
 
ninj said:
Also, I was defeated by the necessity of learning OT Latin or NT Greek.
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OT isn't in Latin, it's in Hebrew. :giggle: Unless you're starting from the Vulgate, which I would not. That's a very out-of-date Latin translation at this point.

I could probably handle NT Greek. I did Attic Greek in my Classics program and they did talk a bit about the differences between it and koine.
 
Listen, I know there are few fundamentalist, or rather literalist Christians here. I wouldn't insult your rational faculties either.
I just think teaching religion as a coping mechanism isn't helpful in the world now. There are more wholesome ways to find meaning imho.
Not sure if Jesus existed-- pretty sure he didn't, (based on what I've read), but the essential teachings would be valuable if they were actually transmitted as such independent of the "Christian message". I'm sure, as (pop quiz --who said it? Hint Anglican.) Said, Christ did not come to proclaim himself".
 
Mendalla said:
OT isn't in Latin, it's in Hebrew. :giggle: Unless you're starting from the Vulgate, which I would not. That's a very out-of-date Latin translation at this point.

I could probably handle NT Greek. I did Attic Greek in my Classics program and they did talk a bit about the differences between it and koine.
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Aramaic?
 
ninj said:
Aramaic?
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That another one. Hebrew, NT Greek, Aramaic. You could probably do a whole university degree just learning the languages used in Jewish and Christian scriptures. :D Add Arabic if you want to get Islam into the mix.
 
Mendalla said:
That another one. Hebrew, NT Greek, Aramaic. You could probably do a whole university degree just learning the languages used in Jewish and Christian scriptures. :D Add Arabic if you want to get Islam into the mix.
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With my mental block resolved, I now recall it was OT Aramaic. Of course I had to dig up and look at my transcripts starting in '89. I actually took only 2 RS courses, plus some other prerequisites because I figured out first term this wasn't going to be my direction.
If it had been, I would have ended up at Huron
 
I did not notice anyone on this thread promoting teaching any particular religion. I believe most people on this thread agree that the stories in the Bible are all myth to some degree. The Hebrew stories usually have more truth about human nature in them than the Christian ones though there is truth about human nature and living in some of the Christian stories.
 
I also think all stories in the mythopoetic sense can be valuable and therapeutic in personal counseling. No one takes them literally.
 
ninj said:
No one takes them literally.
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Of course not, because that literally de-values them.

I love many authors, both fiction and non-fiction. The ones I love make me think, and think deeply. As many know, I'm a particular fan of Neil Gaiman, and one of the primary reasons is that he loves to recycle old stories, often from other cultures. The Anansi Boys is a favourite (of mine) re-telling of one of the Anansi spider stories from Africa.
 
Ooh, and I'm with you Ninj. I too considered ordination in the 90s, prompted by some people in my congregation. I had three insurmountable problems: i) I have not got a pastoral bone in my body; ii) I have spent too much of my life flirting with addiction(s), and iii) Hebrew. I cannot do the back to front, right to left thing (my eyes do not work that way; I have been reading English, very quickly, my entire life minus about 3 years; I have read Lord of the Rings cover to cover in a day, more than once).
 
BetteTheRed said:
Ooh, and I'm with you Ninj. I too considered ordination in the 90s, prompted by some people in my congregation. I had three insurmountable problems: i) I have not got a pastoral bone in my body; ii) I have spent too much of my life flirting with addiction(s), and iii) Hebrew. I cannot do the back to front, right to left thing (my eyes do not work that way; I have been reading English, very quickly, my entire life minus about 3 years; I have read Lord of the Rings cover to cover in a day, more than once).
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Before giving up on the notion, I thought, "Well at least it's a job." That's when I knew it was probably not a good idea.
 
ninj said:
With my mental block resolved, I now recall it was OT Aramaic. Of course I had to dig up and look at my transcripts starting in '89. I actually took only 2 RS courses, plus some other prerequisites because I figured out first term this wasn't going to be my direction.
If it had been, I would have ended up at Huron
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You recall incorrectly! Except for a small section of Daniel, the OT was written in Hebrew, not Aramaic.

btw, the way, when the Greek Gospels are retroverted to Jesus' original Aramaic, all sorts of corny puns emerge that are lost in translation.
With these puns, Jesus was going for smiles, and so, they illustrate a neglected historical quest--the quest to illumine Jesus' personality as opposed to His character, example, and teaching.

What is sad is that atheists here have no clue how to connect the Gospels with eyewitness testimony or even why Josephus' testimony to Jesus is almost universally accepted by scholars, despite some debate over early Christian scribes slightly altered the Testimonium Flavianum.
 
Mystic said:
You recall incorrectly! Except for a small section of Daniel, the OT was written in Hebrew, not Aramaic.

btw, the way, when the Greek Gospels are retroverted to Jesus' original Aramaic, all sorts of corny puns emerge that are lost in translation.
With these puns, Jesus was going for smiles, and so, they illustrate a neglected historical quest--the quest to illumine Jesus' personality as opposed to His character, example, and teaching.

What is sad is that atheists here have no clue how to connect the Gospels with eyewitness testimony or even why Josephus' testimony to Jesus is almost universally accepted by scholars, despite some debate over early Christian scribes slightly altered the Testimonium Flavianum.
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Because atheists have no need to do anything of the kind.
 
Mystic said:
In other words, "I (an atheist) have my deeply entrenched beliefs; so please don't confuse me with relevant facts."
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One could almost read that as your own autobiographical statement. Why would a non-theist need to do such a thing?
 
The question of the OP is "Is the Christian story a myth?".

Riffs into the underlying needs of theists and non-theists, are distracting?

Of course, the Christian story is of myth, as is the Jewish story, the Muslim story, the Buddhist story, etc.

Myths are the stories we use to explain "why what is is what is".
 
If anyone is interested in a close examination of "how to tease out what we believe from what our cultural myths are", check out Daniel Quinn. His first book, Ishmael, is probably the simplest and clearest of his writings (and he's very methodical about getting to the innermost philosophical questions). He gets murkier in the next two books of the trilogy, and some of his novels are, from my limited exploration of a fairly small output, a bit wyrd and dissociative.
 
Redbaron said:
One could almost read that as your own autobiographical statement. Why would a non-theist need to do such a thing?
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Well, there is the little matter of the intellectual integrity of atheistic philosophy, especially if one presumes to make critical claims about Christian theism.
 
Mystic said:
the little matter of the intellectual integrity of atheistic philosophy
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Render me even further confused.

What does a discussion about mythology as applied to Christian/Jewish sacred texts have to do with atheism? Never mind some amorphous single philosophy known as atheism. @Mendalla, dear philosophy major, do enlighten Berserk with some of the highlights of historical non-theistic BS?

And intellectual integrity? Let's all submit our posts to some sort of on-line religious forum journal review process shall we? You go first (and let us know when/where you find it, and whether they have a category called "pompous ancient wrinkly ass")
 
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