God and the blind Tailors

Why does that God reveal itself in so many different ways then?All religions cannot be correct, but they can all be incorrect.

Why would the Hebrew God choose you when you worship Jesus, an obvious imposter?

Hi Rev, What I meant was why would that God reveal (as in informing us who it is) itself to Moses and Yahweh, to Muhammad as Allah (through Gabriel), and through countelss Hindu 'prophets' as Brahman?These provide quite a varied range to be based on the same being.

If he existed the he was obviously an imposter, another failed messiah. He clearly wasn't the prophesised messiah of the Tanakh. You should read the Old Testament sometime, then compare it with the NT, then discover what lengths the authors of the NT went to in their ripping out of context 'prophecies', and their general poor undertsanding of the OT. Apparently some better than others. Wonderful. Of course this prophecy, which isn't even messianic, cannot apply to anyone 'born' 700 years after this was given. The author of Matthew made a major error here Rev, you should read it in context. And supported her State terrorism as she slaughtered thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. It does indeed, but not in the way you and many other misinformed people think.Have a good one.

My credentials and beliefs?

B.A. (Hons) World Religions/History University of Stirling
M.Theology. University of Glasgow
Dip.ed Unversity of Stirling
Currently, M.A. Archaeology and Ancient History University of Leicester. Yes, but there are qualifications and there are qualifications. If someone has a qualification from a Christian college then obviously the material and lecturers would be biased towards that faith. I am an atheist, I don't identify with any religion.The slaughter of innocent Palestinians (and I am not saying all of them are innocent) by Israel is a brute fact.Anyway, onwards and upwards as they say.Your opinion on the 'prophecy' of Isaiah 7:14 appears to reflect the common misunderstanding that Christians have of that verse, have you looked at this prophecy in context?

Personally, I couldn’t care less one way or the other if Jesus existed or not, but what I do find astonishing is the utter lack of contemporary evidence to support a historical Jesus. But Jesus did NOTHING that was expected of the Messiah. The Messiah was to set Israel free from her enemies, Jesus did not do this, in fact Israel was even more persecuted after Jesus was said to have died.What exactly has Jesus ‘saved’ people from, and how is this related to the Jewish messiah? Well, I’m not convinced if Jesus did change the world or was it BELIEF in Jesus that changed the world?Would it not be more accurate to declare that Paul changed the world? As I said though, graduating from a Christian institution only requires that you regurgitate the party line, would you still have graduated if you had pointed out the errors in Christian thought? For example, how would your lecturers have taken to you pointing out that Isaiah 7:14 obviously had to be fulfilled a very short time after the prophecy was made or the point of the prophecy would be lost? I’m still in school! It’s not really my interpretation, it’s the only conclusion that one can arrive at if the text is read in context. The prophecy was made to King Ahaz to inform him that an alliance against him will fail, the young girl’s conception and birth of her child is the sign that this prophecy is true, so how can Jesus’ ‘birth’ 700 years later be a sign to Ahaz? Why should anyone give credence to a Christian interpretation of Jewish scripture?Perhaps the best way to approach this is to try and take an objective approach, critically analyse it without the religious spectacles on and it is obviously not about a child 700 years in the future. If only Britain had taken this approach the war against the IRA would have been finished in days!Civilised people do not slaughter a thousand innocent people in order to kill one terrorist, no other nation in the world would get away with the war crimes that Israel has got away with. I don’t think anyone needs a special gift to realise that Christians believe that ‘Immanuel’ means that God is with us in person, however that is not what 7:14 is saying.Finally, when was Jesus ever called Immanuel?

Hi Theo, Isn't there a distinct possibility that Tacitus' has also been tampered with a la Josephus?

Hi Theo,Thanks for taking the time to post that link, what an excellent site as well, I ended up spending a few hours there!I thought there was something up with the Tacitus reference but I didn't realise that some mss were as blatanly tampered with.What a sham Christianity is. Invented by liars, kept going by liars, and followed by liars and the psychologically unsound, why on Earth I once believed in this BS I will never know, I suppose I should just be grateful that I woke up before wasting away my entire life on this garbage.

No one has hijacked your thread.Your claim is that the Jesus 'suit' fits God better than any other 'suit', we are just pointing out that the Jesus suit is still at the tailors.If you would like to chat at a decent academic level you can email me at bj25 le ac uk. I know forums are not the ideal way to improve our knowledge so I too would welcome the opportunity to discuss my research conclusions.Edited by Brian, : spelling and url format

Has the good Rev bailed out of the kitchen?

Hi Phat,At the moment im studying for my M.A. in Archaeology and Ancient History at Uni of Leicester. To make ends meet I have taken on a high school job teaching Religious, Moral, and Philosophical Studies. The higher philosophy is good, the other topics (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Morality in the Modern World) are a bit routine but I'm sure I'll jazz them up a bit. I am creating a Judaism unit for the school, which will begin August 2010, so I have got a lot on my plate at the moment.I was going to go back to University of Glasgow to tutor Intro to Old Testament as Literature but the hours on offer were too few.But the archaeology is going well, I have really enjoyed it so far.What about yourself, still living in the dark?

Well Phat I believe that we all just need to be honest decent people and you certainly are that. If there's a god that wants to condemn decent honest people then it doesn't deserve our devotion.

I think there's a world of difference between teaching ABOUT religions than there is teaching religions. My stance is from a historical, sociological perspective, in the hope that this breeds tolerance and understanding into my students. At high school it is all very basic and we are given a curriculum to follow so it is straightforward. The most difficult thing for a teacher at high school is discipline, and I don't really get many discipline issues in my classes.It's not really organised religions I'm against, it's the forcing of these beliefs onto others that annoys me. It's the rampant arrogance of these 'saved' people who have to shout their salvation from the rooftops and verbally condemn all others who annoy me. I'm quite happy for people to have a faith but keep it to themselves, stop indoctrinating kids and spreading hate all the time.I've always maintained that the OT is an incredible collection of texts, but that is all it is, it is not a magical book written by God, and it is not to be taken literally. Literalists are insulting the Bible and it's authors, and are looking for a gimmick to support their weak faith.

Well I ahev the feeling he thought we might be sponges like his flock and he is miffed at us for not swallowing everything he said without question.Oh well, he didn't really offer anything new I suppose. I'm sure another one will be along soon, we might even get a challenging one sometime.