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The Debate Hall Social Thread

adumbrodeus

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I think in this case, the first thing worth doing would be to actually read the Bible. I promise, I'll do it eventually. 8P
Reading the bible without the proper translation and the proper background usually turns you into either an evengelical or an edgy teenaged atheist who spouts memes about how Jesus is an exact copy of Horus :(

But seriously, better to go into it with some sort of academic companion that you're reading along the way, otherwise you get messy preconceptions.
 

Sehnsucht

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Reading the bible without the proper translation and the proper background usually turns you into either an evengelical or an edgy teenaged atheist who spouts memes about how Jesus is an exact copy of Horus :(

But seriously, better to go into it with some sort of academic companion that you're reading along the way, otherwise you get messy preconceptions.
Well, I'm already predisposed to atheism, so I suppose that would colour my reading. I'd like to just sit down and experience the text as-is, though (existing preconceptions and foreknowledge and all).

Having some kind of accompanying guide or whatever could be equally as fun. Any recommendations?
 

Plunder

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I've read the entire Bible, it can get quite boring and very repetitive. There is some interesting imagery and stories buried in there, for fun you can find all the passages and teachings that modern Christians ignore or cherry pick.

Sort of related but I just read Paradise Lost again, my favorite epic poem and favorite piece of literature concerning the Bible. Highly recommend.

Even less related but I'm going to re-read The Odyssey again, Ancient Greek Mythology is by far my favorite of all the " belief " systems.
 
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adumbrodeus

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Well, I'm already predisposed to atheism, so I suppose that would colour my reading. I'd like to just sit down and experience the text as-is, though (existing preconceptions and foreknowledge and all).
The thing is without the proper background the bible is the kind of thing that preconceptions color a lot, and without accepting a complete academic rewrite, a little confirmation bias makes it easy to accept any conclusion you see fit without a guiding, rigorous, and systematic set of principals that have been shown to be consistently credible.

Having some kind of accompanying guide or whatever could be equally as fun. Any recommendations?
Lemme get back to you on this, I have some friends in the field who can probably make better suggestions then I can.


I've read the entire Bible, it can get quite boring and very repetitive. There is some interesting imagery and stories buried in there, for fun you can find all the passages and teachings that modern Christians ignore or cherry pick.

Sort of related but I just read Paradise Lost again, my favorite epic poem and favorite piece of literature concerning the Bible. Highly recommend.

Even less related but I'm going to re-read The Odyssey again, Ancient Greek Mythology is by far my favorite of all the " belief " systems.
We're not really talking about it as theology however, we're talking about it as a historical source for the study of the history of ancient Israel.

While those might be more interesting to you, they don't have the same usefulness for gleaning history that the Bible has when critiqued as historical documents for a variety of reasons. Not that the Bible is the only ethnohistorical document that has this value, it's just that Christians preserving so many volumes makes it incredibly useful.
 
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Plunder

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We're not really talking about it as theology however, we're talking about it as a historical source for the study of the history of ancient Israel.

While those might be more interesting to you, they don't have the same usefulness for gleaning history that the Bible has when critiqued as historical documents for a variety of reasons. Not that the Bible is the only ethnohistorical document that has this value, it's just that Christians preserving so many volumes makes it incredibly useful.
Incredibly useful for what? Most of that "information" is about as reliable as some gossip heard from the 20th house wife that overheard some conversation through a wall. How can you take something as fact or credible when the preceding passages claim ridiculous things like Adam, Jared, Noah living to be 900+ years old and Eve being created from a rib. Not to mention everything that has been lost in translation....

You'd be much better off actually reading textbooks by actual scholars, archaeologist, doctorates of history who have filtered thourgh the BS and actually done credible research to find the truth.
 
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Sehnsucht

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The thing is without the proper background the bible is the kind of thing that preconceptions color a lot, and without accepting a complete academic rewrite, a little confirmation bias makes it easy to accept any conclusion you see fit without a guiding, rigorous, and systematic set of principals that have been shown to be consistently credible.
I'd like read it first as-is, then read it again with accompanying reference materials. After the initial read-through, I can cross-reference my impressions and conclusions with the more scholarly assessments.

I have a pet project in which I plan on reading all the big sacred texts. Just haven't started yet. The historical context of these texts and related cultures would no doubt be interesting, but I'm interested in the narrative and the theology/mythology first and foremost.

Lemme get back to you on this, I have some friends in the field who can probably make better suggestions then I can.
Sure thing. 8)
 

adumbrodeus

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I'd like read it first as-is, then read it again with accompanying reference materials. After the initial read-through, I can cross-reference my impressions and conclusions with the more scholarly assessments.

I have a pet project in which I plan on reading all the big sacred texts. Just haven't started yet. The historical context of these texts and related cultures would no doubt be interesting, but I'm interested in the narrative and the theology/mythology first and foremost.
I can understand, if comparative theology is your primary interest though personally history tends to be mine.


Incredibly useful for what? Most of that "information" is about as reliable as some gossip heard from the 20th house wife that overheard some conversation through a wall. How can you take something as fact or credible when the preceding passages claim ridiculous things like Adam, Jared, Noah living to be 900+ years old and Eve being created from a rib. Not to mention everything that has been lost in translation....
I'm talking about how much information can be gleaned by filtering through the gossip. There's a great deal of value in what is implicit, in spite of how non-reliable the text is overall is. It just has so much information that with proper filtering and contextualization it's an immensely useful resource.

You'd be much better off actually reading textbooks by actual scholars, archaeologist, doctorates of history who have filtered thourgh the BS and actually done credible research to find the truth.
You realize I'm talking about using their methodology right? Critical historical analysis of source material is a skill that should be practiced and is undervalued in modern society. I've had some academic training in it and I'm trying to get others interested in academic source critique.
 

Claire Diviner

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The interesting thing I find about Christianity and the bible, is that the only thing that actually should be of relevance to Christians are the words of Christ himself, highlighted in red in some versions. Everything else doesn't matter, yet many conservative Christians seem to have a fetish for picking and choosing which verses and books to follow in the bible, sometimes even disregarding some of Christ's words.
 

Chainz

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How you guys feel about Gentrification? Personally, I'm against it because of how it affects families that live in those communities. Me and my fam included.

But I also understand some of the positives. I guess. Getting rid of crime, creating a "positive" neighborhood, all that, lol.

What you think?
 
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Holy **** Stefan Molyneux is insane. Like, completely and utterly insane. How the hell does someone like that get followers? He's like one insane meltdown away from being Alex Jones, and people still take him seriously. It's nuts.
 
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Troll Man

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Holy **** Stefan Molyneux is insane. Like, completely and utterly insane. How the hell does someone like that get followers? He's like one insane meltdown away from being Alex Jones, and people still take him seriously. It's nuts.
"Anarcho-capitalists" and a lot of members of the MRM are simply looking for a scapegoat for their inadequacies, and a streamlined medium (that is, a mode of presentation that's non-academic and completely accessible) appeals to them. It's nice to hear that the reason you're not doing well in life is because the state is taking your money/restricting your abilities to become an entrepreneur and giving it to those icky poor people, or that feminism is the real reason you can't get women to notice you. A lot of these people are straight, cis, white dudes, and despite the fact that all of society has been tailored by and FOR their specific demographic, they still can't make it. Most of us, when presented with evidence that this is the reality we live in accept it, and we certainly don't make up some contrived alternate universe in which we (white men) are somehow the victims of society.
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I finally paid off all of my debts, the rent owed for my apartment, and paid off this semester with my financial aid, I can't afford to get my girlfriend an anniversary gift, but I grew to accept that, but I still have this anxiety about money, and I think it's been starting to effect my health negatively. Though I'm an anarchist, and my position on this is pretty clear, do you guys ever think about alternatives to using money in an economic system? If not, what alternatives to capitalism, if any, have you heard about? Do you encourage these changes or do you have reservations about the ones you've heard about? (Hope I'm participating in the thread correctly!)
 

Sucumbio

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The only alternative I'm familiar with is bartering/trade, including hard labor in exchange for life necessities (yes you arw using it correctly :))

Gene Roddenberry imagined a world where money was unnecessary, though there was a strong emphasis on militarization and socialism. Menial labor was also non existing so there were no trash collectors or what have you. Engineers took the place of mechanics because you needed a high degree of science in order to operate and maintain machinery of the time, thus we see education being of primary importance over a career per se.

This wouldn't work jn today's world for a number of reasons the most obvious being there's still too many occupations out there that people do solely for the money and because they can't earn money any other way.
 

Chainz

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For the last month, i've been trying to come up with a good topic for discussion. But I can't seem to find a current issue that also isn't a repeat.

I was gonna post something about ISIS awhile back, but that's just going to be another "religion debate" and there's already like 5 of those.
 

Sucumbio

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Haha true. It's tough finding unique discussion topics. Then again ISIS is a terrorist organization so perhaps you could introduce a debate on terrorism itself.
 

Chainz

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Haha true. It's tough finding unique discussion topics. Then again ISIS is a terrorist organization so perhaps you could introduce a debate on terrorism itself.
Na, although it's a good idea, don't get me wrong. I can see it easily spilling into a religion debate.
 

adumbrodeus

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*is dead*

nah, It's good. Now that we have Trump in office there's no shortage of amusing headlines to read, albeit mostly The Washington Post's. May we live in interesting times, as the Chinese say.
Thanks I'd prefer not to live in interesting times. Especially with the current environment towards NK feeling like iraq v2
 

Sucumbio

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Thanks I'd prefer not to live in interesting times. Especially with the current environment towards NK feeling like iraq v2
d00d It's so bad the direction we're heading. We've always enjoyed flirting with disaster on multiple fronts but between N. Korea and Russia? Sooooo stupid. And China just tapped Donald on the shoulder talking about try to relax. Hahaha it's crap. He's so delusional. At least he's temporarily given up on the wall. So far the first 100 days he proven why even a near monopoly of political ideology can't work to make broad immediate changes to policy. We still have ACA, for example. About the only thing he accomplished was withdrawal from the Climate Change talks to a far lesser important position. Cause of course reasons.
 

Bob Jane T-Mart

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I used to post here like 7 years ago, and then I decided to visit lately. What are the main things that I have missed?
 
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Sucumbio

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I used to post here like 7 years ago, and then I decided to visit lately. What are the main things that I have missed?
Well there was probably two major discussions one involving women's rights / feminism and the other one was Donald Trump. Lately though it's been fairly quiet.
 

Sucumbio

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I was wondering about that I read they'd been outlawed in at least one country recently, but I don't know much about them.
 

Crooked Crow

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Greetings Sucumbio. Good to see you're around- and still the moderator. How are things? I was previously known as Yhii and then disappeared for a number of years.

OG Debaters have that scale icon.

:144:
 

Sucumbio

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Greetings Sucumbio. Good to see you're around- and still the moderator. How are things? I was previously known as Yhii and then disappeared for a number of years.

OG Debaters have that scale icon.

:144:
I'm good mate just keepin on keeping on. You should come back and post this place needs more activity!
 

Crooked Crow

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I'm good mate just keepin on keeping on. You should come back and post this place needs more activity!
It's so barren here. Unfortunate.

How come the light pink names disappeared? I quite enjoyed it. The orange poet / writer names was cute too.

:144:
 

Sucumbio

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It's so barren here. Unfortunate.

How come the light pink names disappeared? I quite enjoyed it. The orange poet / writer names was cute too.

:144:
Haha it really has been a while for ya. We switched board software and in the process some things had to go. I too liked the special name colors.
 
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