Chapter 8
The original Christians were called the Nazorians. They kept the Torah and, per Epiphanius, they believed Jesus died in the time of Alexander Jannaeus (103-76 BC). The Babylonian Talmud knows of no other form of Christianity. Other Christians believed Jesus died in the 40s AD rather than the 30s AD. If Jesus existed, how could different Christians believe he lived in different centuries? This bit of evidence is more likely for mythicism than historicism. Continue reading
Chapter 6
Betty Crocker and other corporate mascots don’t exist despite having biographies, named family members, etc. Since most corporate mascots don’t exist, we should assume any corporate mascot we hear about doesn’t exist unless proven otherwise. Colonel Sanders is a corporate mascot who did actually exist, but we know this based on evidence. We’d be wrong to simply assume he existed when so few corporate mascots are historical people. Continue reading
Chapter 5
In order to understand Jesus, a lot of historical background knowledge is required in order to know what’s expected or normal for the time. Any theory about who Jesus was must account for all the background information. Chapter 5 continues the list of background elements begun in Chapter 4. Continue reading
Chapter 4
In order to understand Jesus, a lot of historical background knowledge is required in order to know what’s expected or normal for the time. Any theory about who Jesus was must account for all the background information.
Terms like messiah, crucifixion, and resurrection were used very broadly in antiquity. Modern definitions are more specific, but we mustn’t mistake our definitions for theirs. Also note that ancients believed air extended all the way to the moon with ether beyond that. Continue reading
Chapter 2
Haile Selassie, who died in 1975, is considered a god by the Rastafarians, despite his objections. Here we have an example of a historical person being deified and myths about him being invented quite rapidly. If the historical record were lost and we were only left with the myths, we couldn’t be sure if Haile Selassie existed or not. Is this what happened with Jesus? Continue reading
“The purpose of this book is not to end the debate but to demonstrate that scholars need to take this hypothesis more seriously before dismissing it out of hand, and that they need much better arguments against it than they’ve heretofore deployed. A better refutation is needed, and a better theory of historicity, which, actually, credibly explains all the oddities in the evidence. If this book inspires nothing else, I’ll be happy if it’s that. But this book may do more. It might inspire more experts to agree with the possibility at least that Jesus Christ was born in myth, not history.” Continue reading
I’ve been trying to come up with a better way to rate and review books (or movies or any other story-telling medium for that matter). I’ve come up with a list of things people often want in stories. These are mostly subjective, but they’re things to think about when rating (and writing) a story. To complicate matters a bit, it’s generally OK for a comedic or surreal story to break most of these rules. Continue reading
Asking how many different types of plots there are is kind of like asking how many different colors there are. There could be trillions or only one depending on how you’re counting. Continue reading
If you haven’t seen the original series and the prequel movie, Twin Peaks: The Return won’t make any sense (come to think of it, even if you have seen the previous material, it still won’t make sense.) Disappointingly, we don’t get closure for many of the season two cliff hangers. We don’t learn if Leo survived or not (he only appears in a clip), we don’t learn what happened to Annie or Donna or Hank (they don’t appear at all), and we don’t find out how James Hurley got out of being a murder suspect. Continue reading
I was a fan of the original Twin Peaks (1990-1991). It stood out from other network television series by being weird. There were quirky characters like a lady who carried a log with her at all times. There were dream sequences that were filmed with the actors speaking backwards. And the whole thing was a soap opera parody with almost everyone in town having a secret affair with someone else, people faking their own deaths, and even a surprise twin showing up. Continue reading
Mania Delight 