Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

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When it comes down to it, our values and beliefs are the most concrete and self governing aspects of life that we control and possess, regardless of what they are.

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There is a strong argument to be made that values are merely a survivalistic tendency of human nature. I would purport that the connection between belief and values is loose at best, and quite contradictory at worst.

I can't speak for all that added their $.02 on the matter of religion, but for me personally, the OP's story is quite tragic. It is hard not to empathise with him because of his rather positive outlook in wake of such a tragedy. However, his source of comfort is tragically convoluted.

This is massively complex, and I try to tread lightly, but just because he has earned my emotional respect does not mean I will hold back my lack of intellectual respect.

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

What a horrible thread.... definitely not what it was supposed to be

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

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As for Jesus existing, there may very well have been a man that existed that was eventually turned into this Jesus character. However, historians of that era do not speak of such a man. If he really existed and performed the miracles he is supposed to have performed, there would be a record of it.


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What historians from that area would you expect to write about this? This was a time where very few people wrote anything, due to inability to write or not having the materials required. You could not go to a store and pick up a blank diary for next to nothing you know.

Do you expect the jewish scholars who did not accept Jesus as the savior to write about his miracles? Would be a bit weird if the knowledgable Jewish scholars who did most of the writing of that time would praise the divinity of a person they rejected as divine.

Would the Romans who believed in other gods or no gods at all pass on any information about a divine person that they had executed? Would it be benificiary to their empire and culture at the time to spread information questioning their culture, and tell people that they might have given up the Son of God to a mob that intended to kill him?

And then you have those who claimed they witnessed him doing miracles, and passed that information on and you can read about that in the New Testament.

How much accurate historical text of important events from that area excists anyways? Pretty sure they did not have newspapers at the time.

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

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What a horrible thread.... definitely not what it was supposed to be

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agreed [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

so many poster act disgusting on so many levels it makes you want to leave this forum for good...

to OP: my best wishes for you and your late wife. Wether there may be a heaven or not (personally for me the jury is still out on the matter of afterlife) things are better for her now than they were during here sickness. And for you to feel good about that seems the most logical and sane thing someone could do who thinks and acts out of pure love towards the other. cheers, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

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[ QUOTE ]

As for Jesus existing, there may very well have been a man that existed that was eventually turned into this Jesus character. However, historians of that era do not speak of such a man. If he really existed and performed the miracles he is supposed to have performed, there would be a record of it.


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What historians from that area would you expect to write about this? This was a time where very few people wrote anything, due to inability to write or not having the materials required. You could not go to a store and pick up a blank diary for next to nothing you know.

Do you expect the jewish scholars who did not accept Jesus as the savior to write about his miracles? Would be a bit weird if the knowledgable Jewish scholars who did most of the writing of that time would praise the divinity of a person they rejected as divine.

Would the Romans who believed in other gods or no gods at all pass on any information about a divine person that they had executed? Would it be benificiary to their empire and culture at the time to spread information questioning their culture, and tell people that they might have given up the Son of God to a mob that intended to kill him?

And then you have those who claimed they witnessed him doing miracles, and passed that information on and you can read about that in the New Testament.

How much accurate historical text of important events from that area excists anyways? Pretty sure they did not have newspapers at the time.

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I would imagine there is more evidence that Hercules existed than Jesus - its important to remember who is doing all the writing and their reasons for doing and not doing so.

Also, fwiw, i truly believe that the vast majority of the stories from the Bible has a real life source - its just the books were written much later than the happenings and it is no surprise there is a lot of embellishment and adding of religion to these stories.

Plus on top of that the Bible has been interpreted and translated several times over the millenia so we can never truly know what basis most of it has.

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

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What historians from that area would you expect to write about this?

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Josephus
Philo-Judæus
Seneca
Pliny Elder
Arrian
Petronius
Dion Pruseus
Paterculus
Suetonius
Juvenal
Martial
Persius
Plutarch
Pliny Younger
Tacitus
Justus of Tiberius
Apollonius
Quintilian
Lucanus
Epictetus
Hermogones
Silius Italicus
Statius
Ptolemy
Appian
Phlegon
Phædrus
Valerius Maximus
Lucian
Pausanias
Florus Lucius
Quintius Curtius
Aulus Gellius
Dio Chrysostom
Columella
Valerius Flaccus
Damis
Favorinus
Lysias
Pomponius Mela
Appion of Alexandria
Theon of Smyrna

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

EVERYBODY IS WORKIN FOR THE WEEKEND!!!!

Re: HUGE BRAG: Wife Now In Heaven
 

Just for argument's sake, jesus was a guy who pretty much never traveled more than 100 miles from where he was born, had a pretty local crowd in a boondocks backwater place, and whose biggest claim to fame was that the local preists hated him. Not many historians at that time would have taken great note of another backwater miracle worker. There were hundreds of those.