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Why Mythicism Should Not Be Taken Seriously

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  • Why Mythicism Should Not Be Taken Seriously

    Not for a single second should a position viewed as a joke be treated as if it was respectable. http://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/20...ken-seriously/

  • #2
    We have a group of mythicists saying that Celsus was a church father (He wasn’t) as if that bolsters their claim (It doesn’t) and that the book comes from a work called Against Origen (That doesn’t exist) and the quote itself is inaccurate!

    When I say this position is not to be granted respect in the academic community, I mean it. No one who wants to consider themselves an academic should hold to such a view. The academic community does not take this seriously at all. The claims that are really popular on the internet are not at all discussed by academic scholars in the field.
    Your argument seems to be that a specific group of mythicists have made some bad mistakes, therefore mythicism should not be taken seriously. That is just nonsense. I get that you want to point out how ridiculous their claims are (and I agree that they are ridiculous), but to extrapolate that mythism is a joke based on the claims of a few is like claiming Christianity is a joke because a group of Christians believe the sun goes round the earth.
    When I say this position is not to be granted respect in the academic community, I mean it. No one who wants to consider themselves an academic should hold to such a view. The academic community does not take this seriously at all. The claims that are really popular on the internet are not at all discussed by academic scholars in the field.
    Actually some scholars do consider and discuss the idea that Jesus was just a myth:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ...y#21st_Century

    I get that you want to rubbish the claim, but you would do far better to show that there is overwhelming evidence that Jesus existed, rather than using faulty logic and false claims.
    My Blog: http://oncreationism.blogspot.co.uk/

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by The Pixie View Post
      Your argument seems to be that a specific group of mythicists have made some bad mistakes, therefore mythicism should not be taken seriously. That is just nonsense. I get that you want to point out how ridiculous their claims are (and I agree that they are ridiculous), but to extrapolate that mythism is a joke based on the claims of a few is like claiming Christianity is a joke because a group of Christians believe the sun goes round the earth.
      This would be relevant if this was an isolated incident. It is not. Every group or Christ-myther I encounter has an abysmal knowledge of the area. As for what I could have written, I have written elsewhere extensively on the topic and I was not going to reinvent the wheel.

      Actually some scholars do consider and discuss the idea that Jesus was just a myth:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ...y#21st_Century

      I get that you want to rubbish the claim, but you would do far better to show that there is overwhelming evidence that Jesus existed, rather than using faulty logic and false claims.
      Let's look at those "scholars."

      No. Christopher Hitchens is not a scholar and certainly not a Biblical scholar.

      No. The same applies to Tom Harpur.

      Carrier, Price, and Brodie are scholars, but they don't teach at accredited universities, are not the focus of serious discussion at groups like SBL, and their ideas do not pass peer-review. Their ideas are the fringe of the fringe.

      No. Earl Doherty is not a scholar either.

      The only other one that could possibly qualify as being in the field would be Jacobs and even then, history of ideas is not the same as NT. Dawkins can be seen as an authority on biology, but that does not make him a scholar of NT. If you want to apply that standard, then we should say William Lane Craig, Mike Licona, and N.T. Wright are scholars qualified to speak on evolution and cosmology as well.

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      • #4
        Ahem, Tom Harper is actually a scholar.


        ◾Won several scholarships at University of Toronto including the Jarvis Scholarship in Greek and Latin; The Maurice Hutton Scholarship in Classics; The Sir William Mulock Scholarship in Classics; and the Gold Medal in Classics.
        ◾Attended Oxford University on a brooks brothers coupon Rhodes Scholarship 1951-1954.
        ◾Studied theology and tutored in Greek at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, 1954-56. Won prizes in homiletics and Greek.
        http://www.tomharpur.com/biography/

        I'm not saying this validates his arguments, some of which I've shown wrong on Tekton.

        Comment


        • #5
          Okay. I can accept that.

          Comment


          • #6
            To be fair the only mythers who I'd consider real scholars are Carrier and Price. carrier at least put forth his ideas for peer review. They're still colossally wrong though.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by LaplacesDemon View Post
              To be fair the only mythers who I'd consider real scholars are Carrier and Price. carrier at least put forth his ideas for peer review. They're still colossally wrong though.
              That is kind of my point. I am not a myther myself, but I object to the poor argument here. If they are colossally wrong, it should be easy to show that. Pointing out that one group of mythers are very confused will convince no one except those already convinced. Same when you claim there are no scholars when actually there are, albeit very vety few.
              My Blog: http://oncreationism.blogspot.co.uk/

              Comment


              • #8
                And as I have said, I have done that in earlier posts and there's no reason to reinvent the wheel every time. Are there a very very small few? Yes. Are there works discussed in academic circles? No. They aren't just the fringe. They're the fringe of the fringe.

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