Do you believe in zombies?

[Cow Poke]

Oh, I don't think anyone here is angry either. I do think that people who troll want to make people angry though.

On a side point, what is up with the phrase "nothing burger"? Where did that come from all of a sudden? I hear people saying it all the time now. It's the strangest expression.

I've wondered the same thing about nothingburger. I've seen it used by Hillary describing the email scandal, but it apparently goes way back to the '50's and '60's. Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons used it to describe a person or idea that's essentially a whole lot of nothing. Then it was picked up by Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown.

du8b8iv5qf2z.jpg

[Cow Poke]

...As far as the 500 witnesses is concerned, It's been a while, I confused that with Pauls assertion that 500 people witnessed the resurrected Jesus....

Jim, you obviously don't know enough about this to argue it. This is not the only point you got wrong. Did you find this on an atheist board somewhere, and decided to try to it here?

[One Bad Pig]

Okay, okay, so zombie offends ya'll.

The term? No. There can be no communication without agreed-upon meanings of words, however. Are you interested in communicating?

[rogue06]

Nor was such a stupendous event mentioned in any of the secular histories of the day...nor was the supposed renting of the temple veil in twain and nor was the supposed earthquake that so impressed the centurion. These were all highly dramatic events by ANY standard which, if true, would surely have warranted a mention in the contemporary literature. More likely they were folk tales invented by the faithful living in a credulous age so as to highlight the significance of Jesus' life and death. In short, they were stories designed to impress.

Elements is regarded as the most successful textbook ever written^[1], absolutely nothing appears to be written about him during his time which is extremely unusually in that highly detailed biographies are available for other important Greek mathematicians for several centuries both before and after him. In fact, it appears that we have to wait until over half a millennium until we find historical references to him (Pappus of Alexandria c.320 AD)!











1. it served as the main textbook for teaching mathematics from its publication all the way until the end of the 19th century.

[Adrift]

I've wondered the same thing about nothingburger. I've seen it used by Hillary describing the email scandal, but it apparently goes way back to the '50's and '60's. Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons used it to describe a person or idea that's essentially a whole lot of nothing. Then it was picked up by Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown.

Yeah, I had heard it dates back some time, but I've literally never heard people say it till the primaries. Crazy how a word like that can spread and become part of the English lexicon so fast. Another one that comes to mind is when people start a sentence with the word "So". First time I heard people doing that was when I was stationed in Germany, so I thought maybe it was some sort of fancy European thing, then I come home and everyone is doing it!

[JimL]

Yes.

Only Matt directs his Gospel to the Jews - who, by the way, would have been able to debunk the claim, unlike the Romans in Rome.

That doesn't explain why such a real life event such as earthquakes and many saints climbing out of their graves wasn't mentioned by the other three gospel authors, not to mention secular historians of the time. Why do you think they neglected to mention it?

[Cow Poke]

Yeah, I had heard it dates back some time, but I've literally never heard people say it till the primaries. Crazy how a word like that can spread and become part of the English lexicon so fast. Another one that comes to mind is when people start a sentence with the word "So". First time I heard people doing that was when I was stationed in Germany, so I thought maybe it was some sort of fancy European thing, then I come home and everyone is doing it!

I actually started a thread on "so", because - same thing - I began noticing that it was spreading like crazy. A journalist would ask a question, and the guest would begin, "so, we have to look at the facts...."

[JimL]

who's angry? I think everyone is showing JimL's OP to be truely waht it is a Huge Nothing Burger.

Then answer the question RTT. How is ti that such a remarkable event isn't mentioned by anyone else, whether religious or secular.

[Cow Poke]

Then answer the question RTT. How is ti that such a remarkable event isn't mentioned by anyone else, whether religious or secular.

Rogue did a good job on this here.

[rogue06]

That doesn't explain why such a real life event such as earthquakes and many saints climbing out of their graves wasn't mentioned by the other three gospel authors, not to mention secular historians of the time. Why do you think they neglected to mention it?

Why do you suppose that the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which annihilated several Roman cities including Pompeii and Herculaneum, and was seen by the tens of thousands of eyewitnesses in and around Naples is only mentioned by one near contemporary account -- that of Pliny the Younger? Keep in mind that Naples had a reputation during Greco-Roman times as being an area with a highly literate population so we should have a slew of eyewitness reports in our hands not just one. And, IIRC, Pliny's account, written some 30 years later, was spurred on in reaction to Tacitus' Histories.

[mikewhitney]

Elements is regarded as the most successful textbook ever written^[1], absolutely nothing appears to be written about him during his time which is extremely unusually in that highly detailed biographies are available for other important Greek mathematicians for several centuries both before and after him. In fact, it appears that we have to wait until over half a millennium until we find historical references to him (Pappus of Alexandria c.320 AD)!

1. it served as the main textbook for teaching mathematics from its publication all the way until the end of the 19th century.

This is obvious evidence that no one like geometry then and no one likes it now. Somethings never change.

[JimL]

Why do you suppose that the 79 AD eruption of Mt. Vesuvius which annihilated several Roman cities including Pompeii and Herculaneum, and was seen by the tens of thousands of eyewitnesses in and around Naples is only mentioned by one near contemporary account -- that of Pliny the Younger? Keep in mind that Naples had a reputation during Greco-Roman times as being an area with a highly literate population so we should have a slew of eyewitness reports in our hands not just one. And, IIRC, Pliny's account, written some 30 years later, was spurred on in reaction to Tacitus' Histories.

Pliny the younger and Tacitus wrote of the eruption of Vesuvius because they were Historians. Why didn't Mark, Luke, Or John mention the earthquakes and resurrected saints in their histories?

[Adrift]

Elements is regarded as the most successful textbook ever written^[1], absolutely nothing appears to be written about him during his time which is extremely unusually in that highly detailed biographies are available for other important Greek mathematicians for several centuries both before and after him. In fact, it appears that we have to wait until over half a millennium until we find historical references to him (Pappus of Alexandria c.320 AD)!











1. it served as the main textbook for teaching mathematics from its publication all the way until the end of the 19th century.

There's an article from 2012 that might lend credence to Matthew's report of earthquakes from the International Geology Review, An early first-century earthquake in the Dead Sea. Mark Goodacre discussed it a bit here

"That Matthew should add signs to those mentioned by Mark is hardly surprising, both given Matthew's expansion form Palestinian traditions consistent with contemporary Jewish thought and Mark's specialized emphasis on the cross and hidden revelation. (That some cosmic signs, such as darkness, remain even in Mark may suggest that the tradition had more signs, which Mark and John had theological reasons not to emphasize.)"

[Cow Poke]

Pliny the younger and Tacitus wrote of the eruption of Vesuvius because they were Historians. Why didn't Mark, Luke, Or John mention the earthquakes and resurrected saints in their histories?

Perhaps you're unaware that each of the Gospels was from a different writer with a different perspective to a different audiences. If they all wrote the same thing, we wouldn't need four of them. John basically coves 7 "signs", and doesn't cover a lot of things the synoptic gospels cover.

Kudos, though, for more properly referring to them as 'the resurrected saints'.

[Leonhard]