Comment by rightbyte
5 months ago
> Who did Cain marry if there were no other women?
Like, stuff like that doesn't matter. It is not the point of the story. I don't think the oral tradition cared about plot holes at all.
5 months ago
> Who did Cain marry if there were no other women?
Like, stuff like that doesn't matter. It is not the point of the story. I don't think the oral tradition cared about plot holes at all.
If the religion is just some fallible oral tradition, it is no better than an institutionalized TV show. Its claims for humanity are far too important for that.
Remember, the Gospels weren't written contemporaneously. Only after something like 4-5 generations. And when have we heard of people changing or faking history to suit their own ends?
The Judeo-Christian god is a nacissistic, somewhat sadistic mob boss. Way too human.
4-5 generations is a stretch, though it depends on what you mean by generation. Most New Testament Scholars including atheists agree that the New Testament was written while the some of the 12 apostles were still alive.
For example, agnostic atheist Dr. Bart Ehrman (Masters of Divinity and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary) states "Critical scholars are widely agreed that the earliest Gospel was Mark, written around 70 c.e.; that Matthew and Luke were written some years later, say, around 80–85 c.e.; and that John was the last Gospel, written around 90–95 c.e."
The historical record also has the disciples (St. Clement, St. Polycarp, St. Ignatius) of the apostles quoting the Gospels or referring to the letters of the apostles shortly after those dates ~90-108 AD depending on who you ask.
Regarding "faking history to suit their own ends", it is hard to imagine what gain the early Christians got by faking history. Some of these people were tortured, crucified, and fed to wild beasts by members of the Roman government because they were making these claims. Not exactly a racket.
Thank you for the detail. I had a more loose understanding of "about 100 years" after. If a generation is 20 years (at that point in history), that would be 5 generations. 25 years per, 4 generations.
The fact that many details of his actions are shared with other legends/traditions sure makes it look like he existed as a person and had lots of stories attributed to him.
The Councils of Nicea and Trent could not have been free of politics.
Those who were told falsehoods and believed them might well hold firm. Let's be real, evidence for the theology around the stories is lacking. This god does not show any influence of existence for a very long time. It's just people doing what people do.
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Of course it doesn’t. But there is a difference between treating the story as an oral tradition and the explicit and unerring word of god.
It should certainly matter to fundamentalists, who have an outsized influence in politics. They regularly pick the most questionable translations of the most vague and obscure verses and ram them down everyone else's throats.
It doesn't matter to them, but it should.