Friday, October 6, 2017

More on Rachel Oates' Take - a k a "No, Rachel"


The Bible's Case for a Young Earth in 'Genesis as History'
Rachel Oates | added / Ajoutée le 3 oct. 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt-eDe2XK9s


Linking to:

Young Earth v. Old Earth: What Does the Bible Say?
Genesis Apologetics | added / Ajoutée le 21 juin 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzEzkrMdgIs


Which I have not yet seen when making these comments.

I
0:42 The question was "does the Bible really say God created the world in six days six thousand years ago", not "did God etc".

What you consider as "evidence" available to most people would mean no to that other question, not to the question about what the Bible says.

II
2:48 Literal historical - life was created in its current form ... well, we who believe in this also believe quite a few dinosaurs and pelycosaurs were created then (whatever of this is not a genetic experiment in Nodian civilisation gone wrong), and we are not sure all of the major kinds survive to well after the Flood.

Like, Dimetrodon grandis could have been more than one of the legendary dragons (the sail being mistaken for bat wings from the side from a distance), but as for the Stego ... OK, there is the relief sculpture in Angkor ... and the classics would be Therapods and Sauropods surviving as possible Leviathan (there are other identifications) as well as probable Behemoth, Ceratopsians known as Unicorns, Pterosaurs known to Amerinindians as Thunderbirds, and some generations of Plesiosaurs sighted in Loch Ness.

But others could be gone. So, perhaps not quite the present form, if you count a fauna with the dodo as distinct from the present one after 1700 AD. Also, some invertebrates could have been much bigger before the Flood.

III
3:20 No, the period of time it occurs over is not the only difference. That is supposed to be a cause of another difference, for instance on how disparate creatures it unites.

Dog and wolf, cat and lynx, sheep and goat being originally same kind is really not a problem. But cat and dog having a common ancestry with each other or with certain hairy cattle, that would be "macro-evolution".

You still keep up the habit of talking down to creationists beind their back. While progressive creationists are wrong on time periods, they do have a point that non-bacterial life has too long generations to get enough generations for macroevolution, as assessed by Lenski experiment with e. coli remaining basically e. coli over 20 000 generations, by now.

IV
4:44 "these aren't like accurate reliable records of people who actually lived"

Why not?

Except it is against your world view, and limited to arguments one can use in history, why not?

If you don't accept the genealogy from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5, how much do you reject of the genealogy from Noah to Abraham in Genesis 11 (second half of chapter)?

Are you denying historicity of Abraham too? Suppose you reject all from Adam to Abraham in 1 Paralipomenon 1 or 1 Chronicles 1, are you denying the rest down to Jacob Israel too?

If so, when do you start confiding in the genealogy of next chapter, leading to King David in verse 14?

If you scrap all of that ... do you believe there was a Kunta Kinte, or did Alex Hayley make him up?

If you believe there was a Kunta Kinte, do you do so only because he has been found in records other than Alex Hayley's family tradition? If those records had been lost, would you have considered Kunta Kinte a fictitious name and character (note, Hayley is a novelist and he does some embroidering well beyond what any Biblical author would permit : in the sense of padding, I mean)?

Do you consider the genealogies from King David to Jesus in Matthew and Luke as mythical?

All Jews who are keeping record of what rabbis (and others) have a good claim to descent from King David - are they tracking an extant ancestry, like Charlemagne or Genghis Khan, or are they tracking a fictitious one, like "descended from Elendil and Elros son of Earendil"?

How many people do you see, these days, trying to track ancestry from Aragorn?

4:52 "These aren't official documents, they aren't taken from a census or birth certificates."

Yeah, right.

Alex Hayley knew his family history without these, even if he tracked some [or all] after.

Now, what exactly makes an official document so special when it comes to reliability?

No private person can have faked them? Depends on how influential he is. While my birth certificate was handled by Husie parish, it said, as did my passports, birth place Vienna, administrational birth place (where ma was registered resident at my birth), Södertälge. Now this has been simplified to Södertälge in the secular authority which took over birth certificates a little more than a decade ago.

Some private person was influential enough to fake them? Or some official was impatient and said "why bother with two birth places?" Either way, the present birth certificate is not reliable, and it is an official document.

Now, even so, you would say most official birth certificates are not faked in any way shape or form (and my present one, as far as I know from last time I bought a passport, is only faked on that issue), so generally speaking they are reliable.

Well, generally speaking a well memorised family history is also reliable. It can be faked too. Key word too. Most often it isn't.

England where you live has registrars of some sort making official documents. Not sure whether it's still Church of England or whether they are civil. But since under modern living conditions most families would forget their family history rapidly, over industrialism and getting sacked there and getting a new job here, over divorce and remarriage, over not being around parents very long, and so on, the official documents are generally speaking more reliable than family histories.

They are on par with top class of family histories.

But, the point is, family histories exist, some of them are good, and some of them are on par with official records. And, here is the point : Biblical genealogies are actually claiming for the texts as a whole that the texts as a whole were written by people with very good family records.

4:55 "or anything else like that"

Yes, family history definitely is something comparable to that.

5:01 "they are just characters in a book which could very easily be fiction"

No. For the very simple reason, we don't have any record of any community of people inheriting these stories starting out as taking them as fiction and then suddenly from nowhere starting to take them as history.

For one more thing, fiction has an artistic point. Family history is boring enough to be there only because it happened. And much of these genealogies are dry names, with no recorded events apart from getting born and handing on life to the next person - less than I know about great-great-grandfather who came to Malmö from Christianstad. I know he moved and I know he was a goldsmith (master, I believe), while his son, my great-grand-father only made it to goldsmith journeyman.

5:23 "no records of people living that long, except in the Bible"

Someone mentioned Sumerian King list, and I'll add "mythical Pharaos".

These guys live more than ten times longer than pre-Flood patriarchs in the Bible - suggesting that they are an exaggeration of those lifespans, which were obviously impressive to later comers.

If you on the other hand would argue, the Hebrew, Sumerian and Egyptian examples are all myths, nothing but, how do you explain that Hebrew version was modestly taking down lifespans to less than 1000 years in each single case? Lifespans on earth that is, Henoch and Elijah are by now of course having a lifespan of 5000-6000 and of 2800 years. Whereever they are. Plus lifespans under suspended animation in Avalon and things.

V
5:31 "again, we cannot use the Bible as evidence of the Bible"

I heard that one a lot after already explaining I was using "parts of the Bible" as evidence about other "parts of the Bible" to my atheist schoolmates.

Is it still very current?

You see, the question posed, as I recall it, was : "does the Bible really say God created the world in six days six thousand years ago" - i e, they are using the Bible as evidence for what the Bible actually says (also sth I did when accused of using Bible as evidence of Bible, I recall vaguely).

VI
6:07 You atheists cannot use genealogies to date earth.

We Christians can. Or have to.

Have you heard the technical term "argumentum ad homines"?

It is not the fallacy "argumentum ad hominem". It is simply arguing to certain people from what they already accept but others don't accept. Using genealogies as proof the six days at least ended 6 - 7.5 ky ago (depending on text version and skill in counting), is not an argument valid to an atheist, but it is an argument valid to a Christian already in a general sense accepting Biblical inerrancy.

So, if we are wrong, this is one of the ways we are wrong, and an old earther would only be right on that one by being wrong in general and on top of that inconsistent. If we are right, we are right here too.

6:54 We got here through a series of events, that either happened or didn't happen?

Sure, but one of the problems is that different scientists give different accounts, interpretations, precisely, on what they find about this story in the "evidence" for it.

So, where is the big superiority over Christians?

+ How about getting that:

  • day age
  • progressive creationism (often combined)
  • general metaphor
  • theistic evolution (also often combined, esp among modernist "Catholics")
  • huge gaps in genealogies
  • and GAP THEORY between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2


are not anything like well based in the Bible, but are rather like ways of compromising between the Biblical view and your one?

7:09 Sure, anything either happened or it didn't.

But that doesn't mean "we either know it happened or know it didn't happen", since there are things we don't know.

You know, in logic previous to modern remake (the Venn diagrams), there used to be four combinations of quantity and quality between subject and predicate:

  • all S are P
  • some S are P
  • no S are P
  • some S are not P or better not all S are P.


What is the difference between "some S are P" and "some S are not P"?

Well, the difference is how we put it, which in turn in some cases depends on the mood, because you know the case very well, and know both some mammals that are poodles and some mammals that are not poodles.

But in other cases, in syllogisms, one part of that information is most relevant for the argument you are making.

And in still other cases, one part of the story is all you know.

"some S are P" is compatible with "all S are P" and with its negation (in such cases) "some S are not P".

"some S are not P" or "not all S are P" is compatible with "some S are P" and with its negation "no S are P".

In other words, logic may have gone up in clarity about what factual possibilities are by Venn diagrams, it has gone down in clarity about what we know and what we don't know, what is relevant and what is not relevant, and what things are compatible in themselves with two things that are incompatible with each other.

We know real life from stories and from arguing.

12:19 And yes, these two guys are right now talking about refuation of other view points held by peoples consdering themselves as Christians - what do you expect? That they should 24 / 24, 7 / 7, 31 / 31, 366 / 366 every leap year be only preoccupied with refuting YOUR views?

Like Hugh Ross, a progressive creationist should not debunk literal biblicism, only atheism, we should never debunk him, only atheism, because atheism is kind of only thing that matters?

12:39 "if you put ... Bible ... against actual evidence, peer reviewed science ... it is not going to hold up" you said?

I think it does. I think both of the men are aware of arguments making it work.

I also think, this is not what they need to be talking about 365/365.

13:47 "no, but seriously, they are just handing it to us"

No. They were not adressing you atheists. There are people other than atheists. There are people we disagree with less than with you atheists. Why should we always be adressing you atheists?

It's a bit like if some certain Muslims (who know I am a blogger) are asking me - in one way or the other - to always keep the Muslim point of view in sight.

No thanks, we don't want to go insane or apostatise.

If you keep a certain viewpoint not your own always before your eyes, you will either accept it, or go insane because of whatever is forcing you to keep it in mind : if you don't get around to it, you will want space and time to blissfully ignore it.

VII
7:25 Theoretically, God could have been shining that light from no created light source for one thousand years, between day 3 and day 4. But it doesn't make much sense, does it?

7:38 pollinating insects is a better argument.

7:58 The order in the creation story is perfect, but makes better sense if it is a short story. Like 168 hours, not 168 my. It is just that it doesn't fit with the order in your story.

8:06 Has it occurred to you that we all do this irrespective of what our basic assumptions are? Like, try to overcome difficulties in the application of them to this or that piece of brute fact, rather than change them in face of the first little hurdle?

Has it occurred to you that you seem to be doing it quite a lot with your take on genealogies?

Plus, by the fact that you don't get "this is what the Bible says and what we have to argue about (with atheists)" as "this is what the Bible says and what we have to argue about (with atheists)" but as "this is what the Bible says, and therefore dear atheists it is the truth", seems to argue yu might be making yourself a bit deaf and dumb to what Creationists are actually saying ... perhaps for some reason?

8:19 We know it's a ... plants could be without Sun for 24 hours?

No. Plants have survived on electric light in basements for more than 24 hours. In fact, in some basements of Amsterdam, marijuana hemp is surviving under lamplight 24/24 so as to get stronger doses of THC.

Saying plants absolutely need the Sun, whether for 24 hours or for 1000 years, is like saying the light God made on day 1 was less effective than the lamp light we make by electricity. Come on!

If you want to take the story in its terms, do so, one of them is that God is able to do things.

What did not sit well with me when a teen (and confronted with day age) was more like : (reconstructing without exact memory) if the Earth was created before the Sun, that would mean the Earth started to rotate around it (I was no Geocentric back then) only after a long time being stationary. I don't think I was too confortable either with God making Earth rotate around Sun on day four either, but it was at least a bit more conceivable, with a stationary Earth as a very short makeshift.

I think the day age people (esp involving millions of years) would need to consider why the Earth was stationary so long and only later (comparatively recently) started to rotate around Sun - except, they get around it by claiming the making of Sun and Moon would mean them "appearing on Earth" - which very clearly is not what the text says. Genesis 1:

[14] And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: [15] To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done.

[16] And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. [17] And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth. [18] And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. [19] And the evening and morning were the fourth day.

Now, "making" doesn't sound like "making visible", and "setting" sounds as if it wasn't there before, not as if it was there, but something was hiding it. If a fog is hiding a mountain, and the fog clears up, that means that the mountain was there and appeared, not that it came : and "set" seems to be active where "come" is passive or intransitive.

Yes, I know, this is interpreting a text, and you don't do that ... because you don't do history, only prehistory.

If you want to know how you and your possible siblings came to be born whereever you were born, you will need to interpret some birth or baptismal certificates, some of them in a somewhat older English or using administrative abbrevations that are out of use, I shouldn't wonder.

But the first attempt at interpreting a text should be the straightforward one!

8:29 In other words, you will agree there is no way Creation story describes a "natural process" like the Evolution you believe in and believe to be such a thing?

Thank you for that one, at least!

8:59 Good fiction always does have to make sense.

An author who doesn't succeed in making sense won't be a bestseller on the fantasy or the detective novel shelves.

It's reality which doesn't always have to make sense - to those involved.

A reader is fine if the characters are confused, but not if the author leaves himself too confused. Reality is the story where we are actual characters - just that the characters aren't fiction. And as in some stories where characters are kept confused - we are sometimes confused.

VIII
9:55 The professor is missing that the days of Creation begin in the morning, and only the sixth day ends already on evening, not morning next day - because Sabbath rest (OT, corresponds to Sunday rest now) obviously doesn't begin Saturday morning, but Friday evening, when the days work is done on Friday evening.

This would give a clue about the duation of Earth being empty and void in verse 2 : if God created light on Sunday morning 6 am, Jerusalem time, God can have created Heaven and Earth 12 hours earlier, for a duration corresponding to a night's sleep or a night watch.

10:10 Yes, the author - and to a Christian this is ultimately God - wanted to make it seem like 24 hour days.

Thank you!

To a Christian this is proof they were 24 hour days.

To someone considering the author to be only an ignorant and unknown man from c 3000 years back in time and lower in intelligence and knowledge (as if either of these were continually or even overall expanding, rather than going in cycles around a median value), it isn't. We know that. But these two guys were not talking to you, they were talking between them and to other Christians. (Insofar as Protestants are in any sense Christians, of course).

10:14 As I recall the structure of the book, the set up was:

  • one chapter on why Bible is trustworthy
  • one on what it says about these things
  • a few more defending trustworthiness in face of the obvious conflict with what you call "modern science".


You are complaining why the second chapter is not doing the work of the first or the following ones.

IX
10:38 As far as both Bible and Modern Astronomy go, there are no biological or "intelligent biological" / "spiritual in flesh" populations on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and so on (reservation for possibility one of these might be serving as temporary home of Henoch and Elijah, of course).

This means, God's setting up days on Earth is a way to conduct humanity, at the very least : if Martians don't exist, He didn't have to bother about setting up anything similar about Mars days for Martians.

And if like me you are Geocentric, you might say that this extends to comic book and film populations of Tatooine, Galaxity and so on. If these places don't exist as inhabited places, God needed no measures for day conting on them.

10:52 "no we are not the centre of the universe"

Yes, we are.

[Technically not quite : the demons and souls in Hell are the centre of Earth, and therefore of the universe, see Dante's Inferno]

11:37 It is not a question about measuring time, it's a question of how and why time started to exist.

Plus, on a Christian view, day and night, week days, lunar months, solar years, sun being in this or that part of the zodiac, all of this was decided by God for our time keeping.

11:47 Yes, on a Christian view, before God created diverse measures for time, God created time itself too.

You know the hour flowers of Secundus Minutius Hora in Momo, not the hours and minutes on the wrist watches.

X
13:00 How many times did God write the ten commandments "in stone"?

Exodus mentions two times (or if it was Exodus and Deuteronomy). But a third time is mentioned when God uses a human finger which won't carve stone, because Bethlehem was not arrival of Kal El from Krypton. He writes them in sand. John chapter 8. In traditional exegesis, the guess about what He wrote is, each commandment, visible for the improvised lynching judge who had broken it, all ten of them.

Now, Rachel, I suppose you take this as fiction, but you must admit it is quite a plot twist of even fiction, that God becomes Man, that God uses omnipotence as His finger twice, and a human finger, no stronger than you expect from a carpenter, the third time.

Sand is, as you may know, very small pieces of stone - i e minerals, only cohesion of grains is different.

XI
14:12 - 14:16

"It's like seeing the same data over and over again and coming to completely different conclusions."

Yes, that is true.

"Like as atheists we see things as inconsistencies and stuff"

Do you? How interesting? Do you see it only in Christians, or in yourselves too, occasionally?

14:25 "it's all just a story"

You know, there was a time when I read War of Troy as a Greek "myth".

When reading Latin, I saw Aeneas coming from Troy started a story going over Romulus and Remus and involving Pyrrhus, Hannibal, Perseus of Macedonia beaten at Pydna (though I didn't read that far in Titus Livy).

Where does the fiction end and the literal history begin? Well, on your principle, what we consider known Roman history could as easily be fiction, it is also in Titus Livy.

But on the other hand, if Hannibal really did exist, and Romans really did make war against him, I suppose War of Troy was real too. Where Aeneas is "son of Venus" or Romulus and Remus "sons of Mars", I disagree about the Pagan interpretation of how these men came to be born, but I see no sense in disagreeing about the events.

Same with Bible : it is also part of a storyline which is continuing unbroken to present.

You try to pick out anything as fiction because it is a miracle, you are up against this was as believed by Israelites (Genesis) and Early Christians (Gospels) as Weems biography of George Washington by Americans of Boswell's Life of Doctor Johnson by Englishmen. Or Plato's and Xenophon's accounts of Socrates by Classic Athenian Greeks.

You try to accept it (or most of it, after six days and Flood) as history, even with some "superstitious" misunderstandings, you have a lot more to explain than I have with Aeneas, Romulus and Remus.

You could say "we have independent evidence for Romans beating Hannibal".

Not so sure, the Greeks who did write that were already under Roman rule - they are part of a common and converging Greco-Roman tradition : and this evidence also involves some alternative accounts about Aeneas (the most credible divergence from Classic account is Dido was later than Aeneas, they never met, Virgil did an anachronism, like Jewish legends about Abraham meeting Nimrod).

But like Polybius is part of same tradition as Roman one (he came to Rome as hostage after Pydna, and learned Roman history in Rome from Romans!), and still is "independent evidence", compared to Titus Livy, well, equally, different Bible book authors are independent evidence compared to each other for same events.

And like Greco-Roman tradition largely ignores Biblical events, so Bible is fairly quiet about Hannibal or Aeneas. OT Hebrew tradition and Greco-Roman ones had not yet converged : from where they converge, at Christ, on Calvary, on the title of a cross where the Latin version reads Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, the Latin version of accusation, this history continues as one through Church History and Medieval History to our days.

And those who know history know, in the actual sources there are lots of miracles.

Your side has one Richard Carrier giving an example of independent evidence (even though he doesn't see it as that) for same miracle : a Roman legion in the time of Marcus Aurelius is facing Marcomans in Bohemia across the Danube, and the Marcomans are beaten by weather and flooding of Danube, without one sword being even raised. The Christian version is : this legion was a legion of Christians, they prayed to God. The Pagan version is : an Egyptian magician or priest of Egyptian gods did magic. The official record is : this legion was since then known as Legio Fulminatrix.

There is no careful sifting which will show miracles as ill founded and non-miraculous events as well founded. The only sifting which will do that is a very biassed one, namely the sifting which is based on "miracles don't happen". If you don't buy that, you would normally accept Angels appeared at the city Mons, during the War of 1914-18. This is a bit too recent to say we have no recent examples of miracles.

But of course, perhaps World War I also is "just a story"?

It is at least part of the same general timeline of history which includes Moses and Aeneas.

14:41 "even if it seems impossible"

A six day creation does not seem impossible to a Christian.

Even the Christians who vehemently oppose it, claiming it would involve God being a liar deliberately planting evidence for millions of years and so on, if Christians admit God could as easily have created the world in six days or on one moment.

So, the real issue is not whether the events are possible in themselves, to a Christian, indeed, to anyone except an atheist or someone else having an opposing world view, like Buddhists also have that. The real issue is whether it is possible for this to be true and also for these other things to be true, like charcoal from Göbekli Tepe having roughly 25 % modern C14, which would be expected if C14 had decayed for two half lives, and two half lives exceeds the Biblical timeline.

Yes, it is possible for Biblical timeline to be true as well as the 25 % C14 in charcoal from a certain layer of Göbekli Tepe. But the chapter you are studying is not where the guy tells you how, it is in one of the next chapters.

15:08 "as we discovered evidence and learned about science, all conclusions changed"

Actually, "Christians" departing from both Christianity and the literal version were there before evidence was discovered. Hutton and Lyell did not start out as exemplar Bible believing Christians who were shaken out of their Biblical world view by looking at rocks. Their known biographies show, they were not Bible believers even before looking at the rocks.

I have heard a real blooper (or read on quora) about "everyone involved in the discoveries was Christian ... Darwin and Fitzroy". Darwin was perhaps apostasising then, under the influence of Lyell, but Fitzroy saw the same evidence as he did, and did not accept either millions of years or evolution. Lyell, as said, was already not a Bible believing one, before he looked at the rocks.

The change was not due to scientific evidence, but, as the old man in the video said, Enlightenment.

That is not a sheer story of purely new discoveries, it is a change of intellectual habits - still opposed by some of us as a bad one - and it was more on general arguments, than on arguments from evidence.

And the Enlightenment men, including Hume who gave you your view and Carrier his view on history and miracles, were mostly horribly bad historians, horribly ignorant about documented past. Honestly, even atheists (like my Latin professor Birger Bergh, who considered St Bridget as schizophrenic, but could not explain why everyone died when she had predicted they would die), if they know history, will not consider Enlightenement men as good historians. You know that the Council of Nicea officially decided the woman has a soul? Except it didn't - it was a local council in Gaul (later known as France, then part of a Francia also spanning parts of Germany and BeNeLux and Switzerland) where someone raised the question whether a woman could be called "homo".

In Classic Latin, "homo" means "man" - it can refer typically to an adult male, but basically it is like Americans and Foreigners like Russians say "human being". In Romance languages the cognate means, like Swedish or German "mann" = adult male. As the word means in modern American. And of course, while a woman can be adult and human, she cannot be male. So, could one call a woman "homo"? The answer was "yes, Jesus is called 'Son of Man'/'Filius Hominis' and He is Son of Virgin Mary, who was obviously a woman".

And it was not a formal decision, it was part of small talk during a pause, recorded not in an official record from the council, but by the historian or story teller Gregory of Tours, much later. This I came to learn, not from a very biassed Catholic, but from a Latin professor who is an atheist - or was last time I checked.

BUT in the Enlightenment, the word came around that "the Council of Nicea decided the woman has a soul" - that is how bad Enlightenment men were at history. I think you can find that canard in basically these words in Voltaire.

So, the operative change was not scientific evidence (Voltaire laughed at the suggestion fish bones had been found on mountain tops), but an intellectual fashion known as Enlightenment.

Yes, modern chemistry comes from back then, but so do lots of stupidities about history.

15:36 Speaking of being an adult, shouldn't you take responsibility for your old age by starting to get children with Dan?

If you rely on pension system functioning when you get old, you are irresponsible, for details, see this post:

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere : Why Concerned if Non-Religious Rebel Against Genesis 1:28? (quora)
http://assortedretorts.blogspot.com/2017/09/why-concerned-if-non-religious-rebel.html


The scary part about men wanting to take responsibility for their lives without God is, they are so bad at it.

I suppose Tower of Babel was Nimrod planning a three step rocket. But I also suppose the potential rocket fuel he knew about was Uranium, known since Mahabharata wars before the Flood, so, a three step rocket fuelled by Uranium would NOT have gotten humanity or select parts of it up to Heaven where God was, as he had hoped, it would only have blown most of mankind to radioactive ashes, after Flood waters had gracefully covered a previous nuke disaster.

Was he taking responsibility for his life? Yes. Was it scary? Yes, because those who wanted to stay out of the stupid responsibility taking, which would have been disastrous were being persecuted as shirkers.

When ONE group of men say "we want to take responsibility for our lives, without involving God or mythology", it means, some of them will actively, and many more of them passively, if given the chance, persecute Christians taking responsibility after God's law in a Christian way.

15:38 "and you shouldn't be allowed to just keep avoiding it"

I hear the words of a persecutor. In your own case, you may just be insufficiently sympathetic to those being persecuted, but the words you repeat are those of persecutors.

Christian children are forced to go to schools with no Creationism in science class, in your country. And, I know how this worked out in my pre-teens and teens. It means, the one Young Earth Creationist in class is persecuted by harrassment. It means, he is not allowed and his parents are not allowed to take him away from his harrassers. School compulsion, and absence of schools with Creationism, you know.

You have at least expressed some degree of sympathy for that persecution, which is ongoing.

16:37 No, the whole thing was not scripted. Some people know each other.

Some logics can predict each others' words, even if they aren't yours.

16:49 If Jesus was just a man, it is no big evidence if He referenced OT.

If Jesus was God, omniscient and truthful, no error and no lie, then it is a lot more of evidence.

Newsflash : you are forgetting what Christianity is about, aren't you?

18:04 No, Rachel, he doesn't mean he ignores charcoal from Göbekli Tepe has 1/4 as much C14 in relation to C12 as charcoal from a twig you burned afer picking it from the ground where it fell.

He means he has evidence from the Bible which involves that the right interpretation of that 1/4 is NOT it started out with roughly same C14 ratio and two half lives have passed since then.

I am very certain he would agree with me, the solution is, in the time of Göbekli Tepe, the atmosphere had sth like half of the present C14 to C12 ratio. In Younger Dryas, it had less than half, during Göbekli Tepe, from lowest layer to the level where it was deliberately covered in sand, atmosphere passed the half line, and just after GT, atmosphere had a bit more than half of present C14 ratio.

This as as good a fit for the 1/4 of modern carbon in charcoal from GT. And what scientists actually have is not the 1000 years from 11600 to 10600 years ago, what they have is that one of these levels gives 25 % modern carbon. The other a bit less or a bit more.

I think I have been saying "no Rachel" so many times over, the words could become as Classic as a certain "yes Virginia".

And, 18:08, no Rachel, "real science" is certainly not the only way in which you find out truth. There is such a thing as history, and there is such a thing as theology.

And, no Rachel, you do not, as per 18:22, trust objective evidence over story books every single time.

You believe Wellington and Blücher beat Napoleon at Waterloo? Well, that is not objective scientific material evidence, that is not something an archaeologist could prove from digging up Waterloo, it is story books.

Like this one:

Wikisource : Wellington's Waterloo dispatch to Lord Bathurst, 19 June (1815)
by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wellingon's_Waterloo_dispatch_to_Lord_Bathurst,_19_June_1815

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Dishonest and Unreliable Media on "Priest Suicide"


Three images (I won't link, but URL will be visible in images).

I
 
II
 
III


Did you get it? The source was not a good work on St Augstine or St Thomas Aquinas or anyone, the source was a page from a "center" (US for centre, I believe) for Suicide Prevention. And that service for suicide prevention has taken down the page.

It seems the rumour that Catholic priests before St Augustine were committing suicide en masse to get to heaven quicker was not so reliable that the suicide prevention services wanted to keep it.

A moral of this is, alleging someone is suicidal is not always telling the strict truth. There are also such things as baseless allegations!/HGL

PS, one more image from the original video:



Since I am accessing youtube in France, I get "les commantaires ont été désactivées pour cette vidéo". It means "comments disabled for this video"./HGL

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Latin Spoken to When? Quora


HGL's F.B. writings : But I AM a Latinist · And a Controversial One at That, Sometimes · Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere : Latin Spoken to When? Quora

Q
Where was Latin last spoken as the common language?
https://www.quora.com/Where-was-Latin-last-spoken-as-the-common-language/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


Hans-Georg Lundahl
I speak two langs, Latin and Germanic. In a few dialects.
Answered just now
  • 1) I take this question as referring to Latin rather than the commonly identified daughter languages.
  • 2) I do not consider a dialectal diversity within spoken Latin as implying necessarily that Latin had been replaced by the daughter languages.
  • 3) I would however consider the “generation shift” from Latin to daughter language has taken place when a speech as commonly heard is no longer identified as the spoken version of a text we would from spelling, conuugation, declinsion as so on roughly rather consider as Latin than any daughter language.


First places where it ceased to be spoken as day to day language were perhaps British Isles or Mauretania. There because of other languages (Celtic and Germanic or Berber and Semitic).

Next, France shifts pronunciation of Latin from popular pronunciation in 800 AD. From 813 it is evidenced that the new pronunciation was not understood, was not felt as a mother tongue. By 1000, the one spelling (Latin) of Gregory of Tours and his one pronunciation (still understood by the people up to 800) has been clearly replaced by two spellings and two pronunciations, both equally phonetic, and only the non-Latin one (old pronunciation and new spelling, compared to in before 800) understood by people who have not actively learned Latin as a school subject.

THEN the same shift happens a bit faster in Spain and Italy around 1200 : I think … wait, it seems the Council of Coyanza in 1055 did the same for Spain, or parts of Spain, as Alcuin did for France : introduce a reconstructed or old-new pronunciation of Latin from abroad.

Concilio de Coyanza - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concilio_de_Coyanza


And the Council of Burgos was 1078 or 1080:

Erzbistum Burgos – Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzbistum_Burgos


“Im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert fanden in Burgos zwei nationale Konzile statt, deren erstes (1078 oder 1080) sich mit der Einführung des römischen Ritus’ in Spanien anstelle des alten mozarabischen Ritus’ befasste.”


Latin writing surviving as spelling of spoken language rather than of a reconstructed pronunciation may have survived even longer than that in Provençal area.

One indication is that Dante in De Vulgari Eloquentia gave as Latin particle of affirmation “oc” - which is how “yes” is said in Provençal (compare “oïl” for French and “si” for Yspani).

One other is that the oldest Cathar ritual was in Latin - and in Latin incorrect enough to be an approximative spelling of spoken language. The Cathar ritual (incomplete) in fragment of Florence is a manuscript from 1235 - 50:

Heresy and Literacy, 1000-1530
published by Peter Biller,Anne Hudson, p. 48
https://books.google.fr/books?dq=cathar+ritual+manuscript+of+florence&hl=fr&id=8eNrrZcsfZsC&lpg=PA48&ots=XyuK1-wY7n&pg=PA48&sa=X&sig=rWmwJWwGl5yhFOrkj01JLflra6g&source=bl&ved=0ahUKEwjJuof75dTWAhUGfhoKHW7FALkQ6AEIVjAL#v=onepage&q=cathar%20ritual%20manuscript%20of%20florence&f=false


And Dualist Heresy in the Middle Ages, Volume 10 M. Loos states that the faults in language show the ritual to be translated from Provençal.

Dualist Heresy in the Middle Ages, Volume 10
By M. Loos, p. 258
https://books.google.fr/books?dq=cathar+ritual+of+florence&hl=fr&id=euDAU2eb3h8C&lpg=PA258&ots=6pMuXHfxmr&pg=PA258&sa=X&sig=-7n-QklWsazf75F7UT4l8FKvI6U&source=bl&ved=0ahUKEwjOkejf5dTWAhVEWBoKHcKjBlMQ6AEIVjAM#v=onepage&q=cathar%20ritual%20of%20florence&f=false


What if they were pronouncing roughly what we call Provençal and writing it in Latin?

If so, Occitan area of North Italy could be the last area where the generation shift occurred.

As to Romania, there was instead of Latin rather Church Slavonic or Greek or Turkish writing among those who wrote, meaning there was no written Latin keeping spoken Latin close to its sources from fairly early on. There the shift was other than in the West.

But there is one possibility of even later shift. Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia have conservative dialects, far from standard Italian. Linguists even consider Sardinian a language of its own (it could be including Corsican).

There may have been small places where the locals understood Latin better than Italian or of course French, and I don’t know for how long.

But, in the main, the shift is accomplished by 1200 and Provençal or Occitan area are the last. Or perhaps Galicia? The oldest text in Galician is actually not from Galicia itself, it is from Burgos, 1228:

O Foro do bo burgo de Castro Caldelas é o documento máis antigo escrito en galego que se coñece no territorio que actualmente constitúe Galiza, entregado en abril de 1228. Neste texto o rei Afonso IX de León outorga ós cidadáns desta vila os seus foros e regula o seu réxime.


This is the city charter of Burgos.

It starts :

Eu don Alfonso porla gratia de Deus Rey de Leon a vos omes [do boo Burgo?], assy aos presentes como aos que an de víír, et a vossos fillos et a toda vossa generacion faço karta de donacion et texto de firmidũe, et dou a vos foros en que sempre vivades.


Foro do bo burgo de Castro Caldelas - Wikipedia, a enciclopedia libre https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foro_do_bo_burgo_de_Castro_Caldelas

But I don’t know how fast the newer pronunciation of Latin replaced the older one in Galicia.

Quoran Medley on Catholicism : Five Questions


Q I
Will all Catholic people before Martin Luther go to hell?
https://www.quora.com/Will-all-Catholic-people-before-Martin-Luther-go-to-hell/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


Hans-Georg Lundahl
History buff since childhood. CSL & Eco added to Medieval lore. + Classics.
Answered just now
Reformers generally admitted this was not the case - when academic enough to be answering this kind of question.

When Beza admitted it, St Francis of Sales asked “if so, why did you not remain in the Catholic Church?”

Q II
What was the role of the Pope in the Middle Ages?
https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-role-of-the-Pope-in-the-Middle-Ages


3 Answers
numbered i, ij, iij

i
JoAn Karkos
Answered May 9
Since Peter was the rock upon which Christ founded His Church, the role of the papacy is to defend, lead and guide all souls who are the Church Militant on earth towards Church Triumphant - to everlasting bliss in heaven to be with God, Our Blessed Mother, and all the angels and saints. Do not confuse this mandate with Jorge Bergoglio/claimaint as Francis I. He follows a different drummer, and is leading souls towards eternal pain and damnation forever separated from God.

TRADCAST EXPRESS -- Our Mini Podcasts
http://novusordowatch.org/2017/05/tradcast-express-mini-podcasts/


Hans-Georg Lundahl
28m ago
Not quite the point.

The question was not “what is the office of the Pope” (as far as I can see), but “what was the role of the Pope in the Middle Ages?”

ij
Hans-Georg Lundahl
Middle Ages fan + Latin student in Lund (where Medieval Latin rules).
Answered 10m ago
First of all, the Pope was, as always among Catholics, the vicar of Christ, the vicar of God. JoAn Karkos has explicitated what that means.

Second, the Pope had also come to fill a power vacuum left empty by the fall of Romulus Augustulus in the West part of Roman Empire - not alone, in the Völkerwandering this happened more than once, but in and around Rome, several times over or for prolonged uninterrupted periods.

Imagine the Catholic Bishop of Armagh were to become head of Northern Ireland politically, like a Stormont which cannot take the pro-abortion stance of England and has a historical grudge to Ireland (“30 counties”, “Republic of”) or even a principled one (if Enda Kenny succeeds in making Éire abortion liberal), that kind of thing happened over and over again in the Early Middle Ages.

Clergy was better at electing bishops and abbots than Roman Emperors in Byzantium at sending troops and commanders.

So, after Justinian failed to get Italy back under Constantinople, central Italy was fairly much under the Pope (and remained so to 1870), a bit like the Archbishop of Armagh scenario I just outlined. This got formalised in the time of Pepin the short, who helped defend a thitherto informal Papal States against Lombards.

This function along with the first came to give an impression, perhaps based on an already existing Donation of Constantine, perhaps instead inspiring a forgery of this document, that the role of the Pope as Vicar of God “did not stop at politics.” In a very broad sense of this phrase. I make this clear, because the position that it positively does “stop at politics” is a modern heresy. So, it was not just a question of simply denying this heresy. It was a feeling that Papacy had a rather non-casual and normal role in politics, even if different from that of Emperor and of Kings. Hence, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, no one was surprised by “intrusion” of Church into politics - at least not in the Latin West.

Third, both kings and clergy appealed right and left between Papacy and Secular overlords (a king could chose if he considered Pope or Emperor his overlord, and a bishop was having a king or an emperor as secular overlord for the territory he controlled along with the souls for which he was responsible). This lead to a conflict between Popes and Emperors. This conflict led to Emperors amassing a guilt burden, not just in their conscience, but even inpublic opinion. Innocent II was as persecuted by an Emperor as Innocent III was enjoying the compensations for the imperial overstepping of good relations to God and Church. This meant that Papacy was not just religiously preeminent in the Church, but politically preeminent, a bit like Sweden with Olof Palme, if you recall that period.

So, the full role of Papacy under the Middle Ages started out with first and essential role, came to include an “Archbishop of Armagh replaces Stormont” role, came to include a definite and non-casual say in politics, and came to include the moral preeminence over Empire. One can compare the failing of Emperors to subdue Papacy with the failure of a later German ruler in 1945.

iij
Sam Dero
Answered May 30
A ruler. In actuality the church ruled a kingdom as much as a king. The church had a HUGE ifluence on the people and thier soldiers

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Just now
Yes, as much as scientists have now.

And sometimes a bit more.

Q III (my own)
Did Luther ever read Lucretius or know about him?
https://www.quora.com/Did-Luther-ever-read-Lucretius-or-know-about-him


Context
Luther on evolution
by Paul Bartz
https://creation.com/luther-on-evolution


1 Answer

Elizabeth Penrose
I've read a little
Answered 1h ago
Do we have the record of anyone who read Lucretius before the 17th century?

What did the readers then think of the book?

It is important how people perceive what is written — including the people at the time in which it is written. It isn’t just important to say, “So and so was written then,” but “What was its effect on the people at the time of its publication?” For example, Walt Whitman’s contemporaries banned Leaves of Grass for what was seen then as heterosexual licentiousness, not homosexuality. Nathaniel Hawthorne was seen as supremely moral and Christian, and The House of the Seven Gables was praised as such. It wasn’t until the 1940’s, and the attempt to build an American canon separate from European thought, that The Scarlet Letter became his signal work, and hatred of formal Christianity his main thought.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
1h ago
“Im Mittelalter war Lukrez in nahezu völlige Vergessenheit geraten, bis der Humanist Poggio Bracciolini 1417 in einem nicht näher benannten deutschen Kloster die womöglich letzte erhaltene Abschrift von De rerum natura entdeckte.”

Lukrez – Wikipedia
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukrez


So, Lucretius was known since 100 years before “Reformation”.

The problem I am after is whether a certain Luther quote could have been directed at “Evolutionism” or “cultural developmentalism” of Epicure and Lucretius, or whether it is directed at some other Greek philosopher or Roman one, or a general refusal to even look at Pagan philosophy.

Luther is in this link quoted as:

“ ‘Among the Hebrews, the Latins or the Greeks, there is no guide whom we can follow with any safety in this area’.”

Reference given to:

J.P. Pelikan and H. Lehmann, ed., ‘Luther’s Works’ American Edition, 55 Volumes, Volume 1, ‘Lectures on Genesis, Chapters 1-5’ St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House; Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1955, p.1, hereafter abbreviated as L.W.

The author of the paper is interpreting this as:

I [think, I presume, that] Luther was referring to such men as Lucretius (1st century B.C.) who in his writings on, ‘the Nature of the Universe’ attacked concepts central to the biblical story of creation as ‘sheer nonsense’. Lucretius stated, ‘Nothing can ever be created by divine power out of nothing’ ... ‘the theory that they (the gods) deliberately created the world in all its natural splendour for the sake of man .... This theory ... with all its attendant fictions is sheer nonsense!’

I for my part am less optimistic of Luther going for Lucretius here. It could have been simply his general antischolasticism.

But I am willing to give the question a try, hence : is there any indication Luther ever knew of Lucretius?

Q IIII
Do Christians believe in a God that reads your mind?
https://www.quora.com/Do-Christians-believe-in-a-God-that-reads-your-mind/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


David McKay
upvoted this

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Studied religions as curious parallels and contrasts to Xtian faith since 9, 10?
Answered 2h ago
God knows E V E R Y T H I N G, and that includes content of my mind and of yours.

Yes, we do.

Q V
Are there any Catholics who really believe that on a Sunday morning the wine and biscuit (bread) become the blood and body of Jesus?
https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-Catholics-who-really-believe-that-on-a-Sunday-morning-the-wine-and-biscuit-bread-become-the-blood-and-body-of-Jesus/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


Hans-Georg Lundahl
Converted to Roman Catholic Church, Novus Ordo version, then to Trad.
Answered Sat
Depends on what priest (validly ordained or not), expressing what intention (to sacrifice Mass and transsubstantiate or not) in what rite (a traditional apostolic rite traditionally recognised or preferred by the Roman Church or not).

Does not depend on which morning it is, Catholic priests usually celebrate every day, except Good Friday and the day of Easter Saturday.

However, Sunday mornings, faithful are required to assist one Mass, though by dispensation the obligation can be fulfilled also after Noon. On Maundy Thursday a Mass in the evening is required, and Easter and Christmas masses around midnight.

Monday, October 2, 2017

Hemant on Miracles - Answered


5 Reasons why Your Miracles aren't Really Miraculous
The Atheist Voice | added = "Ajoutée le 20 mai 2014"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRGnV6yWlGs


1:46 OK, your meeting the girl was probably a miracle.

Some of your stuff is a boon to Christians, since on the one hand it is very detailed supposed deunking, and therefore good material for an Apologist like me to use, and on the other hand you are, usually, polite.

Some of the dialogues I have had with atheist have probably earned the blog where I reflect them a media ban in Russia, due to profanity, and that profanity is not from me.

Hemant, thanks for not being like that. Now I'll politely hear why you don't think this meeting was a miracle, perhaps because you aren't dating her any more?

2:23 True, your meeting the girl was not a Lourdes class miracle.

It could not be officially used as one more instance of Our Lady in Lourdes Apparition being confirmed by healing miracles afterwards.

2:38 "something else would have happened"

R i g h t ... (starting to feel less polite) ... there are two options, either that something else would have been a big deal or it wouldn't.

If it hadn't, you would be doing some medical stuff which might be less fun than blogging, for instance.

If it had, you would still be fairly ungrateful to providence in this comment.

3:23 Your quitting med school is a good argument against the wizeacres ...

3:36 Medical records are always involved in an officially recognised Lourdes miracle.

Do you know what more is?

The healing has to be:

  • unexplicable by known medical facts
  • sudden
  • unreversed.


3:46 A cancer going into remission is not recognised as a Lourdes miracle. A cancer totally disappearing and not coming back (not sure if they wait 1 year or a time appropriate for disease - so maybe longer for cancer - or to death from other causes) is.

Not sure if they had many cancer miracles at Lourdes, but before antibiotics there was one or two miracles involving sudden healing of ... had to check, tubercular peritonitis.

Here Tolkien writes on one case he heard about in Church:

And the most moving story of the little boy with tubercular peritonitis who had not been healed, and was taken sadly away in the train by his parents, practically dying with two nurses attending him. As the train moved away it passed within the sight of the Grotto. The little boy sat up. "I want to go and talk to the little girl" - in the same train there was a girl who had been healed. And he got up and played with the little girl; and then he came back, and he said "I'm hungry now". And they gave him cake and two bowls of chocolate and enormous potted meat sandwiches, and he ate them! (This was in 1927). So Our Lord told them to give the little daughter of Jairus something to eat. So plain and matter of fact: for so miracles are.


from his letter 89
Letters, pp 99 - 100

Note, I went to a page - wikipedian or other - on recognised Lourdes miracles, and the boy is not there, since he was healed on the train and not in Lourdes. But a girl who could be that girl is.

I keep the quote with reference on a bibliography page with Tolkien related links and stuff:

Βιβλιογράφικα/Bibliographica : J R R Tolkien related
http://vivlijohrafika.blogspot.com/2008/11/j-r-r-tolkien-related.html


4:58 "let me tell you what God told me the other day"

You don't hear Catholics use that phrase much either.

It has sth to do with Pentecostals and Charismatics not having a certain shyness in culture most other people do have.

"You never hear them talk about miracles that happened to them."

In US that may be because you don't have a sufficient high concentration of Muslims making smaller pilgrimages to shrines or Hindoos going to that particular contributary to Ganges with a temple known for ... etc.

5:02 "at least in America"

You know, you might have some low component of Amerindians among your acquaintances too.

5:40 Yes, there are proven miracles in Lourdes.

Proven cases - at least one girl with peritonitis before antibiotics were available to cure that - where remission is irreversible, sudden and unexplainable.

Since lack of appetite has to do also with peritoneal tissue lacking, this involves a sudden restoration of tissue, as well.

Oh, you might perhaps say "as it was in France, they must have been eating green cheese" (same or similar fungus as for penicilline production, both versions of bread mold - but it tastes much better in cheese than in bread).

OK, go and check how a typical Lourdes menu was c. 100 years ago, and if there was lots of blue cheese available ...

5:48 Lourdes doctors are perhaps not so interested in James Randi's offer?

They are the guys who regularly do the medical examination before a miracle is officially recognised.

5:57 There were two miracles for "Wojtyla".

One of them was not irreversible in healing, that was the French nun.

One of them was not sudden, but took some weeks, even if the healing was lots faster than any known procedure could have made.

I am more impressed by the one healing miracle of Roncalli (Antipope John XXIII), which I had been unaware of since the final "canonisation" used his "Vatican II Council" as miracle number 2.

And you know, your meating that girl seems better qualified as, if not strictly miracle, at least act of God, than Vatican II. So, I was surprised that anything remotely close to a real healing miracle - and the Italian sister seems to have had a real one - even happened in connection to him.

6:04 The natural explanations are probably waiting right there to be figured out ... uh ... naturalism of the gaps?

6:22 God's performing miracles on special occasions is not equivalent of making them a normal pharmaceutic shop.

In other words, you forget that, God working miracles is NOT the kind of explanation which can be "tested by controlled experiments."

So, no. And God's not making them a pharmaceutic shop is also not equivalent of His never making them.

Still at 6:22 "all of our loved ones would never die".

Do you have any idea how annoying it would be if no one ever died? Just because you love someone doesn't mean there isn't someone sitting by a river and happily surprised if seeing his corpse float by (probably a reference to Ganges burials, right?)

Death and diseases are part of God's general punishment for sin.

And not just for personal sins we commit now, also for being children of Adam, who sinned.

It's not as selective of what one calls a miracle as when they really occur.

Getting rid of tubercular peritonitis without antibiotics is much more selective as an occurrence than calling such a thing a miracle. But of course, you can check if it was very likely the girl and the boy (who was cured later) had been eating lots of blue cheese, when they could get something down.

6:57 Why should I, as a Catholic, believe Douglas Hagler?

Especially as, as a Catholic, I do not need to deny miracles occur among non-Catholics.

Like sometimes God prefers leaving some in a false religion over them becoming atheists, which would be the result if no miracles happened.

7:11 "Because they didn't happen to him"

Yeah, right, if this Italian priest cannot bilocate to hear confessions among stranded Italians, like Padre Pio did (the event was verified on both sides, a mystic Italian priest appearing in Chicago, answering to his description on same occasion when he said he had bilocated, and hearing a confession in Italian while no other priest was available), it's because he's a bad priest?

No, and if you don't have stigma, it is not because you are a bad priest either.

Miracles come for God's very selective pruposes, and that selection is diverse from selection to be saved and go to Heaven.

His comment is as inane as if he had said "I don't believe in Fort Sumter, I never saw a war start" or "I don't believe in the Versailles Peace Treaty, I never saw a war end".

Credits for this argument to C. S. Lewis, the book called "Miracles". Can't recall the page.

7:40 You know, Douglas Hagler actually has Protestant tradition since Reformation going for him.

This means, as a Protestant, he is supposed to have a bias against miracles.

The usual consensus among Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists etc is "miracles ceased to happen when the last Apostle died". On their view, they might start again shortly before Harmageddon, unless Apocalypse 11 is just speaking about the Reformation (two witnesses identified as Old and New Testament rather than as for instance Henoch and Elijah returning from whereever God kept them since He took them up).

So, Douglas Hagler is really not a very impressing thing to bring up with a Catholic.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Phil Stilwell Gets Remedial Philosophy (quora)


Assorted Retorts: Phil Stilwell Gets Remedial Philosophy (quora) · In Answer to Phil Stilwell / Tokyo Taboo · Phil Stilwell Responded with a Paper. Answering the Abstract · Continuing to Answer Stilwell's Paper [1 through halfway through 5] · From Phil Stilwells Assessment of Me · New blog on the kid: This is Not a Response To Phil Stilwell, It's a Denunciation

Q
How can the Holy Spirit be distinguished from Satan or human imagination?
https://www.quora.com/How-can-the-Holy-Spirit-be-distinguished-from-Satan-or-human-imagination/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


Context
https://sufficientreasons.wordpress.com/08-2/

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Studied religions as curious parallels and contrasts to Xtian faith since 9, 10?
Answered Wed
By the teaching of the Church and by the Charism of the Church.

Btw, human imagination may sometimes be autonomous, but is often used either by the devil or by the Holy Spirit.

If you pray for the Holy Spirit and are faithful in repelling what you justly think could most probably come from the Devil, there are chances your imagination will be among the lucky ones.

Imagination is first and foremost an organ, like sight or hearing : while we are able to use it, we experience it, and anything capable of manipulating it can be talking to us through it : God, God’s angels, Devils and Demons, if there be fairies certainly fairies as well, hypnotists …

Inconvenience afterwards
"Not posted publicly." - Yes, it was, but this tag appears today. I try to change, but the tag sits on, and I can't reedit the post to make another option, if even available.



When allowed to edit, I can click the three points which usually appear at the end of where my added arrow is.

The three points are not there = I can't edit.

I had hoped to change the settings to public, first by clicking the "Not posted publicly" and then by doing an edit of my answer. Neither worked.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
But all the signals I receive to confirm it is the Holy Spirit could be from Satan or my own imagination, right?

This seems to suggest we can never be sure: — H — (on the confirming witness of the holy spirit)
https://sufficientreasons.wordpress.com/h/


Above was answered
twice, in I and II

I

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
“But all the signals I receive to confirm it is the Holy Spirit could be from Satan or my own imagination, right?”

Depends fairly much on how faithful you are in eliminating the possibilities of error.

Btw, when it comes to accepting the Christian faith, I certainly recommend external evidence, coming from the Church.

I think Calvin made up the claim his acceptance of 66 books was by the Holy Spirit inspiring that acceptance, while the other 7 books of a Catholic Bible, either it was not the Holy Spirit speaking to Calvin, or Calvin was deaf to the Holy Spirit about those other 7 books.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
Christians the world over claim it is the Holy Spirit leading them to very different conclusion. They all consult their particular Church leaders. Then they arrive at diametrically diverse conclusions. This is the contradiction I want to address. There is obviously no rigor in the way most Christians determine it is the Holy Spirit leading them one way or the other, or confirming their salvation. What I want is a rigorous description of the method through which one can unerringly know with full certainty it is the Holy Spirit.

— H — (on the confirming witness of the holy spirit)
https://sufficientreasons.wordpress.com/h/

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
“Christians the world over claim it is the Holy Spirit leading them to very different conclusion. They all consult their particular Church leaders. Then they arrive at diametrically diverse conclusions.”

Catholics don’t.

We don’t chose Catholicism by saying the Holy Spirit drives Tom, Dick and Harry to conclude Catholicism is true.

We chose Catholicism in order so that Tom, Dick and Harry may have something other than internal witness about whether it is the Holy Spirit or the Devil who is speaking to them about their lives in a certain situation.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
How is it ascertained it was actually the Holy Spirit behind the ecclesiastical or personal confirmation or decision? I want to know the process. Imagine I feel God wants me to go to Mexico as a missionary. I’d like a rigorous description of the process. We are not playing games here.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
  • It is verified that the authority examining you is actually a Catholic authority, as the real Pope;
  • It is verified that Jesus promised the Catholic Church this power in the Gospels, notably not just the Apostles personally, but also their successors, to the end of all time, Matthew 28:16–20.


So, if it is a real Catholic authority, it has this promise by Christ.

How it goes about doing this certainly involves examining some external qualifications of yours, like, when it comes to Mexico, if you know Spanish. But considering Mexico is already Catholic, or used to be, it is more likely you mean to go to some Indian tribe, so the Pope or his representative would evaluate if you are good at learning Amerindian languages.

The evaluation of your general suitability as a clergyman is given along the lines St Paul gave Sts Titus and Timothy.

Btw, one little tip : don’t use the representatives of Antipope Bergoglio.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
No. I want to know the mechanism whereby you confirm that attributions of the Holy Sprit were actually the Holy Spirit. Science does this through predictive success. Where is the predictive success in your verification method? Is there another respectable way other than predictive success to confirm a claim such-and-such a feeling or decision was caused by the Holy Spirit?

Rigor. Not just assertions.

  • We all know anyone can defer to an ecclesiastical “authority” who themselves may be deceived by Satan or their imagination. There is an intrinsic eternal regress in this. I want to know how that eternal regress is avoided.
  • A promise is the near-opposite of a verification. Do you understand the way scientists verify their hypothesis?


Once again, this is not some game we are playing. Is it the Holy Spirit, Satan or imagination behind the millions of actions Christians take every day?

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
“We all know anyone can defer to an ecclesiastical “authority” who themselves may be deceived by Satan or their imagination. There is an intrinsic eternal regress in this. I want to know how that eternal regress is avoided.”

The two steps in showing some ecclesial authority probably is not so deceived are:

  • his being a Catholic authority, not a fraud like Frankenpope;
  • verification of Catholic Church having this promise - and it is a historical one, not one depending on the examiners submission to Catholic authority.


“A promise is the near-opposite of a verification. Do you understand the way scientists verify their hypothesis?”

This promise is sth which has been verified over and over again, if you bother to take a real look at Catholic Church history.

Europe was wildly howling in superstitions shouting “Africa” to many colonial or postcolonial minds, and sacrificing men to its false gods, North of the limes.

Even Rome was cynic and corrupt.

Catholicism changed that. This is too powerful to be the result of just human imagination, and the wrong direction for it being the Devil. If you contest that, you have a problem with axiology.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
All you have is a looping circle of alleged authorities you cannot legitimately escape.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
Describe the so called “circle”.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
Every step in your verification relies on subjectivity.

Or perhaps you can give an example of a time where you were led by the Holy Spirit to a decision, and explain how you verified it was the Holy Spirit.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
For one thing, no, it depends on history and sound morals - including common ground between Catholics and atheists.

Prussians and Vikings and Celts ceasing human sacrifice must be considered a good thing, even on your view.

For another, that is not the same charge as the “circulus in probando” charge which you have not proven or the “circulus in definiendo” charge which also you have not proven.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
Provide a personal example in which the Holy Spirit lead you to a decision, and explain how you verified it was the Holy Spirit.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
I won’t.

This is a discussion.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
No, this is where you post an answer to the question. Hitherto, you haven’t. Anybody qualified to answer this question has had actual examples of the Holy Spirit working in their life that they have legitimately verified.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
22h ago
My point is, this is a discussion, not personal witness.

I prefer by a wide margin taking examples from known saints of whom it is reasonably sure they were having the Holy Spirit work in their lives.

St Francis saw a vision of the crucifix in San Damiano speak to him “restore my church”. The point for this vision being from God is, St Francis actually did that.

St Ignatius of Loyola on at least two occasions left the decision to “chance” - or to acts of God’s Providence. About NOT going after the Moor and kill him unless he recanted the blasphemy, and about giving his order into the hands of the Pope in case there was nothing to do in the way of mission service in Holy Land. Jesuits have been a great asset to the Church up to the dissolution.

I can’t say Jesuits like “Pope Francis” or Teilhard de Chardin personify this, but then, if they are not Catholics, they are not real Jesuits either.

Sts Cosmas and Damian whom we celebrated yesterday decided to be physicians for the poor without charging money. Not only did they set an excellent example for social medicine (Constantine opened a hospital in Constantinople a few year or decades after they were martyred), but God allowed them to make miraculous cures as well.

That is at least three decisions by at least four people where history has verified they did the right thing to actually obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, bringing in my personal witness is superfluous.

Phil Stilwell
22h ago
But you don’t have a way to verify it is not your imagination. Do you?

Hans-Georg Lundahl
20h ago
Yes, since I am speaking of other people.

Btw its “not being my imagination” is wrong criterium. The right criterium is its being from God.

I can go with things like “is it in accordance with ten commandments” or “is it in accordance with charity”.

As said earlier : imagination is a kind of “sense organ”, which, while able to go on its own, is also a recipient for influences from God and from the Devil.

So, its “not being my imagination” as its not being involved is not sth I even need bother about verifying.

Phil Stilwell
19h ago
What is the method you use to determine what you suspect is the Holy Spirit is indeed the Holy Spirit? And how do you assess the success of that method?

Hans-Georg Lundahl
19h ago
The method anyone should use is prayer and using the kind of criteria named.

The success in one’s own life should not be evaluated by oneself, but by others.

Among Pentecostals you get exemplary persons thought so by others during their life giving witness (even if their exemplarity is only about a recent conversion).

Among Watchtower Sect, people thought exemplary are writing (on being asked to) short autobiographies to The Watchtower.

Among Catholics and Orthodox, we leave the judgement to God, which He can make accessible to others by working miracles, like when St Francis healed a leper or a lame man in Narni or when St Francis Xaver spoke fluently when preaching to Chinamen and Japanese languages some of which he had not been taught. Or when St Martin’s relics (dead body) woke up bodies of people buried next to him (three at least). Or when St Paul had people touch his clothes with their handkerchiefs and heal sick with them - behind St Paul’s back.

For ourselves, we need only reasonable assurance.

Phil Stilwell
19h ago
Why keep the assessment subjective when science has advanced knowledge fastest when assessments are objective? It is almost as if you are encouraging self-delusion.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
18h ago
Precisely the reason why assessment of OWN state is less important and the Church’s assessment of someone ELSE’s state of sanctity, as evidenced objectively by miracles is more important.

You keep assessing my criteria as subjective while I am all the time showing the subjective criteria you ask about in the first place are not the most important ones.

St Francis and St Martin working miracles is not subjective criteria, it is objective history.

As to the area where I really am subjective, perhaps it is one in which objectivity is not attainable - and that is why one is not encouraged to seek it out on one’s own.

Since at present I have no father confessor, I am handicapped in that area.

And this means, even in the subjective area, we Catholics try to go for objectivity. To DIS-courage self-delusion. Reply

Phil Stilwell
18h ago
No, Catholics never honestly entertain the possibility that the Holy Spirit may be fictional.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
18h ago
Because we have objective criteria in the outside world, like the miracle of Pentecost or hosts of miracles after it to our times.

Phil Stilwell
18h ago
No, you do not have access to any validation of the alleged miracles of Pentecost. You have stories written that cannot be confirmed. Don’t pretend this is any more credible than Muhammad splitting the moon.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
3h ago
Yes, I do pretend it is more credible.

Pentecost is conformed by the fact of an afflux of new disciples, inexplainable in terms of purely natural causes so short time after Crucifixion (it was not a rally cry for revenge, like Mark Antony makes in Shakespear’s Julius Caesar, sth which has a natural capacity to rally adherents to a cause : it was a claim outrageous on any pretence other than it being true).

Pentecost is confirmed by St Luke writing down accounts given by people who had been there, which is confirmed by the Catholic Church keeping Acts as a sacred memory and ascribing it to St Luke.

As to splitting the moon, why did most of the world not see it (moon being visible from more than one place!) and the one outside immediate Ummah who did was a Hindoo king, whose heir, saying this, was at the time converting to Islam under duress.

Phil Stilwell
3h ago
Luke which is another writer and an age when writers embellished narrative with magic and miracles. Nothing credible.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
2h ago
Luke is a writer taken from the first as a historiographer. Unlike Tolkien who is taken from the first as a novelist.

You have no argument beyond your atheistic prejudice to suppose “magic and miracles” as found in writings from the age are “embellishments”.

You are also hereby challenged to elaborate how a non-miraculous event could have been “embellished” to the Pentecost account. Step by step, from the real event to the account in Luke. Note, “could have”, precisely as the challenge with “evolution of the eye”. My contention is not “you don’t know how and therefore not that it did so”, my contention is “you can’t explain this supposed natural change with even one plausible scenario”. So, use reconstruction, if you like. BUT do not use generalities like “there was a real event, it became embellished with magic”. Describe what you think COULD HAVE been the real event and describe at what points embellishements COULD HAVE been inserted - and if so, for what reason.

If you want a similar challenge about splitting of moon, easy :

  • Ummah did not take history seriously, like Jews and therefore early Christians do;
  • they were challenged by both Christians and Jews on the fact of Mohammed never making a miracle, unlike Jesus, unlike Moses and the Prophets;
  • they described - as far as I know - the miracle in a place they took less seriously than the Quran (I suppose);
  • they occasionally imposed belief on this point of people who before “converting” as opposed to being decapitated, before risking this, had made the miracles challenge (one also imposed on Luther and Calvin, them taking the copout “age of miracles is past” instead, which is one of the roots of atheism);
  • they imposed on one Hindoo king “converting” to give “independent evidence”.


Mostly, they don’t care one way or the other.

Sorry, I have a better one:

Verses 54:1-2 of the Quran reads: [omitting Arabic version]

The Hour (of Judgment) is nigh, and the moon is cleft asunder. But if they see a Sign, they turn away, and say, "This is (but) transient magic.


It was - transient magic. Mohammed had been given the power to make things appear that are not.

Source : Splitting of the moon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_of_the_moon


Above was answered
in A and B

A
Phil Stilwell
1h ago
This will help highlight the inconsistent ways Christians deal with probabilities.
— C — (on ignored probabilities)
https://sufficientreasons.wordpress.com/c/


Hans-Georg Lundahl
18m ago
The hypothetic scenario is no parallel, since it involves two separate letters rather than one continuous account, and a discovery in his papers rather than sth published close to events.

Phil Stilwell
13m ago
You missed the point completely. The point is you dismiss ancient accounts as soon as they become fantastical on everything except your ideology. Just be consistent.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
10m ago
“ you dismiss ancient accounts as soon as they become fantastical on everything except your ideology.”

Do I?

“Just be consistent.”

Am I not?

B

Phil Stilwell
59m ago
And this deals specifically with the resurrection.

#49 – Can the alleged resurrection of Jesus be considered the most likely explanation of the evidence?
https://sufficientreasons.wordpress.com/49-2/


Hans-Georg Lundahl
19m ago
"The entire story was made up by the Gospel writers to map to Old Testament prophecies."

Deals with Gospel writers as authors with no social context. Weems and Tolkien had very diverse social context as writing about George Washington and Bilbo Baggins. The one social context is among Americans all knowing that George Washington existed and treating Parson Weems as a biographer of a real person. The other social context is among fantasy fans all knowing Tolkien invented stories for fun, and scrapped some versions, and implied materials originally unrelated to each other.

The alternative explanation is being very vague about the social context of Gospel writers. Their first readers were not 21st C Christians ready to believe a thing because it is found in that book. Their readers were 1st C Christians who would have had some reasonable previous evidence about Jesus existing or resurrecting, before hearing details in the Gospels.

You simply cannot fabricate 20 centuries of habit from nowhere. You consider "a writer made a claim", but you don't consider what kind of writer to what kind of readers and listeners at recitals.

"Jesus was not actually dead before being placed in the tomb."

Details? After crucifixion, and being beaten bloody hours before it, and carrying the patibulum and getting not even equivalent of a cup of coffee as energy drink (Jesus spit out the wine with gall, equivalent of a cup of coffee with added emetic not drunk), if you are buried in swathes of linen inside a tomb closed by a stone door, chances are you don't get out alive.

"The body of Jesus was simply placed in the wrong tomb."

And no one pointed it out? And resurrection story rose around that?

"The disciples stole the body to allow for the resurrection claim."

According to the witness of sleeping guards - they would have been sleeping very heavily, if not waking up and resisting.

IF they had woken up, the stealing could have been averted and one of the culprits identified. And killed for it.

We don't have any such account, and if something like that had happened, the Romans could have pointed it out. Or temple guards. We don't even find the accusation repeated in Toledot Yeshu.

[As far as I know, I have not read it.]

The words in the Gospel must have been written within a fairly short time after, since Cohanim and Pharisees would soon see how inane this is as an explanation.

"The Romans took the body away to avoid making the gravesite a venerable memorial"

And forgot to mention it when the empty tomb became a sign of the resurrection ... right ...?

"Sometime Christian leaders suggest we must know and argue for one particular of these candidate explanations, or we must default to the miraculous explanation. Is this true? Do we need to believe our neighbor’s dog resurrected until we are able to provide evidence for a particular one the many more probable alternative explanations?"

It is more like if the neighbour can show faults with all candidate explanation, you should show at least one of them moderately plausible.

"It is often informative to simply ask Christian leaders what probability they assign to the resurrection within 10 or so percentage points. Then ask them to walk you through the evidence and arguments that have led them to that degree of probability. Pay attention to the rigor or lack of rigor in their reasoning. Is their reasoning in line with rigorous standards of evidence?"

Rigorous standards of evidence are not about what mathematical betting probability an outcome in the future has projected backwards on a given alleged fact (traditional story or proposed alternative reconstruction) in the past.

In rigorous standards of evidence, the probability of resurrections happening previous to one happening are assessed as "not a mathematical question, but depends on your general world view".

A story of Gladstone seeing Parnell's ghost is far more probable than a story of Gladstone slapping Queen Victoria on the back.

We do know prime ministers in constitutional monarchies trying to keep theatrical shows of what monarchic actual power had been do not behave like that. We do not know (in advance of examining evidence for ghost stories) that ghosts don't appear.

The argument is a bit like someone saying "hey, you said you couldn't believe Gladstone slapping Queen Victoria on the back, but what about your own claim he saw Parnell's ghost? Isn't that even more improbable?"

And the answer must be a very long nooooooo. With an added "at least not unless you start out believing ghosts never appear".

You forgot one of the alternative explanations:

"The resurrected Jesus was a hallucination"

Now, this is not strictly on empty tomb issue, but hallucinations are not collectively shared usually.

Now, I was challenging you on another event, 50 days later. Pentecost.

Back to social position of writers, again. You haven't ever been around Peter converting 5000 people in one day. I haven't been around him either. We both start out with some much bleaker memory of a crucifixion, a bare survival, an attempt to focus on "spiritual resurrection" despite all the look of it.

Along comes Luke. He basically claims we were seeing Pentecost. We both were in Jerusalem the Jewish festivals of Pesach and Jewish Pentecost in that year and saw NOTHING of the things Luke writes. Our Hebrew is not good and we heard no Greek. 50 people were converted, but its the kind of people who would - including us back then, how innocent we were.

How do we react? "Hey, it says we were five thousand, that is not what I recall, there must be sth wrong with my memory?" - "Mine too, it says we heard it in Greek, and my poor memory keeps saying sth about not understanding the Hebrew very well"

Or more like "Hey, it says we were five thousand, but we were fifty; what a liar!" - "He could have got sth wrong, let's check first!"

And on seeing he means to keep it up, we skip away. Someone else who doesn’t in time gets eliminated, sects tending to work that way if based in deceit, but we are lucky and skip away in time. Whatever the decade, Christians had plenty of enemies very willing to give us a platform if we could give the Christians a bad look. For some reason, we didn't make it to history at all.

And before you say Christians expurgated Roman media, recall Jews and Parthians had media not controlled by either Romans or Christians.

Phil Stilwell
10m ago
There were decades over which an actual life of an actual Jesus could have been mythicised by a community that knew the Old Testament prophecies well. Let’s not be silly.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
3m ago
OK, decades of intervention …

  • there are some decades of intervention before us after Ronald Reagan went out of office, do we see his presidency being targetted by myths, even among die-hard Republicans?
  • I was specifically asking about Pentecost, the public event. An event in which thousands of Jews would either have been involved or not seen anything at all. Btw, the Jews eventually rejecting Jesus did not make claims like “yeah, Woodstock, Our Lady’s Assumption in 1969, went there and it was empty”.


Your basic claim is a bit as if you could argue for denying historicity of Woodstock.

I am lucky here that Woodstock was 15–18th of August, since that is a date a Catholic would KNOW the festival of, so any Catholic who went there on 15th of August could not have forgotten the date.

Similarily, Pentecost Sunday happened during the OT festival, the Mosaic festival of Pentecost. An observant Jew who was in Jerusalem that year could not have missed it.

If someone is being silly, it is you.

II

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
After reading your link:

“How can the human mind verify with absolute certainty that what they perceive to be the promised divine spirit is actually a divine spirit rather than an lying spirit or their own imagination?”

First, God’s existence is proven both philosophically and by histrical miracles well beyond this dispute.

Then, God will know what the specific problems are for this or that persons absolute certainty (supposing that person needs it, like he’s a Bible book author - a situation which has ceased to exist after last Apostle left earthly existence, or a prophet delivering a warning) and know how to give the person a verification.

Note, for most practical purposes, like leading a Christian life or doing this rather than that in a Christian life, absolute certainty is NOT needed.

Asking for such a thing is a bit like when certain kinds of Protestants ask Catholics if they are 100 % sure of going to Heaven. Yes, we are collectively. No, we are usually not, individually. A reasonable assurance of not being on the way to Hell is enough not to be needing drastic changes.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
I’m going to guess you have no actual degree in philosophy since you claim that the existence of God has been demonstrated philosophically beyond despite. I’m willing to have a dialogue, but brash lies of this nature are not a good start. Do you want to retract this?

(I do have a degree in philosophy.)

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
“I’m going to guess you have no actual degree in philosophy since you claim that the existence of God has been demonstrated philosophically beyond despite.”

I said “well beyond this dispute”.

I could of course add “well beyond reasonable dispute”, since I consider neither Russell nor Kant as reasonable in denying the undisputable demonstration.

No, I have no degree in Philosophy, except as a school subject at high school, I don’t choose to study under Kant or Russell, I am a Thomist.

You mentioned no degree in history, and this means we are on admittedly even ground when it comes to historic miracles.

I have not lied, and I have no reason to retract what I said.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
Those who have even a cursory understanding of philosophy and the history of philosophy know better than to make such an absurd claim.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
Those who have even a cursory understanding of rhetoric know that a sentence beginning with “those who have even a cursory understanding of” is rhetoric, not per se as yet argument.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
All the statistics on philosophers who think the philosophical arguments for God are persuasive are out there. If you continue to suggest there is even close to a majority of philosophers who find them compelling, you are dishonest.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
A majority of philosophers is not the issue.

Also, the majority of philosophers and common people taken together (an argument palatable to Aristotle, I agree for normal occasions) if you go through history and geography, you will find the majority for some reason believed in God.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
You actually tred to answer the question by appealing to philosophical positions the majority of philosophers don’t hold. Don’t do that.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
Wed
I don’t need YOU telling me what to do.

I am not a Jap calling you sensei.

As to “the majority of philsophers”, I suppose you are considering those at present.

And these are NOT a rule.

Majority of wise only or of common people only is clearly weaker than majority or totality of both taken together.

AND each of these is lots weaker if you consider the cases of today’s Western World only.

Also, you have as yet not made a single effort of actual argumentation on the issue, only appeals to AUTHORITY and that to a human one lacking the divine promises of the Church.

Phil Stilwell
Wed
//I am not a Jap calling you sensei.//

I’ll accept your evasion and the statement above as a reflection of who you and your indwelling Holy Spirit are.

Hans-Georg Lundahl
23h ago
Look, I was not even claiming positively the Holy Spirit was at the moment indwelling in me.

The point is, you are evading, if you read all of my comment I was not. I was adressing your point fairly and squarely.

You may be able to do stats for all the philosophers in your text book, but that does not cover all individual philosophers over the ages or even now, and no philosopher I know ever recommended using the majority of the philosophers right now and here as the criterium for truth. Not even Plato, since he was aware societies are different and some have very low levels in philosophy and even in philosophers.


Phil Stilwell seems to have made it impossible for me to comment under his answers - without actually blocking me, since he is still answering in the comboxes after this.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Was Molière on Index Librorum Prohibitorum? It Seems to be Not the Case! (quora)


Q
Why was Tartuffe banned by the Catholic Church?
https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Tartuffe-banned-by-the-Catholic-Church/answer/Hans-Georg-Lundahl


Hans-Georg Lundahl
Studied religions as curious parallels and contrasts to Xtian faith since 9, 10?
Answered 54m ago
As far as I know, it wasn’t.

MOLIĖRE

Le Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur

Les trois premiers actes de Tartuffe, pièce dans laquelle Molière fustige l'hypocrisie et la perversité morale des dévots, furent présentés en 1664 à Versailles. Molière fut accusé d'athéisme et la pièce fut interdite pendant cinq ans.


Source:
http://musees-nationaux-alpesmar...
http://musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/picasso/picasso/sites/musees-nationaux-alpesmaritimes.fr/files/chambre_des_livres_interdits_notices_des_ouvrages_4.pdf


In other words, it was not the Church, but the King of France (or possibly clergy close to him, in Versailles) which got the play banned for five years, in France.

It might even have been the Church which had the ban lifted after that time.

Edit : it seems an Italian translation of it was banned, by Girolamo Gigli.

https://books.google.fr/books?id...
https://books.google.fr/books?dq=index+librorum+prohibitorum+tartuffe&hl=fr&id=xHMsAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA384&ots=J5nL6JRPA2&pg=PA384&sa=X&sig=eCBz2nOVdhfzOMgl9e9WQTCqhVo&source=bl&ved=0ahUKEwjL_vDXmMjWAhVGvBoKHWDjBV4Q6AEIUjAM#v=onepage&q=index%20librorum%20prohibitorum%20tartuffe&f=false