Subject:
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Re: POV-RAY orange color
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 20 Aug 1999 12:30:12 GMT
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Viewed:
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1293 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, John Neal writes:
<snip>
> Now the story of Jesus is remarkable. Say anything you want, but you have
> to admit that he is the most influencial human that ever lived. Why is
> that? He was just a poor man living in a backward country in an ancient
> world teaching a message for 3 lousy years and yet he has influenced the
> lives of billions of people throughout history. It's because he was more
> than just a man, and that his message was so profound.
Saying that Jesus was the most influencial human that ever lived is IMO
one of those statements that sounds reasonable at first, but doesn't really
stand up to close analysis.
Influencing people is a fairly vague thing: There are many things in our lives
which influence us in different ways - and trying to break down what factors
have caused us to do or believe what is almost impossible. Are all those
Lego sets sitting in my room there because of sharing a house with
Chris and seeing all his Lego? Or was it because of that time I was fooling
around building models with Allie and then decided I enjoyed it so much
I had to go out and buy another Lego set?
Well, no, most likely it was a combination of hundreds of events, chance
meetings
and people, that turned me into an AFOL.
Similarly, when asking why Christians believe what they do, is it really fair
to
attribute the influence entirely to Jesus, and thereby to neglect all those
other people
in history who passed the message on (and in many cases expanded or distorted
the message in the process).
The Bible directly records that - as a result of the teachings of Jesus,
perhaps
a few hundred people became 'believers'. That doesn't sound to me like
the most influential person ever <grin>. It is as a result of what THOSE
people,
and others after them, did or said, that so many lives were influenced by
Christianity. The fact that the story of Jesus has been made such a crucial
part of the beliefs of those people does not *necessarily* imply that it was
Jesus himself who was influential (though it doesn't disprove it either).
You could argue that it was more the
case that Jesus was made by other people into a figurehead.
Simon
http://www.SimonRobinson.com
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: POV-RAY orange color
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| (...) I see your point. It wasn't my intention to try to add veracity by saying something like "that many people can't be wrong" I just meant that people still talk about 1 man who lived 2000 years ago and follow his message. Why? (...) Yes, of (...) (25 years ago, 20-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: POV-RAY orange color
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| Simon Robinson <simon@simonrobinson.com> wrote in message news:FGrK2C.L1t@lugnet.com... (...) lives (...) factors (...) fooling (...) I can't remember the author, but there's a book out about the most influential people in history and Jesus is about (...) (25 years ago, 21-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: POV-RAY orange color
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| (...) The Bible isn't a proof text. It's a collection of many different traditions, most of them oral. Don't be so "Western Culture, how did it happen, is it true, what are the facts". The fact is that the ancient world didn't care for such things, (...) (25 years ago, 20-Aug-99, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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