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On Bart Ehrman's facebook page today Ehrman addresses a critic: Didn't we get a lot of this in The Way? (Ehrman isn't saying to do this, he is mocking someone who does do it

They got him! http://www.myfoxtwin...tured-in-brazil

I reject the Book of Mormon based only on the ridiculous notion that it was written on gold tablets that no one else has ever seen, which basically negates everything about it. I reject JW on the ridiculous notion that Jesus preexisted as an angel. The prophesies were just icing. I reject Islam because it's simply ghastly from cover to cover. L Ron Hubbard made no secret that he basically made up Scientology. I have seriously struggled with Christianity all my life. I see no reason why Jesus is waiting in heaven for a future comeback. I see no reason why he couldn't be actively moving around in his new body. Why was his resurrection only seen by the faithful? Wouldn't it have made sense for him to greet the people who wanted him dead? Why was his ascension "witnessed" by so few? If he lives, why must I pray? Can't we just have a two way conversation where I know he's heard me as opposed to being told he hears me? I went to the works of Josephus for some answers. Jesus gets a mention. The single most important thing that ever happened in the world gets a mention in outside history books? So the only backup for this historic event is a single sentence that simply confirms he existed? So news of these miracles from a "global standpoint", is a well kept secret. That makes no sense. Then I went back further in my research all the way to the giving of the law. On stone tablets. That are nowhere to be found. And apparently no one is looking for them that hard. But then I look at the laws and with some exceptions about food (which is a cross between neurotic and obsessive/compulsive), it isn't all that different from the pagans of the day. The treatment of women, children, animals, and outsiders is essentially the same. The only difference was the one god concept and the notion they were chosen (which royally ....ed off the pagans because it interfered with all the god festivals). <-- I got that from taking a humanities class, which then answered the question as to why so many college freshmen leave religion. At 53, it was the first time I truly analyzed monotheistic religions and the effect on pagan society. It turns out that pagans were far more willing to coexist than the monotheists. Then there's Paul. He's chief persecutor who's gone blind with revelation and suddenly he's the end all know-it-all of the Christian religion. (Which if you do a close comparative study, he teaches a different Jesus, which is understandable since he never knew the guy). The only thing Paul (and Jesus) bring to the table is the notion of not killing people over differences. That IS a new concept, which is promptly forgotten. Finally, you HAVE to love this quote from CS Lewis: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." So there you have it: God or a lunatic. No middle ground there. The overriding theme is that only the incredible makes something credible. It couldn't be Moses sitting down with a few smart people and devising a set of laws. It HAD to come miraculously from a higher power. Jesus couldn't be a great teacher or highly charismatic man. He had to have a miraculous birth, a horrific death, and a miraculous resurrection and bodily ascension to give him credibility. Mohammad justified every act by way of "revelation". Same thing with Joseph Smith. Both charismatic men. You see the same thing with Victor Barnard. No one looking from the outside thinks the guy was anything but a sociopath, yet few on the inside see him that way at all. The more I look at religion from purely an outsider's perspective, the less credible I find it as a tool for right living.

"I wish you could see it in the original. It's just....so-so."

I don't know that that is assumed. Choices can be illusions. Having no choice is a perception as well. That's a much larger discussion that I don't think there's an answer to.

Hey folks....Great to touch base here again. it was wonderful to catch up with you belle! Thanks for posting the picture. Zoreta Rebecca will be 15 on the 15 th.. When the heck did it happen I wonder. I remember how supported and loved I felt by all of you in the chat room that day...the prayers and feelings of well wishes and love were palpable. The mid wives were so impressed....I kept sending them in to post updates :) Zoreta is the last baby. Most of my brood has grown up and begun to scatter....leaving this mama bewildered....I take comfort knowing that they are all on good paths..grown into fine strong resourceful young people in spite of their parents mistakes and occasional ineptness. Hope all is well in your lives as well

Busted!!! http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_27616870/minnesota-brides-christ-cult-leader-arrested-brazil?source=rss Courtesy of Jeff Sjolander