Tom, I’m up for debate, but some members here want me to go do hours worth of research just to prove a point they have no interesting in seeing me prove. I’ve been on that jag before. You’re running this this like it’s a post graduate symposium at Harvard for a PhD in philosophy.
If that’s the attitude then it’s obvious that discussion is not what Straight Dope is about and I’m wasting my time. It was short but sweet, but I bid you all adieu.
No, no, and no! I’m sorry we’re not explaining this well. All we want is for you to have some evidence for your claims! (And, naturally, the wilder the claim, the greater the evidence is required.)
I’m glad you have big ideas, really I am. But when you are factually incorrect in your premises, why should anyone give you a pass?
At the end of the day, this site is about fighting ignorance. You are ignorant about the Council of Nicaea, the Gospel of the Twelve, and the Gospel of the Nazarenes. That’s not a bad thing! I’m ignorant about a ton of stuff, all of us are. There’s nothing wrong with being ignorant…provided you are willing to accept it in good grace and work toward knowledge.
If you are unable or unwilling to learn, then…buh-bye, I guess.
The Jesus the conventional gospels presents is highly critical of the religious establishment of the time and the “pious” as being hypocritical and smugly satisfied. I could see the quoted passage being an account of Jesus rebuking someone who said “Why do I need to atone for my sins? I sacrifice a lamb every week!”
Y’know, when Santa himself is getting into physical violence with fellow clergy, that’s some heavy debate going down.
I think we are explaining this well, FWIW. Great Debates is very high on proving your claims. Citations are routinely asked for. That doesn’t mean that GD isn’t about debate, it’s just a more academic level of debate than most message boards on the internet.
This can be, yes, frustrating, but also there is value in it.
Now, this site has other message boards that don’t require such heavy citations. IMHO is one of them. MPSIMS is another.
“Jolly old St. Nicholas,” indeed! 
You’re not at a graduate symposium at Harvard, but if you post 19th century forgeries as if they were early Christian documents, then you’ve got some splaining to do.
Yes, you are wasting your time. I hope you have better luck elsewhere!
I think it’s a rather nice paragraph and quite in line with Jesus’ teaching otherwise: sacrificing animals (and humans) on the alter should be done away with as it servers no purpose and is just overall not a good thing. That you want to take it and twist it into something to do with an obscure agenda you apparently feel strongly about: meh.
I’ll miss your posts and everyone’s discussion of them.
Desiring that assertions should be backed up with evidence before we accept them shouldn’t be considered a quirk of the most highly educated; it should be deeply ingrained in EVERYONE from birth.
Well, short anyway. Buhbye!
You better watch out.
I was thinking that. It’d be sad if such a low bar was sufficient for graduate work at Harvard.
What I find ‘funny’ - is that the OP declared himself a ‘skeptic’ in his first thread, yet doesn’t seem to truly be very skeptical.
Looks like he’s gone to seek a more impressionable audience.
See everyone, there really is a God.
Probably true. I had just encountered his declaration in his other thread (after 180+ posts), that he was not out to “convince” anyone of his beliefs and that he had no interest in providing evidence for his wild claims. I then encountered one more silly (New Age) misrepresentation of the facts of Nicaea with what appeared to be the beginning of another round of here are some unsubstantiated claims; you go find the evidence to support them and it tripped my Moderator alarm. Perhaps I should have cut this thread more slack, but it looked very much like the earlier “I am not here to argue” opening being repeated. If one is going to open a non-debate in the debate forum, one should probably not do so with non-facts. It makes my teeth hurt.
He also doesn’t seem to be, y’know, seeking the truth.
According to the psalmist all men or at least Jewish men were gods and sons of God. And According to John 10 Jesus reminded the pharisees that their fathers also called themselves sons of God. when they accused him of blasphemy. It would seem that the word 'God" didn’t mean creator of all things, just something or some person with power and strength, hence the god of thunder , lightening and sun gods etc.