history= familiarity
engineering= none
are you going to be so arrogant as to say if i’m not an engineer i can’t state that it is a difficult subject?
Again, though, this question diverges sharply from your initial complaint.
Yes: if Jesus were simply human, with no supernatural attributes, it would make much of the disagreement surrounding his life ill-founded. But what does that have to do with the question of how complex or in-depth the study of theology is at a post-graduate level?
To put it another way: I assume you understand, and accept, that post-graduate work in Anglo-Saxon literature exists, and you don’t dismiss it because it’s something that a college freshman can completely understand, right?
But at the same time, you accept that there was no monster named Grendel, no monster that was Grendel’s mother, and no dragon that fatally wounded Beowulf. In other words, even though the underlying material is widely agreed to be fictional, it still supports a fertile field for in-depth, post-graduate scholarship.
Right?
:dubious:
You’re a sock puppet of BadChad or just a coincidentally clonelike manifestation of the same tendencies?
I assume you understand and accept that the people studying middle english and german and medieval history are aware that Grendel is not real? wouldn’t they look like a bunch of idiots if they thought Grendel was real but everyone else knew he was just a monster from a story?
one thing i can absolutely, 100% promise you. i’m no sock puppet. i hate sock puppets. i’ve never had one on any board anywhere on the net.
That never stopped me!!:mad:
Yes, I was … your OP was how to get a ThD. I’m sure there’s lots of people who agree it’s not as difficult as some other majors, as I’m sure there are those who would say a PhD in English History is not to difficult. I happen to know an engineer who didn’t actually take any engineering classes in college, he says engineering isn’t that difficult.
“Smithers, don’t be an idiot, it’s just brain surgery, not rocket science” – Charles Montgomery “Monty” Burns
Of course. But once again I invite you to restate your thesis.
Here is your original claim:
You seem to have abandoned the idea that the study of theology is not complicated – although without ever explicitly conceding the point – and are now arguing some other point.
Do you now concede that, contrary to your initial post, there is sufficient in-depth material to justify a PhD in the study of theology?
If you don’t, let’s continue to settle that point. If you do, can you state your new thesis in a clear fashion?
i’m sure there are places it can be hard (honestly i do) but i also get the sense lots of seminaries make it kind of easy, they need to produce preachers and what not. but someone who got a theology degree not attached to a specific church and was fluent in Aramaic and Hebrew and Greek and Latin, not just knew a few words but could actually translate all those old texts, that, would be quite an accomplishment.
ok, well i skipped over that moving the goal posts part before because well, i dont care much if a conversation goes a bit off track. but to answer your point directly. if you go through a program and you are fluent in hebrew and greek and latin an aramic, you can actually translate ancient works instead of just knowing a few words, then yes, that is quite an accomplishment.
He’s a one man sleeper cell. Cleverly inserted into this MB in 2005, only to awaken in the last few days to educumate us all.
I envy your sanguine approach to argument, Robert, but in my view this laissez-faire approach to establishing the accuracy of a proposition is problematic.
So – I gather by your use of the phrase “moving the goal posts,” you now acknowledge that there’s mettle for post-graduate level scholarship in theology.
And I hesitate to condense your argument into my own words, but what I sense you are arguing now is, “Aren’t the people that believe in Jesus’ divinity silly?”
Is that a fair restatement of your new argument?
Of course there are theology schools that have rigorous graduate and PhD programs. I’m probably too stubborn and biased too admit that there are very many, but I’m not stubborn enough to claim they don’t exist.
…“Aren’t the people that believe in Jesus’ divinity silly?”…
you got me on that one. it is no exaggeration at all to say that is precisely what i think about any topic attached to this topic.
Heretic! BURN HIM!
Regards,
Shodan
I came to post the same thing, sadly.
Dammit it’s PhD, not PHd.
Doctor of Philosophy.
Ok, after reading the thread, I feel better now.
Whew … and here I thought you might be searching …
This thread was never on-track, and I wish you would, at the very least, just pick which ditch you want to drag this conversation through.
It’s “DROWN HIM!”…and you’re going to wait until the scale is fixed and the duck is found.
ok, and exactly how is that you are being forced to read this thread? maybe if you told me this tale of captivity you were enduring whereas the only source of contact you had was with the outside world, was by talking to me, i’d try to direct my comments into a more linear fashion so as not to add any more stress to an already difficult situation.
Moving the goal posts and a conversation going off track are two different things.
Discussing things with you and like having a conversation with a gnat. You bring up a topic, people respond to the topic you brought up and then zip you change the topic again without even acknowledging anything about the starting topic.
That’s not conversation drift. that’s blowing off the people you invited to discuss something with.