The banned Mormon cartoon

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   Dan J

   August 30, 2009 at 11:28 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   When you examine the origins of the LDS church, it’s really, really bizarre.

   …not that his historical veracity even matters, since if he existed, he was just a cult leader like Joseph Smith or David Koresh or Claude Vorilhon.

   I’m more of the opinion that Christianity as we know it today is more a product of Paul (Saul) than of the person called Jesus. See Pauline Christianity at Wikipedia for further information.

   Further info about Paul (Yes, St. Paul, Paul of Tarsus):

   In “The Mythmaker: Paul And the Invention Of Christianity” British Jewish scholar Hyam Maccoby contends that the Paul as described in the Book of Acts and the view of Paul gleaned from his own writings are very different people. Some difficulties have been noted in the account of his life. Additionally, the speeches of Paul, as recorded in Acts, have been argued to show a different turn of mind. Paul as described in the Book of Acts is much more interested in factual history, less in theology; ideas such as justification by faith are absent as are references to the Spirit.

   On the other hand, according to Maccoby, there are no references to John the Baptist in the Pauline Epistles, but Paul mentions him several times in the Book of Acts.

   F.C.Baur (1792–1860), professor of theology at Tübingen in Germany, the first scholar to critique Acts and the Pauline Epistles, and founder of the so-called Tübingen School of theology, argued that Paul, as the “Apostle to the Gentiles”, was in violent opposition to the original 12 Apostles. Baur considers the Acts of the Apostles were late and unreliable. This debate has continued ever since, with Adolf Deissmann (1866–1937) and Richard Reitzenstein (1861–1931) emphasising Paul’s Greek inheritance and Albert Schweitzer stressing his dependence on Judaism.

   Maccoby theorizes that Paul synthesized Judaism, Gnosticism, and mysticism to create Christianity as a cosmic savior religion. According to Maccoby, Paul’s Pharisaism was his own invention, though actually he was probably associated with the Sadducees. Maccoby attributes the origins of Christian anti-Semitism to Paul and claims that Paul’s view of women, though inconsistent, reflects his Gnosticism in its misogynist aspects.

   I read Maccoby’s book years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.

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   Lousy Canuck » Earning respect

   September 9, 2009 at 2:37 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment

   [...] (incest, stuff about penises and poop, etc.), and in all sorts of other religions (e.g. Mormons believing they’ll become gods themselves, Islamic violence against cartoonists, Scientology as a whole), do people consider you to be [...]