Apparently Lars Vilks founded Ladonia

[Kaiser Mors VI]

The Quran had the same fate. (gf just did a lot of study on the Quran as a book). It wasn't meant to be written down.. but then large number of the people who knew it by heart died in a single battle, so they started writing it down.

I don't disagree that Jesus was a bit on the fringe at the time, and what Jesus said was mostly good stuff. However, the Christians still hold onto many of the old Jewish books, despite not admitting they are Jewish. They picked and chose a few books they liked early on, but then forgot that it was cause Jesus was a Jew. He didn't mean to start something new, he was supposed to be the next/last(?) Jewish prophet. But most Christians don't' want to admit to the Jewish origins of their religion. So with Christianity we get this weird mix of outdated Jewish books and newer committee chosen books. Either on their own would likely be fine, but together they conflict to greatly.

And this all reminds me of this: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf50 ... hida-jones

[Malliki Tosha]

Oh I wouldn't say "most Christians" don't want to acknowledge their faith's roots. I would say that most do, it's just a few nutcases on the fringe that doesn't.

The funny thing is that it is the same fringe groups that look to the Old Testament (the Jewish texts) to support their opposition against homos, racial mixing, sex before marriage etc. etc.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Fair enough.

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

However, the Christians still hold onto many of the old Jewish books, despite not admitting they are Jewish. They picked and chose a few books they liked early on, but then forgot that it was cause Jesus was a Jew. He didn't mean to start something new, he was supposed to be the next/last(?) Jewish prophet. But most Christians don't' want to admit to the Jewish origins of their religion

Tell me about it. I often go to an interfaith group at Uni and am confronted with these nutjobs- they sit there, so holier than thou with their retranslated and retranslated texts and tell Jews that they have a 'corrupt' version of the Old Testament or something. In many ways I think for them the Jewish heritage of Christianity is some kind of old fairytale which they pay lip service to but can never quite get over- I think it probably genuinely freaks them out that there are actually people who live in the places mentioned in the Bible who speak Semitic languages and have a far deeper heritage from that history than they do. Or when they portray Jesus in some Churches as a Northern European. That makes me lol.
The guy would have had a Middle Eastern complexion, though if you tell them that they'd just ignore you.

[Malliki Tosha]

He probably had black hair, brown eyes, was rather short, fairly dark skin compared to a European, and spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language.

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

You mean he done look like an A-rab, boy?

*loads shotgun*

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Identifying Jesus as someone other than a Jew isn't a purely Eurocentric vice. There are black Jesus statues knocking around in Brazil if I recall correctly.

But in the meantime, while the game of determining whose religious exegesis is the most unreliable is seemingly an amusing one, and in truth neither the books New Testament, the Koran or the Tanakh are likely to be unadulterated works of their reputed authors/reciters, but I'll go with what Frederick II of Hohenstaufen allegedly said, "the three greatest frauds in history were Moses, Jesus and Mohamed."

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

*mumble grumble*

Still, I was amused to hear George Galloway say that Jesus was a 'Muslim Palestinian'. That really cracked me up.
Though seeing as that's probably the prevailing opinion in most UK universities these days I suppose I'd better get used to it.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Yeah I seem to remember student politics was about that nuanced and self-aware back in my day as well.

In the meantime, pertinent to this thread.

[Malliki Tosha]

Did he really say that Jesus was a Muslim Palestinian? Really?

REALLY???

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Dunno about the specific incident but he certainly called Jesus a Palestinian. (Judea wasn't renamed "Palaestina" until after the final suppression of the Jewish Revolts).

[Malliki Tosha]

Isn't that a bit like calling Julius Caesar an Italian?

[Aurangzeb Khan]

Or Vercingetorix a Frenchman. Yeah, essentially.

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

Philistia was what the Romans renamed Judea after the defeat of Bar Kochba in about 135 CE. By which time Jesus was dead. So never in his lifetime would he have been considered a 'Palestinian'- it may not be politically correct to say it, but the statement is basically an erroneous one.

Either way I'm sure we agree that Jesus wasn't a Muslim.

[Malliki Tosha]

A very, very, very very very very very very early Muslim in that case...

[Maksym Hadjimehmetov]

Speaking of which, I love it how Evangelicals have called Jesus a Christian.

[Aurangzeb Khan]

A very, very, very very very very very very early Muslim in that case...

A quick perusal of Wikipedia implies that the Koran has appropriated most of the prophets retrospectively for Islam... appears any advocate of Monotheism can be dragooned in this manner, with the convenient argument that their devotees must subsequently have erred if they differ in their interpretation to contemporary Muslims.

The mind, it boggles, truly.

[Kaiser Mors VI]

Didn't bill try that with his religion...? I kinda recall him saying the Cedrist gods were really some branch of his religion, and thus we all should follow his Solarilism...whatever it was.

[Malliki Tosha]

He proly did.