Jesus' Wife?

[crazy canuck]

If you go back to your original post, you did not limit your comments to what you personally believe but what "we" think is an acceptable definition of a christian.

I think you misread his post.  Berkut referred to a generally accepted meaning of Christian which is, by all lights, correct.  Christianity is about belief in the divine nature of the Christ and his mission on earth.  I don't see why anyone would even want to call themselves Christian if they don't believe in the divinity of the Christ.  The very word "christ" itself has no meaning if you don't believe in his divinity and his anointment by his god for his task.

Ok, you assert a definition, say you don't understand why anyone would disagree with it and then reassert your confidence that your proposed definition must be correct.  Except there are have been Christians who have disagreed with that definition throughout history.  You present a very good example of what Jacob was talking about earlier in the thread.

[Barrister]

Time to play "GUESS ED'S RELIGION"

Winner gets my respect. Losers get raped by my vengeful spirit.

Go!

Apostolic Lutheran Church of America.

Ugh. NO

But no spirit rape.  Curious.

[Ed Anger]

Time to play "GUESS ED'S RELIGION"

Winner gets my respect. Losers get raped by my vengeful spirit.

Go!

Apostolic Lutheran Church of America.

Ugh. NO

But no spirit rape.  Curious.

I don't do lawyers.

[PDH]

That is the first result we get from google, and it sure seems pretty spot on in the context of our discussion. If you want to argue something else, take it up with Oxford.

I define ritual as an anthropologist who studied religion. The dictionary is based on the English language, which you will have to agree is perhaps not about all human cultures.  It certainly does exclude a few...

[Ed Anger]

Get back to talking about me.

[Berkut]

That is the first result we get from google, and it sure seems pretty spot on in the context of our discussion. If you want to argue something else, take it up with Oxford.

I define ritual as an anthropologist who studied religion. The dictionary is based on the English language, which you will have to agree is perhaps not about all human cultures.  It certainly does exclude a few...

You can define anything as you like, but to actually communicate we are stuck with this pesky language thing, and we happen to be using that English one, so I am going to stick with the definitions of common terms as they are used in the common language we are using to communicate.


In that language words like "religion" have rather specific meanings, and when I am talking about religion, I am talking about the concept as defined and used in the English language. We have these handy references we often use when we are unsure about what words in this language mean, and as I expected, those references say that my definition is in fact correct, while yours is, at best, undefined. If you want to define religion in some other fashion, go ahead, but I don't find that all that interesting.


When *I* am talking about religion, I am talking about the concept commonly understood and defined within the English language.

[dps]

Why should he care if he is mocked? And yes mocked is the right word by calling his beliefs 'quasi-religious' and that he 'pretend(s) to be Christian'.#

To be fair, I don't think that Berkut is questioning the sincerity of Valmy's beliefs, just the terminology by which they should be classified.

[Martinus]

I just misread the thread's title as "Jesus Wept". Which is probably more correct now.

[The Brain]

I define ritual as an anthropologist who studied religion.

That's just bizarre.

[Martinus]

I define ritual as an anthropologist who studied religion.

That's just bizarre.

[garbon]

Why should he care if he is mocked? And yes mocked is the right word by calling his beliefs 'quasi-religious' and that he 'pretend(s) to be Christian'.#

To be fair, I don't think that Berkut is questioning the sincerity of Valmy's beliefs, just the terminology by which they should be classified.

Doesn't really soften the words he is using.

[Martinus]

Why should he care if he is mocked? And yes mocked is the right word by calling his beliefs 'quasi-religious' and that he 'pretend(s) to be Christian'.#

To be fair, I don't think that Berkut is questioning the sincerity of Valmy's beliefs, just the terminology by which they should be classified.

Doesn't really soften the words he is using.

So, your point is not that Berkut is "wrong" but that he is not "nice"?

That's highly subjective and really a matter of feelings, as opposed to facts. Kinda hard to argue with that one way or the other, you know...

[Tonitrus]

Get back to talking about me.

Ed's priest...

[grumbler]

Ok, you assert a definition, say you don't understand why anyone would disagree with it and then reassert your confidence that your proposed definition must be correct.  Except there are have been Christians who have disagreed with that definition throughout history.  You present a very good example of what Jacob was talking about earlier in the thread.

This is not even a good pretense of an argument.  You assert that "Christians throughout history" have denied the existence of the Christian God and the divinity of Christ as evidence that Berkut and I are incorrect, but provide no support for such an assertion.  You present a very good example of what we should try very hard to avoid when debating here.

[grumbler]

I define ritual as an anthropologist who studied religion. The dictionary is based on the English language, which you will have to agree is perhaps not about all human cultures.  It certainly does exclude a few...

I have no idea what you are arguing here.  It seems like you are arguing that all ritual is religious, which can't seriously be your argument because we all know that such an assertion is absurd.  So, it seems like you define ritual in some fashion you are unable to easily share.