This is my favorite posts this morning. Made me smile and silently laugh internally.

Graduated reduction under the supervision of a medical provider. I went off a medication without supervision, once, and it was a disaster.

That I could love myself. That I’d be a productive member of society. That I’d be a square.

Though I want to sneer and deride him (I don’t like him), mental health troubles are pretty terrible. I hope he can find the ability to love himself. I hope everyone who feels this way can come back.

“Hey there, sexy. I noticed you abuse brown people. Wanna fuck?”

Apologies, I’m going to do something that I think is kind of a jerk move and paste my standard argument for a very specific point. It’s a jerk move because I see that you wrote a genuine reply and I appreciate that. I don’t know enough about the specific points that you raised to discuss them directly, so I’m falling back on my broader thinking. To that end, I’m truly trying to contribute to the discussion (even though I’m pasting a repeated(-by-me) blurb; see my sibling post; I’m pretty into this topic). I respect your views even if we disagree, so long as you don’t try to impose them on others, which I’m not saying you do / did.

Jesus is an ahistorical figure who was originally crucified in the firmament above the earth. Notice no mention of an earthly ministry in the Pauline epistles; Paul is arguing for salvation from a heavenly figure. In his letters, Jesus is still to be revealed, rather than returning. Only decades later did the stories about a human man get written.

The Didache was most likely part of the letter written by the “pillars in Jerusalem” (James the Just, Peter, and John) after their meeting with Paul. This was the meeting to discuss the matter of preaching to gentiles and whether circumcision ought to be required for christian converts. It contains many of the tenets later ascribed to Jesus, but doesn’t associate him with teaching them.

The reason the earthly story was embraced by the church was to stop people like Paul from having visions of Christ that the church couldn’t control. By pointing to a real guy on earth, they could control the message. Otherwise, any yokel on the street could teach that Jesus revealed new teachings and the church risked being undermined.

Marcion was probably the first to create a collection of writings associated with christianity: he collected some of Paul’s letters and had his own gospel. It was thought that he had a shortened version of Luke (as testified by Eusebius and Tertullian). Marcion, however, claimed that his gospel had been “judaized”; this suggests that his shorter version was the original gospel before others modified it.

Acts was written as a direct response to Marcion’s scripture. It was written to harmonize Paul’s high-jacking of the religion by making he and Peter appear to be in alignment when actually he was at odds with the leaders in Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem pillars (James, Peter, John), were strict adherents of Judaism, whereas Paul taught that Jesus made the Law / Torah unnecessary. They were almost certainly Essenes, one of the three flavors of Judaism at the time (the other two were the Pharisees and Sadducees mentioned in the new testament). John the Baptist was clearly also an Essene. He’s said to wear camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and honey. His practice of baptism also aligns with daily ritual water immersion believed to be a core practice of the Essenes.

This is a very long way of saying that Jesus first appeared in visions and spoke to the early leaders without walking on earth. It’s a fringe belief about which I was quite skeptical, but damn if the evidence doesn’t line up. See Robert Price, Earl Doherty, and Elbe Spurling for more info. Elbe’s online book is free and contains a huge amount of historical information about the region at the.

As David Cross said, “They didn’t have science back then so everyone was even stupider…” or something approximating it.

The best part, in my opinion, is the extra ending in Mark. This was the original ending, which is an absolute banger:

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb 3 and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. 5 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'”

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

This is in later versions, likely because someone copying the text found the ending to be insufficient:

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.

Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

But remember, kids: the bible is all true and infallible and the word of god and whatever other crap they tell you.

Criticism aside, I’m a hardcore atheist and reading about the history of early christianity (first ~300 years) was absolutely fascinating and I’d recommend checking out the subject to others who oppose organized religion. Bart Ehrman would be a good starting point, though can you go down quite a rabbit hole beyond his writing. This might be a good jumping off point: How Jesus Became God

Zionists can all suck it. It’s pretty cool how rich assholes support murder.

Lying liars are lying? Oh wow. Assholes. Assholes. Assholes.

Wait, like Diane Feinstein? I have no faith in either party to actually give a fuck about us.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer more deserving guy.

Haha, suckers. I walk to work and only drive my car one day per week and only around ten miles round trip. Glad you got to own the libs for the fascist asshole who doesn’t give one shit about you. It’s pretty cool how you won’t be able to afford your bills and gas and rent but at least your idiot strongman pissed off the people you don’t like.

They’re so lost the plot.

Sent to my buddy who’s in the 501st.

I’ll take cash, please. Thanks!

Sriracha for my noodles, please.

One of them screams when she doesn’t know where I am. You could just walk down the hall and look to see if I’m in my office (where I spend most of my free time). She also screams when my spouse is in the shower, but then runs away when she (spouse) tries to pet her. Spouse moved in after a decade of the big kitty being the boss, so I understand the complicated relationship. And if you believed the kitty, she’s never been fed a meal, not ever, not even once.

Wait! I know! Are they brown?!

/sarcasm, dummies

Excuse me, but did you not see my fancy graphic and animation? And my cool autoplaying adverts? And the dickbar asking you to subscribe to my annoying newsletter?

I don’t know what web you’re looking for, but it’s not the one I (and my many clients) design for. /s

/s I’m not a web designer or coder. I only host plain html. Shut up. It’s sarcasm / satire done poorly.