Part 36 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

The town of Gerasa is not mentioned in the Bible!
Rather, the reference to the "region of the Gerasenes" in the following verse refers to a largish area on the east of the Sea of Galilee that contained the town-
"They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.(Mark 5:1/2)
We can therefore envisage Jesus crossing the sea by boat (arrow) and disembarking beneath the slopes (circled) down which the pigs stampeded...

 

Ida thunk you'd welcome complexity. Even just going from squares to hexes added complexity and flavor. Personally I'm a big fan of the new so-called "cartoonish" graphics.
Regardless of the version, it's a classic. I don't even want to think of the hours ...

 

Christian propaganda. Little about the whole business makes sense - except to Christians. Not a lot about the Gospels makes real sense. We have 2 birth stories - contradictory. A very confused arrest, trial, and crucifixion. A Barrabas story that has no precedence in Roman history, and would not have been allowed - well, at the cost of Pilate's position. Beside such a man would have been crucified as soon as convicted. There were no prison systems to keep convicted prisoners that we have today. Prisons were only to hold prisoners awaiting trial. Apart from Gladatorial arenas. And there wasn't one in, or near, Jerusalem.

The whole story is a confused mixture of the memories of the Gospel writers. .

 

40 years ago when I played board wargames before home computers arrived, I hated having to wrestle with big thick rulebooks, so when computer games came along it was great because the computer did most of the boring micromanaging, but sadly over the years most comp games have got more and more complex and we have to do the micromanaging ourselves again and read thick manuals, so we're back to square one like in the boardgame era!

Me (on right) and Gaz many years ago with some of the boardgames we used to play-

 

It makes perfect sense..
Pilate's job was to keep the peace and collect truckloads of taxes to send to his masters in Rome, so he was in a dilemma because the snooty priests wanted him to kill Jesus, but Jesus had a big fan following, so he risked upsetting one group or the other and wanted to stay neutral.
In the end the priests talked him into reluctantly signing Jesus's death warrant on a "treason" charge, but he made a big show of washing his hands to the crowd to let them know it was down to the priests..

 

I'll give you a window of a thousand years. Can you name the millennium that the Flood occurred in?

We know how long it takes for human population to grow on average. It is impossible for 8 people to turn into dozens of millions in anything less than several tens of thousands of years.

Furthermore, if humanity had ever been reduced to 8 people, there would be a genetic bottleneck that would be easily identifiable. No such bottleneck exists.

The Flood is a myth. It never happened.

 

According to the Bible it was 130 years between the end of the global flood and the destruction of the Tower of Babel.

 

I don't where the picture was taken or what it is meant to show.

1. Jesus would have come ashore at a village or town on the shoreline. This would have meant a safe landing.
2. The land below the mountains is where the swine would have been kept. Mountains are not the ideal place for producing pork, especially for the Romans. Lions and bears were there in Jesus time.
3. Why would tombs be in the mountains?
4. Why would Jesus have ventured that far, or did he telegraph the man he was coming?
5. I have to admit I've never seen a porker run a mile.



The region of the Gerasenes. Yes, if it actually existed, was on the East coast. Gadara and Gerada were south east.

I could show you pictures of the coast of Galilee which are perfectly flat. Not a mountain in sight.

 

I had a couple of those boardgames. But I never got into fatigues and a helmet,

RE: read thick manuals

I gave up on CIV (1). Months later bought a think manual and got hooked.



Now a days I just go until I hit a snag and do a quick Google.

 

When they were on the Ark the members of the Noah family interbred with rabbits.

 

What have Taxes got to do with it?

 

Ask any sunday school kid mate and they'll tell you it's the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee which ties in with this verse-
"They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.(Mark 5:1/2)
We can therefore envisage Jesus crossing the sea by boat (arrow) and disembarking beneath the slopes (circled) down which the pigs stampeded..

 

You can't collect taxes from a country that's in revolt! That's why Pilate tried to be neutral to keep the both the snooty priests and Jesus's followers sweet for as long as he could..

 

Prove it...

 

Prove that you never put a peep camera in a ladies' restroom.

Prove that you never shoplifted.

Prove that you never cheated on your wife.

I don't doubt the "Flood" but I don't believe for a minute it covered the whole earth. ... -a large region maybe, but not the whole earth. And I don't believe anyone could have saved two of every species on a boat. I'm not a child.

 

No, I'm not. But I know that everything we have in this world (that is good) is God given, that includes our languages. God knows/understands every language there is in this world, after all He is the Creator! He is omniscient!

We read in Scripture:

"Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything."---1 John 3:20 NLT

Sorry but I don't share your biased opinion regarding the Babel story. The Babel story is just another true historical event that's written in the Scriptures. After the great flood, God blessed Noah and his sons to be fruitful and multiply to begin the process of re-populating to fill the earth.

We read in Scripture:

"Then God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth." ---Genesis 9:1 NLT

But we learn from Scripture that humanity chose to do the opposite of what God wanted. The people congregated together and decided to build a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so they could make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth. This tower is remembered as the Tower of Babel.

God responded to this by confusing the languages of humanity so they could no longer communicate with each other. The result of this was that it forced people to congregate with other people who spoke the same language and then went together and settled in other parts of the world.

So God confused the languages at the Tower of Babel to enforce His command for humanity to spread throughout the world.
So this story in Genesis tells us how the different languages originated. It was God who initially gave us the different languages....si senor!...Oui monsieur!...

We read in Scripture:

"But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”

In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world." ---Genesis 11:5-9 NLT

 

I gave you 5 reasons why your site is ridiculous. Here's another good reason to question the story. Pigs can swim very well.



Your quote

1. You can't collect taxes from a country that's in revolt! That's why Pilate tried to be neutral to keep the both the snooty priests and Jesus's followers sweet for as long as he could..
   
   Johnny Brady, Today at 2:30 AMReport
   #413LikeReply
   

That's ridiculous. The episode with Jesus would never have caused a rebellion. It was not that important. The Sanhedrin was ruled by the Sadducees. They were quite happy to have the Romans in Palestine. The Sadducees were the 'rich' people who gained by the Romans rule. A rebellion was the last thing they wanted. Another reason I question the Bible story of the trial. It makes little sense.

 

Noahs flood. There is not enough water in any form (including ice) on earth to cover the mountains. The total amount would raise the level of the sea enough to cover just the low lying land. In any case, if you knew the Hydrological cycle you would know it is impossible.
Water rises by heat from the ocean, whose level drops by that amount. It forms clouds which meet cooler air over land. This water falls because it is now heavier than air as raindrops. It hits the earth and immediately seeks lower level by means of rivers etc. because of its weight/gravity. It can only build up if there is something to block its path. Once it reaches the top of the blockage it overflows and returns to the ocean.
The JW's favourite is 'waters under the earth rise up'. Of course that's a load of rubbish. Water rising from the depths of the earth would leave an empty space to be filled by ? Air? But water is heavier than air so it would sink straight back down. If the roof over the empty space collapsed, the water level above sink.

Of course, there is a way. The water on Mars could have drifted over to earth. That would explain why Mars is so dry. After the flood it might have been carried on solar winds to Europa, which is covered by ice. The solar winds seem to have carried a lot human intelligence with it.

 

Amazingly this modern pic of dear old Mother Earth might just as well have been taken 400 million years ago when earliest life forms began to appear (apart from different continental shapes), but my point is it's amazingly been hanging there in space completely naked and exposed to meteors and solar radiation and ice ages etc for all that time, its atmosphere is still clear and bright, and its plant life, fluffy kittens and cute puppies are still going strong..

"God hangs the earth on nothing" (Job 26:7)

 

1-Well I once accidentally went into a ladies toilet in Cheltenham but it wasn't my fault, I was just passing through the unfamiliar town and the illuminated glass sign over the door was bust..
2-I went through a brief shoplifting phase as a kid like most of us but didn't like it because it was just too easy to take things without the challenge of saving up for them, and when a shopkeeper caught me and threatened to tell my parents, it scared my socks off!
3-I've never ever cheated on my wife because I never married!
4- As for the Ark story, no modern Christian takes it literally, so maybe the Ark is just an analogy for the planet Earth sailing through space with its precious cargo?

 

I take the ark story literally.

 

Here's the location of the pig stampede, you'd better argue it out with Jesus if you think it's wrong-
"They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him."(Mark 5:1/2)
And the pigs were in a complete panic, even humans drown if they lose their cool!
(Incidentally I've often wondered why there were pigs anyway, as the Jews don't eat them. As a historian can you enlighten me, thanks)

Regarding taxes, Jesus said "Pay taxes to Rome because it's Caesar's head on coins", that's another reason why Pilate didn't want to execute him..

PS- I can't get the hang of this new site yet, my glitchy AOL browser wouldn't recognise my old name, so I had to re-register to see if I have better luck.

 

I have a problem understanding how millions of species could fit on the Ark.
(Unless they were tiny DNA samples which is a possibility)

 

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I take the great flood story literally.

 

The problem with taking everything literally is that we're not sure what's literal and what's metaphor and analogy. For example the talking snake (serpent) in Eden was possibly a metaphor for sly Satan.
With the Ark, we don't know specifically what species were taken aboard, but this estimate certainly supports your belief that the flood story is literal..-
"Assuming the average animal to be about the size of a sheep and using a railroad car for comparison, we note that the average double-deck stock car can accommodate 240 sheep. Thus, three trains hauling 69 cars each would have ample space to carry the 50,000 animals, filling only 37 percent of the ark. This would leave an additional 361 cars or enough to make 5 trains of 72 cars each to carry all of the food and baggage plus Noah's family of eight people."
http://www1.cbn.com/biblestudy/how-many-animals-were-on-the-ark?