Bill Maher's Religulous

[Clairvoyant_Kyle]

I think it was very funny and an interesting look at how willing and unwilling people are to discus their own beliefs under the light of reality.

Thoughts?

-Kyle

[cj.23]

I think it was very funny and an interesting look at how willing and unwilling people are to discus their own beliefs under the light of reality.

Thoughts?

-Kyle


Not seen it yet, but am worried by a friend telling me it includes mithras pagan parallels woo?

cj x

[Clairvoyant_Kyle]

It includes a lot of woo, and Bill Maher calls it all out when he sees it not caring if what he says offends people or not.

-Kyle

[cj.23]

Well I will watch this when I can get it legitimately. I have a fairly sound sense of humour, even if i am notoriously pedantic (a girlfriend refused to go to the cinema with me ever again after I critiqued the seismology, oceanography, history and architecture in the first five minutes of Tombraider 2.. :)

cj x

[Clairvoyant_Kyle]

I have a fairly sound sense of humour, even if i am notoriously pedantic (a girlfriend refused to go to the cinema with me ever again after I critiqued the seismology, oceanography, history and architecture in the first five minutes of Tombraider 2.. :)

cj x

LOL!

[qayak]

Well I will watch this when I can get it legitimately. I have a fairly sound sense of humour, even if i am notoriously pedantic (a girlfriend refused to go to the cinema with me ever again after I critiqued the seismology, oceanography, history and architecture in the first five minutes of Tombraider 2.. :)

cj x

Yeah, I get annoyed with dolts who talk during movies too.

[qayak]

Not seen it yet, but am worried by a friend telling me it includes mithras pagan parallels woo?

cj x

What, you don't think christianity borrowed much of its belief from pagans?

[tyr_13]

What, you don't think christianity borrowed much of its belief from pagans?

'Borrowed' meaning, "copied verbatim save for changing the names (mostly by adding 'saint' in front of whatever god they were co-opting) and adding a lot of crosses,"?

Yeah, I'd say they did. Not that other religions didn't do stuff like that too, just not as whole-sale as Christianity.

I dislike Bill, can't get over the anti-evidence based medicine stupidity, but I'm sure this movie is funny. I'll have to check it out when I can get my hands on it.

[screensnot]

One of the funniest things in the movie is when Bill goes to The Institute for Science and Halacha. A Rabbi explains that there are 39 things that he can't do on the Shabbat (the weekly day of rest). One of those things is that he can't push a button.

So, he developed a phone that has buttons that are all pushing themselves constantly. Each button has a device that inhibits the button from working. Finally, there is a stick that, when inserted into a hole that corresponds with one of the numbers, disables the device that is inhibiting that button from working.

A little creative thinking is all it takes to outsmart god.

[LarianLeQuella]

I can't see this down here in the south. I think the closest place offering this is a student run theatre at the University of Florida, about 200 miles away...

I WILL buy it on DVD though. Yes, I am disappointed at Bill's stance on medicine, but his stance on religion is spot on.

Tyr, don't forget they not only stole from religions, but from philosophy as well (although I suppose Buddhism has now become religion...).

[cj.23]

Yeah, I get annoyed with dolts who talk during movies too.

I would not do that. I have some decency. I was making notes!

cj x

[cj.23]

What, you don't think christianity borrowed much of its belief from pagans?


Correct. I think it derived almost exclusively from Judaism, and issue of Hellenistic and Zoroastrian syncretism to Second Temple Judaism is a complex one, but so far in a good few years of study of the issue i have failed to find a convincing "pagan parallel" which suggest Chritianity derived any doctrinal elements from the religions of pagan antiquity.

If you have primary evidence to the contrary I would very much like to see it. Christianity was of course later formulated in terms of Neo-Platonic and Aristotleian ideas which formed the intellectual millieu of the period - but Christianity is not a copy-cat of any motifs I can find in pagan antiquity,
cj x

[tyr_13]

Evidence? Well I don't want to derail this tread, but just one word should pretty much prove it.

Easter.

It would be fun to start another thread though.

[TheSkepticCanuck]

Also, look up the Pagan holiday of Yule. Anything there sound familiar?

[Aepervius]

I hope the citation are small enough to obey the rule. For the sake of the debat I went on and check a few link online :

religious tolerance on easter (http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter.htm)

Overview:

Modern-day Easter is derived from two ancient traditions: one Judeo-Christian and the other Pagan. Both Christians and Pagans have celebrated death and resurrection themes following the Spring Equinox for millennia. Most religious historians believe that many elements of the Christian observance of Easter were derived from earlier Pagan celebrations.

Also there are some reference that I hjave not checked on paganism and easter :
the pagan origin of easter (http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm)

wiki easter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter)



Anglo-Saxon
"Eástre" by Jacques Reich (1909).

Main article: Ēostre

The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Ēastre or Ēostre, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers to the Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar which may have been named for the goddess Ēostre in Anglo-Saxon paganism, attested by Bede.[7] Bede describes the pagan worship of Ēostre among the Anglo-Saxons as having died out before the time he was writing. In 1835, Jacob Grimm proposed an equivalent Old High German name, *Ostara, in his work Deutsche Mythologie. An amount of scholarly theory and speculation surrounds the figure.

Also of interrest is the aprt on controversy.

Christian denominations and organizations that do not observe Easter

Easter traditions deemed "pagan" by some Reformation leaders,[citation needed] along with Christmas celebrations, were among the first casualties of some areas of the Protestant Reformation.


And

Modern avoidance controversy

Main article: Easter/Good Friday controversy

In the modern-day United States, there have been instances where public mention of Easter and Good Friday have been replaced with euphemistic terminology. Examples include renaming "Good Friday" as "Spring holiday" on school calendars, to avoid association with a Christian holiday while at the same time allowing a state-sanctioned day off.

[cj.23]

I'll start a new thread. :)

cj x

[Aepervius]

I suggest then the religious subforum. (http://forums.randi.org/forumdisplay.php?f=4)

[cj.23]

I put it in history as it's more of a historical question than a faith claim? Anyway here we go -- http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=131704

cj x