Paine

I am not very fervent but am not sure about continued participation. I am glad to know that one can cancel the account if desired.

I see the attraction. If one were to decide participation here was bad for oneself, removing ease in responding to comments would help in following th...

I did not know one could erase their account.

How so?

The Trump wing of the GOP gets it ideas from Steve Bannon's fusion of identification politics in the U.S with a foreign policy based upon weakening th...

The historical background of the conflict in Ukraine needs to include Stalin's starvation of the country, where the agenda to destroy the Kulaks was c...

One way to look at it is to ask if you are good company for yourself. Being alone is a pleasure and a form of suffering. I am not sure about those dif...

But you just argued that Jesus had to have known Greek on account of him being the Son of God You use the divine to explain capacity and motivation. A...

Well, this goes some way toward explaining what you meant by calling some scholars 'anti-Christian'; You were referring to secular Jews. Perhaps you c...

My observation was not to claim alignments with Putin are all of a piece or of a party. Gerhard Schröder is now getting a lot of criticism for his sup...

In regard to the EU, it will be interesting to see how the Far Right parties will respond to the attack upon Ukraine. There has been support for Putin...

Seeing/Hearing them this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajCRO5uLCG0&list=OLAK5uy_kX-ndy_RkBeaqTddwZMh0LfK8kOPYM_-I

Yes, the message about neo-Nazis is not a reference to antisemitism. Putin's version of national identity is more along the lines of the Falangists in...

We cannot witness what other people are 'absolutely certain' about. We can witness what is excluded on the authority of such certainty. Paul's vision ...

I am not sure it is without fruits. Everybody knows it won't happen because of the whole WW3 thing. On the other hand, In addition to pressing for as ...

He acted on his own authority when he represented himself as an apostle and direct witness of Jesus. The communities he formed were based upon this ro...

The desire to be an effective agent is present before and after the conversion. How that agency is understood is sharply different between the two con...

I think it is too soon to tell. Russia in Grozny and Syria has shown what they are capable of.

I have half agreed with Bacevich on many issues over the years but will gladly help him kick Friedman's kneecaps this time around. Condemnation of the...

Do you really not see that saying "you boys" is ad hominem? You have already admitted you have not explored the texts beyond the interests of your cre...

By their fruits, you will know them.

It is ironic. Another irony is that your review of the texts supports the following observation made by JM: It is not only that Pau's words don't matc...

The alternative to your view is that the stand-off is beyond any possible bluff by any of the parties with this capacity for destruction. It does not ...

I took that to mean the guns have already been cocked and aimed long ago. Having an opponent remind everybody of that is odd. 'Oh crap, I forgot I cou...

It is the MT Greene version of Falangist politics.

I understand that perspective. I grew up in it. It does suggest to me that I was not wrong saying that you have no interest in a "historical" Jesus.

Hey, my comments were intelligent. But yes, 180 Proof's was more intelligent.

In order for you to be able to discern such a shallow level of scholarship, you would need to have spent some time and effort reading the sources you ...

I hear that. Fair enough.

It is only a rejoinder if it was pointing to a primary condition influencing what was possible. Otherwise, carry on as you like.

I don't know, it seems like the author of this article never heard about nuclear weapons. Maybe it was a typo.

What is the basis of this "plagiarizing" charge? Who is being copied here?

Yes, we don't know what will happen. I do think that how we think about it is important.

Paul was not an actual witness of Jesus. Nor was he a contemporary. He acknowledged that in the texts we have to read about it.

If such an agreement was made on the basis that Russia otherwise would have destroyed the world, it negates the purpose of what NATO could secure as a...

And who could stand as the arbiters of such a deal? There is no tribunal set up to accept promises on this basis. I would rather count on the desire t...

I think it has been taken seriously for many years. Let me put it another way. After decades of brinkmanship and the political formations made as a co...

We do not have access to his decision tree. But the only reason other powers have been staying out of Ukraine so far is because of the presence of MAD...

Because of the inexorable logic of Mutually Assured Destruction, bringing it up is equivalent to signaling a willingness to destroy oneself if it will...

You view the matter as a game of Risk. I look at it more as what justifies killing populations. A lot of states justify violence on the basis of playi...

Compared to the deadliness of Russian tactics in Syria and Chechnya, the attack on Ukraine is, so far, relatively restrained. The Russians could simpl...

I am not sure about this 'friend' business. Paul did say himself that he persecuted Christians before he did not. I characterized that as being an enf...

I take schopenhauer1's point that Paul must have been educated for us to have any trace of his presence. The point I tried to make that Paul was invol...

True, the idea was not a new one. But Paul conceived of the process as happening outside of what was happening in Judaism. The need to believe in orde...

Yeah, Chuck Berry was the full package, ridiculous in his excellence. In the best possible sense.

Paul also should be recognized as departing from '2nd Temple Judaism' when he said this world would be replaced by another one. Connecting a personal ...

Your question is worthy; It makes me nervous to venture a reply, but I will try. I take your point that invoking a single creator is to locate the sou...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph1GU1qQ1zQ

No argument with your description. The story of his conversion and the subsequent interchanges with Christians in Jerusalem suggests the 'co-option" w...