again, i have personally kept a log of urban legends told to me as true stories, and many of them are well documented and famous legends, well understood by folklorists to not be true, and they are told to me by people who claim they personally happened to them. people simply invent crap all of the time. they even invent stuff they heard and tell the story as if it happened to them. they do this constantly. witnesses are of no real value. like for instance if people told me a man rose from the dead and an ascended into heaven, it would take lots of evidence, because i already have virtually infinite evidence of how death actually works. plus if i started believing crazed witnesses in books, i would believe thousands of myths, not just christianity. how would i know which was the real one?
an interview with the kids at the center of the flag flap.... Students At The Center Of American Flag Controversy Speak Out
OK, how about this oral tradition: Fishermen in the Sea of Gallilee see JC walking to them on the water. He asks one of them to have faith so he too can walk on water and he does so. Can you dismiss this as mythology because humans cannot walk on water? Absolutely. But if you were indeed a student of oral tradition you would also see that the story is a parable intended to teach a philosophical lesson to an illiterate people and is completely successful at it. The point is not the mythological "miracle" of a man walking on water, the point is to demonstrate the faith of the fisherman, which it does in clear, and more importantly, memorable fashion. It is an absolutely successful and useful oral tradition despite its mythological storyline because it teaches a lesson that impressed, was remembered, and was passed down through the generations until it was finally documented by the literate. The presence of mythology in an oral tradition is not mutually exclusive with it being of immense historical, literary, social, or artistic significance. Or simply of interest for people to discuss. You must try to Grok this and not retreat into Black And White World.
this lesson about "faith", what value does this have? is the point to teach people, via parable, to hate truth and to be idiots?
It has no value to YOU. It's all about you, isn't it? Everything is about you. I've said it before and it pisses you off but you don't have a shred of empathy. This is a liability. It keeps you from perceiving values in any terms but your own. I just let the idiots here point themselves out.
what value do these parables have to everyone who isnt me? does it teach them that faith is a virtue? is faith a virtue? why? isnt believing in truth and evidence a virtue? isnt faith the ability to believe in things without evidence, thereby making all facts equal, truth and lies equivalent? isnt faith the opposite of what people should have? if i am an obama birther and i think obama is not a citizen, in spite of evidence, but i simply have "faith", am i not just a jackass? isnt what really matter truth and evidence and reality? or are you saying that stupid people need parables to understand basic ethics? that is a condescending attitude.
You are just arguing for the sake of it now. I've made my point and you pretend you can't understand it.
exactly. lies are lies, and people should be ashamed to believe them, that is all there is to it. religions reveal information about humans, not the universe. for information about the universe, the religions are misleading and encourage ignorance. they are worse than simply wrong. they ask people to forget the techniques used to determined what is true. they have negative value.
