He Lived?

EASTER WITH AN EMPIRICAL EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN

The Parable of the Ten Talents concludes with a sharp rebuke of a "wicked and slothful servant" who had buried his sole talent, and with a rather intriguing distributive justice, not ceding that talent to the one who had just a little bit more, and had done well, but to the one who had the most, and had invested his many well. You can examine this parable from the perspective of the reasons why the one who had only one talent buried it, or at the other end, regarding why the one with the most was further rewarded, but, in an age of persons feeling inequitably disadvantaged, and vexed with the question as to how a loving God might permit that, let's stick with the "wicked and slothful." You can't miss what you ain't never had.

At the beginning of the pandemic, by the summer of 2020, as many as 23% believed that a novel coronavirus had originated in a laboratory, based upon a sincerely held "belief", and, more likely than not, could not articulate any empirical basis for this belief, which is far more common than one might think, and not just limited to claims of "election fraud", beliefs that "quid pro quo" means "bribe", etc. For hundreds of years before the construction of the Panama Canal, men actually believed that yellow fever was caused by bad air, and not just the indigenous people in the triple canopy rain forest in Panama, and, during the Easter homily at First Baptist Church of Alexandria, there was an illustration regarding "sincerely held beliefs", presenting a belief that a bottle labeled "water" contained water, which we generally accept on faith, like documents in boxes labeled "top secret". ''

If you believed that a novel coronavirus had been cultivated in a laboratory, especially now with the latest news regarding of potential use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine, you have to ask yourself as to whether any rational person would develop a weapon that would present an equal danger to himself as his adversary, like a nuclear bomb that would kill the person deploying it and his enemy. It would not have a wide range of potential for defense planning. It's the same with biological munitions, like anthrax. Nobody would want to deploy anthrax if it was contagious because you would not only accrue collateral damage but also potentially harm yourself, which is not the goal of war or battle. Therefore, if a biological weapon was being developed, anyone who accidentally got infected may well die, doing the funky chicken, but the damage is self-contained and limited. Why that is so hard to comprehend even after two years, maybe you have to have had biological warfare planning experience.

So, employ this logical methodology to a freedom from religion scenario: the Christian religion of fables that Congressman Don Beyer "believes" is not based upon reason, and is just a bunch of fables. Is it because, according to Pew Research Center, persons who are atheists tend to be more educated and intelligent, causing him to want to put on the appearance of being intelligent, and faking it until he makes it? It happens more often than you might think.

Well, this may be a surprise, but like for Confucius and Mohammed, it is generally accepted by scholars that Jesus lived, and that he was crucified, which was a punishment the Romans had inherited and had generally reserved for limited purposes, like treason, the Spartacus slave rebellion, hanging the slaves on crosses like lampposts on the Via Appia, the road between Capua and Rome. So, definitely anyone who has run for office, or who is a relative unknown from amongst 435 members of the House of Representatives knows that "making history" for 15 minutes is hard enough, but there are even Presidents who most can't remember, but some dude, named Jesus, was not only remembered, but also apparently got on the wrong side of the establishment religious leaders and the ruling government authorities, enough to merit being made an example, and in science for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, which, apparently has grown into reaction movement, not afraid to burn in Hell.