The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

Discussion about the New Testament, apocrypha, gnostics, church fathers, Christian origins, historical Jesus or otherwise, etc.
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Jax
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Joined: Sun Aug 06, 2017 6:10 am

Re: The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

Post by Jax »

I hear ya. Me in my younger days before my tragic deep fryer accident.

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DCHindley
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:53 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

Post by DCHindley »

[
Secret Alias wrote: Thu Dec 14, 2017 10:27 amI know this is a strange idea and some would say I have too many ideas here at the forum but let's talk about the certainty of Jesus's existence and the certainty of the existence of people I engage at the forum everyday.

When I come to the forum I am greeted by a number of 'individuals' who I assume to have 'reality' outside of the forum. In other words, if I meet someone with a 'real sounding name' I naturally assume that this 'real sounding person' is real.

Of course my name is not 'Secret Alias' but everyone knows who I am. There are other posters who I deal with such as David Hinley who I can readily check up on Google and I know he is a real person by that name living in Ohio somewhere.

...

We think David Hinley is an insurance adjuster. He's a real person. But what if someone told us he was a carpenter or an architect in the course of our discussions or he lived in Louisiana or he's thirty years old or he's married or gay or single and we just assumed that there happens to be a gay architect at the forum from Louisiana with an interest in the Bible.
I suppose we all look one another up with a search engine now and then. I know a bit about your history as a live act promoter in Florida, have written a self-published book or two on topics you now disavow, and are now a advance man seeking interviews with persons in order to recruit them to speak in TV documentaries of the slightly sensational type. Your own wife is solidly employed by a major software company in Washington state, and to be honest I don't know why she puts up with you. Same could be said for my wife (that is, why she puts up with me).

However, it would be nice if you looked up my real name, Hindley, and not Hinley. It's the "d" I think, because folks don't know if they should pronounce it "Hind-lay" (as in gay architect), or just "hind-lee" (which happens to be an English place name named after the 'lays" where "Hinds" = deer hang out). While it is similar to J C Hindley, who wrote some academic articles in the 1960s(?), he is long deceased while I simply should be deceased. Also, I am an "Insurance Premium Auditor" ( :scratch: ) not an "Adjuster" ( :eek: )! My entire residential history was posted recently in a thread about what was meant by Jesus' "hometown." Ohio, California and Florida are the only US states in which I had actually resided. While I've *been* to Louisiana for business (New Orleans and the delta all the way down to the southern tip 10 days before hurricane Katrina blew it all away in 2005), and I have *audited* architects and architectural firms, and *know* gay personages, I am not a gay architect from Louisiana.

But I understand your point that pseudonyms can serve as platforms to say the stupidest things that one would never dare say in the open. There was a good reason that Robert Turkel, a librarian at a Florida state prison who has been active in somewhat inflammatory Christian "apologetics" for many years, used the pseudonym "J P Holding" until he retired. I am also a state employee (although in Ohio) and I know we have rules against engaging in overt political advocacy or inflammatory speech that might cast a poor light on my bureau's professional makeup.

While I go by my real name, I also try not to engage in inflammatory debates or make too overtly political statements (JohnT may respectfully disagree) to the point of being a lightening rod for criticism of my employer. I mean, it's bad enough that I am an atheist (well, I think the universe is somehow a living being, but not necessarily a conscious one which has a human-like personality, good or bad) and talk about aspects of the history of Christian origins that are definitely not consonant with the "Religious Right" here in my country, but I am not a radical in any political sense, other than thinking that most all politicians should be jailed for corruption, and sometimes express the opinion that US domestic and foreign policy is counter productive and misguided to benefit special interests other than the vast majority of our citizens.

But tha's jus' me! :cheers:

DCH
John2
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Re: The Mythicist Jesus and Mythical Posters Here at the Forum

Post by John2 »

I've never looked up -or care to look up- anyone here. I found Neil Godfrey's and Stephan Huller's blogs about ten years ago so I was familiar with them already (more so Neil, where I contributed comments for a few years -as "John," but it looks like there's a new "John" in town over there now- and only do so less now because I don't have enough internet time to comment there and here), and I knew Neil lived in Australia that way, but not because I "cared" to know but just because it was impossible to miss.

I'm like Jax and care more about content. I don't care what someone's real name is or where they live or went or go to school or what they do for a living or what their motive for being here may be. I just don't have the interest. Ben is my favorite person here, for example, and I've never thought to look him up. I can tell from here that he's a great guy and I told him my name right away even though I'm an extremely private person and always have been, long before the internet.

I'm not high tech. I'm a good twenty years behind everyone else on that front. I don't even have any way of listening to music at home because I can't access it because it's in the "cloud" or something these days and I don't have a new fangled machine to access it. I don't even have a CD player or radio. I have a little Walkman radio, but somewhere over the last ten to twenty years it stopped being able to get good reception anywhere, I'm guessing because there's so much more wireless ... waves or something in the air than there used to be and it can't compete with them, I don't know. So I use the internet and listen to music when I'm at the library or work.

But for someone who is extremely private like me, I've nevertheless said a lot of things I consider to be important about myself here. I'm severely hearing impaired and consequently very isolated socially, for example. I probably "talk" here more than I do in "real" life. For me this is an opportunity to meet people and keep my mind active.

And regarding the name "John2," I think what happened is that I signed up here as John (as I did/do on Neil's blog) but didn't realize it went through, so when I tried to sign up that way again it said that "John" was taken, and the only thing I could think of at the time was John2. It doesn't mean anything.
You know in spite of all you gained, you still have to stand out in the pouring rain.
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