There is an alarming trend in the U.S. that I think should not go unnoticed in my writings. As of my writing this, the best data available states that 79% of all males in the U.S. are circumcised. Further - although the rate of circumcision is decreasing - 55.9% of male newborns in the U.S. are circumcised each year as of 2008. Based on the assumption that 79% of males are circumcised, and the 2010 census, we can estimate that there are approximately 119,907,247 circumcised males in the U.S. at this very moment.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Multiple Independent Plagiarists: John, A Jesus for the Long-Haul
Welcome to Part 4 of my series "Multiple Independent Plagiarists" (if you want to start from Part 1, you can find it here).
As we established in Parts 1-3, Mark's gospel was far from being an eyewitness account of remembered history. It was in fact, a fictional drama set in a pseudo-historical landscape, by a Greek author who had probably never set foot in the region. From there we determined that Matthew's gospel too was not an eyewitness account, but had simply taken Mark's drama, blatantly plagiarized from it, and attempted to historicize Mark's work, in an effort to create a new religion. Finally, Luke openly admitted to having copied from other sources (namely Mark and either from Matthew or an unknown source) supposedly in an effort to create a definitive account of the life of Jesus. Unfortunately for Luke, his Gospel is only as definitive as the fictional sources used to compile it.
Now that we have had a brief refresher, we can examine the the third canonical gospel to have been written - and see if he holds up as an eyewitness of Jesus.
As we established in Parts 1-3, Mark's gospel was far from being an eyewitness account of remembered history. It was in fact, a fictional drama set in a pseudo-historical landscape, by a Greek author who had probably never set foot in the region. From there we determined that Matthew's gospel too was not an eyewitness account, but had simply taken Mark's drama, blatantly plagiarized from it, and attempted to historicize Mark's work, in an effort to create a new religion. Finally, Luke openly admitted to having copied from other sources (namely Mark and either from Matthew or an unknown source) supposedly in an effort to create a definitive account of the life of Jesus. Unfortunately for Luke, his Gospel is only as definitive as the fictional sources used to compile it.
Now that we have had a brief refresher, we can examine the the third canonical gospel to have been written - and see if he holds up as an eyewitness of Jesus.
Addendum to "Political Reform and Compulsory Voting"
If you haven't read "Political Reform and Compulsory Voting", please go back and read that post before continuing. I'll be using that post, to present a hypothetical situation, that just sort of came to me. I'm not sure if it's a good plan or not, I just came up with it about three minutes ago, so we can work through this situation together. It will be a bonding experience.
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