Wondering how much of the Lemmy user base wouldn’t use an adblocker. If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?
How do you know you are right? These are balance of probability arguments
Most of history ends up boiling down to probability arguments when you dig into it. It’s one of the more surprising things as you actually read papers, where far too often you’ll see scholars speak with an attitude of certainty around rather spurious evidence. The best tend to make more effort to be conservative with surety.
But between several options of varying probability I don’t find it that difficult to identify what I consider very unlikely and what I consider likely.
For example, I rank the idea of people seeing Jesus alive three days after his execution and then watch him float up into the sky extremely unlikely. As many Christians like to point out, we can’t be certain it didn’t happen, but there’s enough reasons why it probably didn’t happen that I don’t think it did.
You’re talking to someone whose personal mantra in life has been Socrates’ “All that I know is that I know nothing.” Most of existence as far as I’m concerned is probabilities and not certainty, and I value the Epicurean view of entertaining multiple possibilities when it isn’t 100% clear which is correct - I think it’s a large contributing factor to how they were right about so much.
Within that though, I can look at the two scenarios I presented above and see that one poorly fits the available evidence described and other evidence not described, and the other matches much better, as represented by around five years of a deep dive into the subject matter including discussion and debates with scholars of various perspectives.
of a liar
Likely liars. Paul has a number of characteristics of a narcissist and a habit of swearing he’s not lying, and even straight up talks about how he changes what he says depending on the audience. I wouldn’t trust him more than you could throw him, and maybe not even that much (he was allegedly smallish).
The gospel of Mark is also likely propagating lies, whether of original invention or secondhand inheritance.
Then Luke and potentially Mark have possible redactional layers which are further lying about things (like a 180° on not taking people’s money).
Matthew is probably worst of all with the outright lying, and evidentially had extra-cannonical resources in front of him that he was copying from and then making up secret explanations for while in general promoting a tradition of secret teachings (I think it may have come from an ex-Essene community).
John takes what I do think was some rudimentary earlier resource and then actively works to subvert and conceal the origin of that resource with what are likely additional lies, that span at least two redactional layers.
Later on people forge letters from Paul and Peter.
There’s quite a lot of liars involved in forming what we have.
But the thing with liars is that while you can’t trust their positive statements, they tend to reflect more trustworthy things in what they oppose or accidentally acknowledge. You kind of have to treat them like a hostile witness in a court case.
So for example with Mark, one of the most basic ways this manifests is the aforementioned public/private pattern. While I wouldn’t believe what Mark talks about occurring in public that supports his agenda or theology like a faith healing or Jesus telling people marriage is between a man and a woman (anachronistic relevance before Nero married two men in the 60s making same sex marriage an institution in the Roman empire), I tend to think the things it sets up as taking place in public before it immediately tries to contextualize them in a different direction with private explanations are one way to detect things that were part of an earlier commonly known record.
It’s tough work necessitating different approaches and maybe at best there’s about 3-4% of the material in there that I’d confidently label as preceding Mark’s earliest redactional layer.
You mention Mark borrowing from Greek thinkers and while probably true does nothing to prove a historical Jesus.
Not Mark. Mark is oblivious to Greek thought, which is why it’s interesting. The Greek/Roman philosophical influence is very pronounced in Thomas, it is present in things discussed with the Christian community in Corinth, but it isn’t in Mark other than in a vestigial way.
And the specific ways it’s phrased in places in Thomas combines Greek/Roman philosophy with the phrasing and metaphors of prophets in the Old Testament. I’d be very surprised if that core work was from someone who wasn’t familiar with both.
So while no, I can’t be for sure that a historical Jesus existed, I am pretty confident that someone familiar with both Lucretius, Plato, and Hebrew texts composed a number of sayings which ended up attributed to a Jesus in the first century when he was a relative nobody, at least one of which was likely composed during Pilate’s reign, several of which predated Paul, several more of which predated Mark, more of which predated Luke, and more of which predated Matthew. All of which ended up inside the 3rd-4th century only surviving copy of the Gospel of Thomas alongside additional sayings that were composed or taken from canonical texts later on.
To elegantly tie together Plato and Lucretius occasionally using language and metaphors from the OT in the first century seems like a pretty difficult task. It strikes me as bizarre that the person undertaking this Herculean accomplishment would then turn around and attribute it all to a relative nobody from a small cultic tradition who was allegedly executed by the Roman empire at its peak and whose adherents were actively being persecuted by the religious theocracy in Judea before being subverted by a growing splinter tradition largely owing itself to one of the people known to be persecuting them.
Maybe a better fitting version of events is that there really was a historical nobody who combined these things, pissed off the religious theocracy he was under with the conclusions he came to which undermined their authority such that he was killed by the state as soon as it was possible to justify it, then his followers and teachings were actively persecuted in areas the religious theocracy had authority while being actively subverted with a different version of fictionalized events and interpretations in the areas they didn’t have authority so they could bring it all back closer to conservative Judaism and funnel money and resources back to themselves - and then that subversion attempt was so unexpectedly successful that now a third of the world population believes it today.
Interesting that the only possible way the origin story could have any truth to it is if Mary cheated, had sex with Joseph before marriage or was raped. And here we are 2000 years later, billions of hard core followers, people 100% convinced that god made a sperm, fully arranged DNA and all, appear out of nothing and inside Mary’s uterus next to or inside her egg, which if it were true is technically god raping Mary. And the religion comes with genius verses like “if the whole world believes a lie, it is still a lie.” Got to give that one some credit. I can only imagine the author giggling to himself and thinking he’s so clever or possibly drank the koolaid which is also scary
Interpret improvements as you like. For me it's any large scale reforms or legislative packages designed to improve the country for all or see to the material interests of the majority without overly benefiting the elite....
When minimum wage was increased to $7.25/hour (although it should be increased again).
Affordable Care Act
Funding for covid tests and vaccines
Don’t know if these count, since they only come from SCOTUS decisions however Congress has not written a law stripping these rights. Right to have a same-sex relationship (2003) Right to marry a same-sex partner (2015) Right to employment while LGBT (2020)
Hearing the movie is getting bad reviews. But Snyder says the director’s cut will be a completely different movie with a different vision. I admit Zack Snyder’s Justice League (director’s cut) was much better than the theatrical version and quite different (though I had mostly forgotten the original by then). Not sure if I...
I agree with all of this, the entire thing is inconsistent from the costuming for everybody to the accents to the slowmo to the character “development” to the sound effects for the lasers from guns to the world building with scifi and magic but also regular real world snow elk to the literal star wars shuttle crawl opening to blade runner but in the desert to the showing “good” characters because they’re against sexual assault who then never show up again to characters who get backstory in the last 35 minutes of the movie after having been with them for 2 hours, to characters motivations directly contracting themselves. So many scenes of faces just looking, no words, no help, just watching…
The slowmo is so awful, from scenes that are inconsistent through themselves - full speed, 60%, 30%, back to 60%, move to the next scene *still at 60%. Later? Eh, these four action scenes just set a 70% slow. They are so exhausting it genuinely feels like a chore to sit through. Oh, but the final fight has no slowmo from what I can remember, so there is one scene at least that doesn’t have it. The first half of the spider fight was okay outside of the racist music. Mostly everything else is literally just slowmo movement/shooting and closeup faces.
The movie is atrocious. I went into it with an open mind. I liked the self-indulgence for ZS:JL because it’s DC and it was a vision brought back from tragedy.
This?? He couldn’t get it right the first time that is on him. This is likely the most unoriginal, most predictable thing I have ever seen and the fact that there is a four hour version for part one is sad. I have never felt such disdain watching something. And honestly, that 4 hour cut could simply be Jimmy getting 45 minutes frolicking in a field getting his horns, an extended griffon flight sequence and 4 more added fight scenes with 2 dialogue scenes. Boom, 4 hours. I wish I even felt like this was being facetious.
I wanted to write a “the good” and “the bad” but… Genuinely, just watch James Gunns Suicide Squad instead. You’ll feel more emotion, get a deeper sense of the characters with actual fucking pacing, there’s actual set ups and payoffs that are meaningful instead of just… “Everything” and best of all you won’t have to sit through Rebel Moon. Oh, and if you want a sense of good use of slowmo, watch some of the Rocky movies, or Creed. As a slowmo comparison only, although thematically these movies are so much more impactful.
On the other hand, don’t wait. Watch it now and just see exactly how terrible it is. Maybe get really stoned or really drunk, watch it with someone who is familiar with Star Wars and its homages and prepare yourself for the rejected Star Wars story ZS presented to GL.
I’m not a hater, I’m not somebody who writes scathing reviews about movies because of stupid reasons, I generally like most movies even if they are bad. I generally like most things even if they’re mediocre and predictable, if it’s something done well it’s got merit.
I cannot recommend this movie. After seeing it, I can’t even see why anyone would want to see what 2 more hours even holds. At least 40% - being very generous - at least 40% of it would just be slowmo. It seems to contribute absolutely nothing of value and has absolutely no point to any of the decisions being anything. The entire thing is pointless drivel and I can’t believe I ever thought it might be worth watching. I haven’t called out so many sequence of events in a row since The Eternals (which I liked) but none of them were even meaningful or interesting. It was stupid shit like “oh she has a rope and fell, time to get it around and knock him down”. All of the background fire lasers are individual streaks, there’s no differentiation of weapons but there’s apparently multiple different weapon pulse fire noises. Sounds of 3 and 5, but nope, all just individual bolts.
And oh my gosh, the stupid fucking. The amount of talk about sex, that test where women talking about a romance and it failing? 15 minutes in, not even kidding. The main character apparently sleeps around, so does everybody the whole farm town is just an orgy. There is more talk about sex than plot in this movie.
The plot by the way is runaway on a farm imperials appear and create an army after surviving an ambush and the heroes ride off into the sunset. And everything is A-OK.
There’s no underlying theme. There’s no attempt at trying to make claims about philosophy. There’s no stitching of unique elements to create a fantasy world. It just babbles fake history at you and character repeat the fake history and we just get to accept that there’s random fantasy creatures in scifi space settings while we get philosophy babbled at us - it’s not positing ideas of making conversation with the audience, it’s just “my robot sentience is from magic and I feel bad”.
So yeah. I’m conflicted. On one hand, I don’t think anyone should subject themselves to this. On the other hand, I think everyone needs to see this so that ZS never gets another job, or at least severely reduced creative input.
Anyway. If you do watch it, I highly recommend Suicide Squad right after. Because for every deep chasm that you will find from Rebel Moon, this movie actually delivers something impactful. There is meaningful development. The conflict feels real and organic, not contrived. Even these ridiculous fantasy her- er, villains are more likable, relatable, and give you actual edge when they make a decision with actual consequences.
All of Rocky including Creed is also a good contrast. I don’t even watch boxing.
It’s Lemmy. Most people here (arguably worse than the alien site) are obsessed with genitals, sex, pronouns, social justice etc. I’ll never understand it really. They will take a conversation about rocks and the next thing you know they’re bringing up orange man and calling the rocks some sort of phobe, ist, or bigot.
It’s quite annoying really. Reading comments on something I’m interested in and watching it devolve into chaos.
It has occurred to me that Vulcan must have some form of sex industry to handle those going through Pon Farr who aren’t currently married or otherwise involved. Otherwise, they’d have constant issues with violence from those suffering the “blood fever” whose spouse was far away, or had died, or for some other reason had...
I always got the impression that Vulcan society operated similar to traditional Japanese or other societies where couples were “arranged” by families. Not sure about the one off cases though so maybe there is some kind of sex industry given the physiological toll if it’s not addressed in time
In the T’Pring case, we also see that sex isn’t the only outlet. A fight to the death is just as effective, with Spock ending up not needing to bed T’Pring, having resolved his Ponn Farr by fighting Kirk.
While the cultural custom is a fight to the death, it is possible that some form of extended, high-stakes physical combat might be enough to relieve things, but Vulcan sensibilities might simply prevent them from choosing that as an option.
Who doesn't use an adblocker and why?
Wondering how much of the Lemmy user base wouldn’t use an adblocker. If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?
How to keep a man (lemmy.world)
The Jebus Said So. (startrek.website)
AMEN!
Wait until they get to pineapples... (lemmy.ca)
Those who chose "never" in a "now or never" moment. How is it going for you?
Thanks for sharing, and happy holidays
US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years? (kbin.social)
Interpret improvements as you like. For me it's any large scale reforms or legislative packages designed to improve the country for all or see to the material interests of the majority without overly benefiting the elite....
Should I wait for the "Snyder cut" (director's cut) of Rebel Moon?
Hearing the movie is getting bad reviews. But Snyder says the director’s cut will be a completely different movie with a different vision. I admit Zack Snyder’s Justice League (director’s cut) was much better than the theatrical version and quite different (though I had mostly forgotten the original by then). Not sure if I...
W.... Will they stream it? (lemmy.world)
Hot tub owners: any tips? any regrets?
deleted_by_moderator
A good grade at parties (startrek.website)
Vulcan Sex Workers
It has occurred to me that Vulcan must have some form of sex industry to handle those going through Pon Farr who aren’t currently married or otherwise involved. Otherwise, they’d have constant issues with violence from those suffering the “blood fever” whose spouse was far away, or had died, or for some other reason had...
made this up for my wife earlier thought you should all suffer along with her (lemmy.world)
seems like it works as a shit post