Cliff Admits To
Believing In Jesus?
Lee Markland
From: Lee Markland
To: Cliff Walker <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Sent: Friday, August 06, 1999 6:13 PM
Subject: Christians revolt against their own best interests.
Cliff, I understand your intentions in writing your August 1999 editorial, but in it you inadvertently admitted to believing in Jesus.
I quote:
The apostle Paul who lived during the most vicious persecutions that Christians ever endured. |
This implies that you believe in the Apostle Paul, and that Paul was an Apostle of Jesus. Hence it makes your atheism irreconcilable. You might not think that, but I picked up on it, and I'm sure that others will as well.
From: Positive Atheism <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: Lee Markland
Subject: Re: Christians revolt against their own best interests.
Date: Friday, August 06, 1999 7:39 PM
You guys will stop at nothing to bring us into the fold, won't you?
Very few historians dispute the existence of the apostle Paul.
He is "the apostle Paul" to make it clear to the reader who is being discussed. He is "the apostle Paul" (as opposed to "the Apostle Paul") to make it clear that the writer is not a Christian.
Also, I think Paul's time was still the most vicious persecution that Christians endured from non-Christians. Shortly after that, the Christians became the most vicious body of persecutors in history.
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
From: Lee Markland
To: Positive Atheism <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Re: Christians revolt against their own best interests.
Date: Friday, August 06, 1999 8:04 PM
I've got no "fold" in fact I'm considered pretty much of an outcast by all sides of the debate.
That very few historians dispute the existence of Paul, does not reflect well on the historians, perhaps it is because of cultural blinders.
You really do think that Pauls time was the most vicious persecution of Christians, when the only basis for that claim lies in the faith building myths of the Church of Rome. (It does help to build a martyr persecution myth, to build a faith).
Nero blamed the fires on Chrestiani, not Christiani and there is a difference, except maybe some Chrestiani were also Christiani. Anyway there is no proof at all, outside of the Catholic Church's claims, that Christians were persecuted, especially for their faith.
Rome was multicultural and swelled with citizens and their religions from all over their territories. Temples of Isis, especially in France, Temples to Mithra, to Bacchus (all of whose stories are similar) and even the Jews had the then worlds largest Synagogue on Vatican Hill.
What the Romans did do, was to round up political subsersives, and who can blame them, all governments do that.
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