Nathan_Jr

Wow. Just.... wow... Victor can hardly open his mouth or copy a page of text without showing his hand. A man of God? Which god? To validate this trivialization and conceptualization of God, beleeef is required. A trivial concept of God must be TAUGHT and then beleeeved.

Mike: "God covers for us the best He can" **** What a patronizing, condescending thing to say. What does "God's best" look like? Sounds like it won't be quite enough. Sounds like another limit on what God is able to do.

Mike: It is good to keep diligent track of what you know for sure from what you don't know for sure. Nate: I doubt it. I don't keep track. I don't need to. It wouldn't help. It's a silly waste of time. (I already have plenty of silly time-wasting pastimes.) The problem is tracking the unknown unknowns. There are things I know that I know - known knowns. There are things that I know I don't know - known unknowns. And then there are things that I don't know that I don't know - unknown unknowns. How do you track the unknown unknowns? You can't. That's how. H - O - W

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

I don't know, but I do know it is used as a source of great conflict and division. I never really knew that the Bible could be used for those things until I took "the class."

And no one to teach it. The Teacher was still hundreds of years away in the future. God was unable and unwilling to teach anyone anything during the medieval period. This, according to The Teacher.

No book can sort you out.

Who killed your cat? If you hadn’t been so full of fear, your cat would still be alive?

But Churches A, B and C all disagree on what the Bible says, partly because the Bible disagrees with itself on certain issues, partly because of differing interpretations.

Often, if not always, paradoxes are unsolvable. That's why they are paradoxes. Isn't trying to solve a paradox futile? Is a solution desired? Is it not enough to just see the paradox for what it is?

And genealogies...

There are lessons in paradox. Does that make paradox a teacher? Can you write your questions on a 3x5 card and mail them to: The Paradox, P.O. Box...?

In a way unbelief could mean letting go, as belief could mean clinging. Maybe not making a choice, rather, being without choice, without attachment, open. For me, BELEEF in dogma is problematic. Discrepancies are a problem if you start with the proposition that there are no discrepancies. Yeah, the story is a teacher is an awkward idea for me. Been thinking about that. Not sure.

Raf can answer for himself, but I think he is saying it relieves him of cognitive dissonance. That's my take, at least. And I can relate to his position. Because he doesn't believe the Bible is inerrant, or that it all fits together like a hand in a glove, any apparent contradiction or discrepancy is not a problem for him. He doesn't have to make it fit. But he can still find meaning in the stories. Errancy is only a problem for the inerrantist.

I either forgot or never knew he submitted his Master thesis for his ThD dissertation. This cop out is Family Guy-Sandler-Farley kind of stoopidity.. As to the requirements of Pike's Peak (aka Burton College), previously published articles in magazines and book reports are counted for credit. Read that again: BOOK REPORTS! COLORADO: Burton College and Seminary, 41 Lincoln Avenue, Manitou Springs. President: Fred E. Stemme. Incorporated: Chartered under laws of State of Colorado, incorporated September 17, 1927. Purpose: “To provide courses for busy pastors and Christian leaders thru the Extra-Mural method, with a minimum amount of residence work.” Facilities: “Administration” building (probably residence of president); Facilities of Hotel Grand View, Manitou Springs, to provide for housing and classes during 11-day 1960 summer seminar. Faculty and students: President Stemme and Dean Douglass (no further information about faculty); 2000 graduates reported in current announcement (“strapping the globe”). Degrees, requirements, costs: The 1956 and the 1957 programs of graduating exercises report the awarding of the following degrees: Bachelor of Theology, 4 (1956), 9, (1957); Bachelor of Arts, 0, 8; Bachelor of Science (in Education), 1, 0; Master of Arts, 3, 0; Master of Theology, 3, 10; Master of Christian Education, 0, 1; Doctor of Theology, 20, 24; Doctor of Education, 1, 0; Doctor of Philosophy, 5, 8. Costs depend upon number of “semester hours” of work to be done. “Ample credit is also allowed for books written, articles of academic value, Educational Tours, Foreign Travel, and any activity which has contributed to one’s intellectual growth.… Ministerial courses for correspondence study from various schools will be considered for credit.… Most of our students will read a text, taking copious notes on same, and then write a manuscript review from the notes.… This is ‘Extra-Mural Recitation.’ … Most texts will carry from four to six semester hours of credit.”

ABBABBABBABBA It's a pattern... slowly... rich... grads

Read the record of the timeline of the acquisition of his "ThD" in TWLIL. If one knows anything at all about the work required and expected of a ThD candidate, one could only deduce that victor's "degree" was the peanut butter and jelly sandwiche of doctorates.

Cherry picking his names in order to bolster his confirmation bias. It’s a bitch-foot, spoiled child maneuver, and it’s transparent.

Who TF is research geek? Who TF cares? Find out for yourself. Learn how (H-O-W) to find out.

I previously reported on the proliferation of degree mills catering to huckster clergymen of mid 20th century America. Here is just one article supporting my reporting. It’s from 1960! https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1960/may-9/editorials-scandal-of-bogus-degrees.html Burton College is exposed in the article. Burton = Pikes Peak. One of my favorite sentences in the article: Degrees do not really tell the measure of a man, except perhaps when they are bogus.

Yep.

Oh, I know. …that I know that I know that I know.

How can someone have the time to write a post that is an order of magnitude longer than any T-Bone post (Love ya, Brother T-Bone!) and still claim to not have time to finish Charlene’s book?

This is the most righteously accurate sentence you’ve ever written. It’s not REALLY righteously accurate, but it’s a HUGE step in the rightly divided direction.