Mark 9:43: It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna. Into the unquenchable fire.

Gahenna was a graveyard. You can still go there: it is right outside of Israel. It was where the non-Jews traditionally made sacrifices, to false gods. That was nothing but a statement of Monotheism from the typically Jewish Gospel of Mark. To sin was to remove yourself from monotheism and send yourself to the demons worshipped as idols in the early Rabbinic literature of the time.

Here is a picture of Gahenna:

farm4.static.flickr.com/3116/2550216528_36d213042d.jpg?v=0

There isn’t a Matthew 9:43. It ends at 9:36

Matthew:

Also, I should have said “according to early Rabbinic literature”.

The Gospel of Mark is almost identical to Pharisitic theology, by the by. According to Mark, Jesus was little different than the early Rabbinical Jews.

Bah, the Jewish encyclopedia is the classical example of Jewish self-censorship. You know, going through the Talmud and replacing ‘goyim’ with ‘sadducees’.

The Jews of Jesus’ day largely believed that hell was simply the realm of the demons who passed themselves off to goyim as false idols. There was no careful Mithraism-inspired Christian dichotomy between Heaven and Hell. Everyone who goes to Gahenna goes to ‘the place where God resides’ eventually, in Talmudic Judaism.

There’s no reason to think Jesus thought any different.

Most modern Jews reject the idea of hell altogether. It’s never been central to Jewish theology.

tl;dr if you want to have an opinion, and not be called a dumb cunt, put work into that opinion.

Debating truth is not the special olympics: we don’t change the rules for the retards. Truth is truth and acquired by rigour.

Or do you want me to build a stupid ramp and call them “differently abled”?

Answer #1:
Because this is the internet and if you don’t treat people with disdain and ambivalence they’ll not bother you as much.

Of course I’ve never talked so sharply IRL, but I’ve never had hundreds of idiots around the world listening in on my conversations.

There’s no politeness on the internet.
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Answer #2:
I could be polite and make well-written, carefully proof-read posts. And then diabeetus or magnus or one of other of a billion idiots would pop up and posts, well, what diabeetus and magnus and other idiots post; basically, a lot of bullshit.

Given how many stupid things I’ve read on the internet, treating everyone with contempt is a natural reaction. If a few friendly patient people get caught in the crossfire, so be it.

Which great teachers?

There’s no such thing as absolute objectivity, but you can collect as much subjective evidence as possible to form the most nuanced view, can’t you?

The only way to understand something is: form a theory, offer as much contradictory evidence as possible, adjust the theory.

Let’s take some average person logic and apply this concept.

1) A million people on MSC say Obama has voted partisan on every issue.
2) Find an issue where Obama hasn’t voted partisan: there are many.
3) A million people persist in saying Obama has voted on every issue. If persistently confronted they’ll use their magical powers of confirmation bias to claim ridiculous things about what each party represents.

I once, doing this, had someone who had been lecturing me about how evil it was to oppose despotic states (like China and Cuba because we should be encouraging them to become democracies) say, only three posts later, that it was OK to support fascist military dictatorships in the 80s because America isn’t technically a democracy.

So I ask, “What great teachers?”

Every Gadhi has a student like Nehru:

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/546167/Sino-Indian-War

So maybe if I’m a total asshole my “students” will be friendly and dull. But ultimately I’m never going to change anyone’s mind about anything, nor do I wish to.

“So you’re saying there is no difference (to you) between my questions and obvious willingness (because I accept your knowledge) to change my mind, given new facts or insights, and an asshole who’s trolling. Distinguishing between the 2 opposing thoughts is beyond your ability or willingness?”

Because we assume that trolls don’t mean what they say but most of the time they actually do.

Again you’re in the minuscule minority so if accidentally displeasing someone open minded is the cost of not letting an internet comedy site eat my soul, then so be it.

Why teach west virginians?

Seriously, you have no economy and the highest enlistment rate in the US. It takes years to truly learn anything. You’re just filling kids’ heads with nonsense they don’t need: These kids were born as targets in uniform and will die as such before they reach the age to know anything about anything.