Happy Easter!

Quote: Wizard

so maybe I'm alone here in being amused by it.

Job is about the most seriously taken
book in the OT. Xtions will say they
laugh at things in the Bible all the time,
but when you ask for examples, it's
not things that are funny at all.

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If your son asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?”

One apologist says statements like this
would have gotten broad smiles and
even belly laughs from crowds that
listened to Jesus. The problem is, if
something isn't funny unless somebody
explains it to you in great length as to
why it's funny, then it really wasn't funny,
was it.

That's the so called 'humor' of Jesus. It's not
there until some over educated Xtion
scholar explains in detail why you're so dumb
that you just can't understand that Jesus was
almost the best stand up comedian of his
day.

The truth is, most of what is attributed to
Jesus was never said by him, it's not in the
least funny, and was intended to be taken
totally seriously, which it is 99% of the time.

His original name was "Simon". Jesus gave him the name כֵּיפָא (Kepha) in Aramaic, which was rendered in Greek (by transliteration and the addition of a final sigma to make it a masculine word) as Κηφᾶς, whence Latin and English Cephas (9 occurrences in the New Testament); or (by translation with masculine termination) as Πέτρος, whence Latin Petrus and English Peter (156 occurrences in the New Testament).

The precise meaning of the Aramaic word is disputed, some saying that its usual meaning is "rock" or "crag", others saying that it means rather "stone" and, particularly in its application by Jesus to Simon, "precious stone" or "jewel", but most scholars agree that as a proper name it denotes a rough or tough character. The Greek petros means "small stone, firestone, sling stone, moving boulder".

Quote: Wizard

Why did Jesus call Peter a rock? I have heard that in Aramaic Peter's name was similar to the word for rock, and Jesus was making a play on words. Perhaps FrG can comment better.

Of course, all of these questions have been debated for millenia.

Quote: Matthew

Jesus asks, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" The disciples give various answers. When he asks, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus then declares:

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Cephas (Peter) (Petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The verse is the basis for the Catholic belief that Peter was given special authority and is considered the first pope.

Some Protestants and Greek Orthodox point out that the phrase "on this rock" uses the feminine form of the noun. They believe that Jesus was making a pun, and he was really referring to the Apostolic tradition, and he didn't mean to bestow on Peter special authority.


Of course there is a website explaining Catholic dispute about these comments about Peter.

Bob, Catholics are embarking on an 8 day party called the octave of Easter right now where we celebrate like it is Easter every day. Catholicism allows healthy and disciplined use of alcohol, dancing, gambling, and loves good music and food. It is an US religion.

In Buddahism I don't think they allow any of that, you are trying to extinguish your passions, which are the source of your suffering. I grant you that this does not sound like a ME religion. It sounds like an anti-ME religion where my purpose is to cease to exist as an individual or perhaps all together. Who do you think has more fun?

Quote: FrGamble

In Buddahism I don't think they allow any of that, you are trying to extinguish your passions, which are the source of your suffering. I grant you that this does not sound like a ME religion. It sounds like an anti-ME religion where my purpose is to cease to exist as an individual or perhaps all together. Who do you think has more fun?

I find it difficult to point to a single source for what Buddhism is. However, about a year ago a friend took me to a Buddhism festival of Orange County and I was shocked to see people selling lunch items with meat. I had a long chat with a Buddhist about it and he said being a vegetarian was optional and that Buddhism was not a rule-oriented religion. When I told this to my wife, who brushes up against Buddhism a bit, she scoffed and said these meat-eating Buddhists were phony.

God obviously has a sense of humor. He created Evenbob didn't he?

Quote: Wizard

When I told this to my wife, who brushes up against Buddhism a bit, she scoffed and said these meat-eating Buddhists were phony.

A rather long article about the subject.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism

Quote: FrGamble

Bob, Catholics are embarking on an 8 day party

What does that have to do with
Jesus having no sense of
humor? In fact, what does most
of what Catholics believe have
to do with anything in the Bible.
You seem to have made most of
it up.

And what you know about Buddhism
could be fit onto on side of a
matchbook cover, and still half the
cover would be blank.

Quote: Wizard

I had a long chat with a Buddhist about it and he said being a vegetarian was optional and that Buddhism was not a rule-oriented religion. .

Buddhism is anti ego, the opposite
of the Xtions. Buddhism is about
freeing yourself, not about getting
even more guilt oriented and anal,
which is the goal of Xtionity.

Buddhism has no conversion plan,
they could care less about you being
a Buddhist or not. It's only the
restrictive ego religions, like Islam,
Xtionity, and Mormonism that need
to convert people. They would die
out otherwise.

Quote: Evenbob

Buddhism is anti ego, the opposite
of the Xtions.

Christianity is definitely anti-ego if you mean anti-selfishness and anti-pride. It is all about service of neighbor and love of the poor and needy and of sinners.

Quote:

Buddhism is about
freeing yourself,

By destroying yourself.

Quote: Evenbob

And what you know about Buddhism
could be fit onto on side of a
matchbook cover, and still half the
cover would be blank.

Who do you think knows more you about Christianity or me about Buddhism? I would be willing to take a test to prove I know more about Buddhism than you do (I actually like a lot of things about it). You have been failing the test about what you know about Christianity on this forum for quite some time now.