If bitcoin still exists 2000yrs from now is it then fiat because someone in 2009 decided it was truth? Christianity has been open source, opt in, rough consensus reviewed, for over 2000yrs. It’s been examined by 100s of millions of people over a long period of time and still today skeptics examine it and then choose to opt in of their own volition, no declaration (fiat) involved. The reason I think the Bible is canonical is because it works and is the best system of truth I’ve found, not because anybody declared I must believe. As a Christian, I’m free to explore any claims on truth I want. What Im not free to do is just hard fork the Bible with other documents and then claim it is the new Bible. Just like Satoshi said about Bitcoin, once version one was launched, the rules of the system were set in place. At least for me, that’s why as a Christian I find it very consistent with my faith to oppose fiat money and politics.
Discussion
I could show you screenshot of a Christian right here on nostr calling me a heretic. I won't... Its a privacy thing. But it happened. Christians have been murdering anyone deemed heretical for 1700 years, and in most cases, the victims actually weren't heretics because the definition of Christianity was changed specifically to have an excuse to murder them. Over and over and over.
Sorry that happened to you. Humans have been murdering people for all of humanity, and unfortunately Christians are sometimes included in that group.
They can't be in that group and still truthfully claim to be Christians. They were false, and their organization was false, and it follows that their dogma is false. But real Christianity still exists, despite them. Peel back the 1700 years of deceit to find it.
I still think Christians are part of humanity, but I’m ok if you don’t.
He's not saying Christians aren't human so that's at best a misunderstanding and at worst a strawman logical fallacy.
He's saying that people who take the peace, or worse yet, the lives, of those deemed as heretics in the name of God are not Christians.
Christ directed us to love our neighbors, not to engage in terrorism and bloodshed.
I didn't mean to imply Christians aren't in the group of humans. The group I was thinking of is Christianity. A person can call himself a Christian while still not being a Christian. IMO, that's almost all Christians, and actually most of the people who are actually saved have left Christianity. They've been pushed out.
Fortunately, my experience has been completely different.
"As a Christian, I’m free to explore any claims on truth I want."
Most self-identified Christians do not act this way even if they think this way. They typically self-impose boundaries on what material they will explore, often relying on "invincible ignorance" and claims like "all I need is Jesus" or "all I need is the Bible". These are cop outs. These are dishonest attempts to justify aversion of further due diligence to justify claims made by others.
If you do not behave like this, good on you. You actually understood the directive to love your neighbors. Most Christians do not and that is very sad.
That said, the Bible is not perfect. It contains hard forks already. Look at all the translations. Also, Moses wrote Genesis. Where did he get it?
Egypt.
Where did Egypt get that 7 day story and the Garden of Eden?
Linguistic analysis exists that shows us what language it was originally written in but like Bitcoin, the truth is unevenly distributed.
We also know that Jesus spoke that language with his dying words on the cross and that Matthew, Mark, and John were guessing.
The Bible is great. Christianity is great. It's not complete. It's not perfect. It's kind of like if Ace Ventura delivered a package to you, that's what we got. It's not just Christianity that's that way either. They're all banged up and broken. We have to look at it all and put the pieces together.
The answer of where Moses got Genesis has been answered by many Jewish and Christian scholars. Most non-Christians are not willing to actually study the many works of Christian scholarship and research. They prefer outside sources to tell them the problems of Christianity. Non-Christians trying to tell Christians what they believe and saying it with a supposed authority is an interesting phenomenon. Sometimes it feels a bit like when altcoiners try to give me the inside scoop of what bitcoin maximalists believe and why it’s wrong.
You assume that modern Christians even recognize Christ's original teachings and that modern Christian dogma significantly resembles original teachings of Christ. Those are huge assumptions just like people born into the dollar think the dollar is good money and spend their lives chasing after it like ignorant lemmings.
The guy who wrote the text in the note shared below, in his book, under recommended reading, he lists the Bible, all translations.
You assume that we have not done our due diligence within before moving to outside sources.
Ok
Where's the claim that Moses wrote Genesis come from? That sounds like one of those folklore attributions, like the idea that the gospels were written by the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (something there is no basis for and which seems utterly impossible given when they appear to have been written, with John over a century after Christ's birth). Given the multitude of sources, and the fact that the earliest written record of Genesis goes back to 587(ish) BC (at the time the Kingdom of Israel was being overrun by the Babylonians), it seems like at most Moses played his part in the oral history that led up to what ended in the book, rather than that he "wrote" it. One need only look to the first two chapters to see two completely separate creation stories to get past that claim.
There are good points here. I guess the word I was quibbling with was "wrote." I'd not deny Moses' influence on what went into Genesis, but I would likely deny that it was one coherent work rather than a patchwork of oral history that was accumulated into one "book" well after Moses' life. Especially when considering just how much territory the book of Genesis covers. It'd be weird if Moses wasn't somewhat instrumental in shaping a lot of this history given the role he played at a fairly pivotal choke point in the history while the bulk of the community was enslaved. But there were centuries after him of oral transmission, and some fairly striking different "voices" in the text that can be picked out, so it'd also be weird for it not to be quite so simple as "Moses wrote it."
That's a fair elaboration of nuance, and yes, my usage of "wrote" was reductive, but I think you characterized his role and influence well.
🤝
In fairness I sort of forgot who I was quibbling with when I raised issue haha, but you definitely didn't disappoint with your rationale.
You may already be aware, but just in case you're not, FYI I tried to zap but it didn't work. I tried a test zap elsewhere and it worked.
I'm aware that it's sometimes hit and miss -- I've gotten zaps today but you're definitely not the first to tell me it doesn't work. Probably pertains to my custodial wallet. I appreciate the gesture in any case -- one of these days either I'll get around to opening up some channels and making things work, or Phoenix or Zeus will integrate NWC support. In the meantime I'm at the mercy of speed wallet and their semi-functioning support.