Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

ericneyman.wordpress.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 649 posts

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#451

Post by acdha »

freedomben wrote: post #432
hinkley wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throwing down moneylenders tables in the temple is pretty unambiguous. How many times did Jesus show violence or aggression? That’s the only one I can think of really. Though he did throw out some wicked burns a time or two.

> How many times did Jesus show violence or aggression? That’s the only one I can think of really. I think you might be forgetting about the bulk of the Old Testament

Jesus is a New Testament figure and very explicitly broke with the past in key ways. This is why his followers are not required to keep kosher, commit genocide, or abstain from having tattoos or mixed fiber clothing.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#452

Post by Tyr42 »

freedomben wrote: post #432
hinkley wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throwing down moneylenders tables in the temple is pretty unambiguous. How many times did Jesus show violence or aggression? That’s the only one I can think of really. Though he did throw out some wicked burns a time or two.

> How many times did Jesus show violence or aggression? That’s the only one I can think of really. I think you might be forgetting about the bulk of the Old Testament

The pre Jesus books?

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#453

Post by lukev »

krapp wrote: post #326
CyrsBel wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jesus was a socialist? Was that before or after he used supernatural powers to increase the quantity of food instantly? Easy to be a "socialist" in such cases, but let's not pretend that there's any serious economic theorizing being done when people say this about Jesus. It's usually just a convenience for people looking to grift or instigate. lmao.

People call Jesus a socialist because of the numerous times he commanded people to distribute their wealth to the poor and needy, help the sick, forgive debts and treat immigrants with respect and dignity. No one is literally claiming that Jesus was espousing some kind of proto-Marxist economic theory so much as pointing out that in the context of modern (specifically American) political discourse, Jesus would be con…

To add, not just Jesus, but the entire Bible.

The Year of Jubilee alone, from the Pentateuch, basically eliminates capitalism as we know it (if enacted at a full societal scale.)

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#455

Post by toast0 »

hinkley wrote: post #404
korse wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Djinn trope? Point me at some relevant scholarship. I've always found the 1001 nights djinn interesting characters.

The notion of being careful what you wish for because you just might get it is embodied in djinn, genies, Pandora, and the devil. You get what you asked for and not what you wanted.

Sounds like programming :P

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#456

Post by em-bee »

dangus wrote: post #426
em-bee wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you don't pick one at random. you pick one that makes sense. what makes sense for example is the positive impact a religion has on the world. which religion is doing the most good? that alone will narrow down the selection to a few dozen if that many. besides the good it does, another question could be: what makes sense to you? which religion has the better answers to explain the world in which we live in today? take…

Your comment is a manifestation of this weird double standard that gets applied to atheists/agnostics where they’re supposed to be burdened to “find answers” and it’s a problem that they don’t have that religious burden. It also manifests in this sort of insulted vibe that religious people get when their faith is questioned. Basically, it’s socially not okay to question the faith of someone in a particular religion b…

i expects everyone who questions any religion to do that search. whether they believe in god or not. if you question something, then it is on you to go find answers. even if you found your belief system that works for you. maybe especially if you found one you should always keep your eyes open and investigate your own beliefs, and not just blindly accept it.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#457

Post by freedomben »

santoshalper wrote: post #71
foxygen wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so special about reality?

Whenever people say things like this "the universe is too weird not to have been created", I always ask "Weird compared to what? To other realities you have witnessed?" The safest assumption to make, if you absolutely have to make an assumption at all, is that this reality is pretty average. With no knowledge whatsoever, it's certainly safer than betting it is somehow exotic.

Indeed, this is a variation on the "Watchmaker Analogy." It presupposes that there isn't an alternative explanation to design that can describe how things could be so intricate and complex (Darwinian Evolution provides that alternative explanation). I highly recommend Richard Dawkin's book "The Blind Watchmaker" for anyone wishing to dive deeper on the subject.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#458

Post by yieldcrv »

blendergeek wrote: post #21

This article fails to address that most true believers would not see any point to betting on the yes. If Christ returns this year, the world is done and there is no upside to having bet that he would. Temporal things (like prediction markets) will cease to be interesting when Christ returns. Given that, I highly doubt that the people betting yes actually believe that Christ will return this year.

In one prominent flavor of Christian lore, there would be 7 years where nothing happened except for the people that go missing during the rapture in an instant.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#459

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

freedomben wrote: post #433
hinkley wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t talk about this often but I took seminary classes. Where they tried to explain away the incongruities. It mostly stuck until it didn’t and then the whole mess of it tore itself apart with tremendous violence. If I hadn’t had a friend who was into social justice at the time to hold onto like flotsam after a ship sinks I don’t know if I would be here today.

It is amazing how rapidly the whole thing shimmies apart once the first domino starts to fall. For me it was Theodicy, and the backbending required to explain whose "free will" is to blame for hurricanes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters that kill hordes of innocent people (including children) every year.

It gets worse. Spend any time reading about psychology and it becomes obvious that the OT god ticks all the boxes for grandiose narcissistic personality disorder.

The OT god is an abuser who demands unconditional and unquestioning love and admiration and threatens disobedience with eternal torture. It's textbook.

The NT is more complex, but huge swathes of Christianity are still hypnotised by the OT. They like the idea of Jesus as an authority, but not so much the reality of the teachings.

Re: The Polymarket users betting on when Jesus will return

#460

Post by NickC25 »

ivape wrote: post #354
baobun wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So assumimg we have 1. Physical reality (e.g. how many years has earth existed) 2. Metaphysical reality (is there a creator? If so is your "soul" or life in any way relevant to them?) 3. Moral reality (Is killing other humans in cold blood justified by scripture? Are there such a thing as "Good" and "Evil"?) 4. Cultural reality (What do the people who raised you and otherwise influence you believe, local traditions a…

1) We can start with the fact that Historians believe Christ existed. 2) I can grant you he might have just been a harmless mentally ill person. 3) You must now grant me that we crucified someone for that. 4) The above is evil. There is your proof. If you need more, you can check out Nazism. 5) This mentally ill person was pretty adamant about the nature of sin. 6) At the very least , it’s worth considering if he mig…

>2) I can grant you he might have just been a harmless mentally ill person.

The same could be said for the "prophets" of any major religion. Muhammadﷻ (SWT) arguably went into a state of psychosis after the premature deaths of both of his sons. Joseph Smith, a local drunk in a small western NY town, said a magical rock in a hat that only he could see told him the garden of Eden was in St. Louis and that the native Americans weren't native Americans, but rather, the real original Israelites.

3) You must now grant me that we crucified someone for that.

Sure.

4) The above is evil. There is your proof. If you need more, you can check out Nazism.

Sure. However, some pretty fucked up stuff has been done in the names of God, Jesus, Allah, Muhammadﷻ (SWT), Israel, Buddha, and so on. Doesn't justify anything.

5) This mentally ill person was pretty adamant about the nature of sin.

So was MLK Jr. He got shot.

6) At the very least , it’s worth considering if he might have been right about a few things.

Sure. Which is why his message is also a cornerstone of Islam.

7) At the very least, one should be slightly freaked out that he actually existed and most likely died due the very reasons he suggested - that something is utterly wrong with humans.

It actually gives me reason to reject religion as a whole. If God made man in his own image, and man treats his fellow man with disdain, hatred, violence, etc, what does that say about God? If God was so perfect, why would he create beings that have free will to destroy the life of another? Paradoxical at best, a fallacy at worst.

Post reply on HN