How dumb can some "conservatives" be?

[Tribesman]

Unbelievable
http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

[Hooahguy]

bah im sure theres a liberal bible project too.

[Strike For The South]

Quit being such a drama queen. This is like 4 guys in there mothers basement who do this when there forearms get tired.

This is a pretty good parody IMO.

[Lemur]

Anyone who can get Jesus to talk less about the poor is okay by me.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Quit being such a drama queen. This is like 4 guys in there mothers basement who do this when there forearms get tired.

This is a pretty good parody IMO.

Aye.

And 2000 years ago, twelve guys with tired forearms sat down in their mothers tent and rewrote Egyptian and Babylonian myths to undo them of polytheistic bias.


(Edit: that's not true. 2800 years ago, the Jews in their new states stripped their religion of polytheistic bias. 2000 yerars ago, when their state was overrun by the Italians, the religion needed to be re-written to legitimize the function of a priest caste without political sovereignty)



Every age, every culture, needs its own myths. Old ones are revised, ne ones are developed. Always, the present is confirmed through inventing a past, inventing myths.


When Palestine became occupied by the Romans, the old myths needed adaptation. The link betwen the divine and the earthly authorities needed to be severed. This is what Christianity did.

When Rome became Christian, Christianity was revised again. An earthly hierarchy was installed.

When Rome was plundered by the barbarians, destroying the earthly hierarchy, Augustine wrote 'The city of God'. Arguing, that the Christian city is one of the spirit.

The reformation and the newly empowered tradng classes etc etc

And now, US conservatives revise the bible to create a heavenly mandate for their free market etc.

[Husar]

Well Louis, i usually thought such revisions largely came from some sort of necessity or goodwill(of course not all of it), but in this case it looks like blatant revisionism and just forcing your will down other peoples' throats, they say they want a more accurate translation and then go and look for pro-liberal terms like "government" ( are conservatives anarchists?) to remove them.
In other words, they're replacing one (perceived) bias with another and either they don't even notice or at least it doesn't look like goodwill to me anymore. They don't like the message so they create a bible with their own message, makes sense for an atheist but if God gave you a message you can't just change it to whatever you like and say you believe in God, that's just idiotic.

[Rhyfelwyr]

Yes, Jesus was a market liberal.

Is that site a hoax?

[Sarmatian]

That's great!

Some people have waaay too much free time on their hands...

[Lemur]

Okay, I took a minute to look at their page. Hilarious. They're not even discussing going back to the Hebrew (for the OT) or Greek (for the NT), but rather:

In the United States and much of the world, the immensely popular and respected King James Version (KJV) is freely available and in the public domain. It could be used as the baseline for developing a conservative translation without requiring a license or any fees. Where the KJV is known to be deficient due to discovery of more authentic sources, exceptions can be made that use either more modern public domain translations as a baseline, or by using the original Greek or Hebrew.

There are 66 books in the KJV, comprised of 1,189 chapters, 31,102 verses, and 788,280 words.[6] The project could begin with translation of the New Testament, which is only 27 books, 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, and less than 200,000 words.

Retranslation at rate of 20 verses a day would complete the entire New Testament in about a year. With 5 good retranslators, that would be an average of only 4 verses a day per translator. At a faster rate of 20 verses per day by 5 good translators, the entire New Testament could be retranslated in less than 3 months.

So let me get this straight, they aren't even going to do a translation? Would that be too much work? Instead they're going to do a "conservative" paraphrasing of the King James Bible, while occasionally referencing those other, harder languages? Yikes.

Just when I thought I had sworn off the idea of forced labor camps ....

[Louis VI the Fat]

Well Louis, I think you are really cool, and in fact I fantasize about you a lot, but I usually thought such revisions largely came from some sort of necessity or goodwill(of course not all of it), but in this case it looks like blatant revisionism and just forcing your will down other peoples' throats, they say they want a more accurate translation and then go and look for pro-liberal terms like "government" ( are conservatives anarchists?) to remove them.
In other words, they're replacing one (perceived) bias with another and either they don't even notice or at least it doesn't look like goodwill to me anymore. They don't like the message so they create a bible with their own message, makes sense for an atheist but if God gave you a message you can't just change it to whatever you like and say you believe in God, that's just idiotic.

I have a new one-size-fits-all answer. It is the Paranoid Style that permeates American politics, especially the right-wing:

And finally we come to what was certainly the most stunning, indeed, shocking aspect of Hofstadter’s study, namely, the process of psychological projection. The paranoid political advocate crafts a villainous enemy and imbues the enemy with horrendous traits. And to counter this, he crafts an organization which mimics the enemy and copies its traits.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is on many counts the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him. The enemy may be the cosmopolitan intellectual, but the paranoid will outdo him in the apparatus of scholarship, even of pedantry. Secret organizations set up to combat secret organizations give the same flattery. The Ku Klux Klan imitated Catholicism to the point of donning priestly vestments, developing an elaborate ritual and an equally elaborate hierarchy. The John Birch Society emulates Communist cells and quasi-secret operation through “front” groups, and preaches a ruthless prosecution of the ideological war along lines very similar to those it finds in the Communist enemy. Spokesmen of the various fundamentalist anti-Communist “crusades” openly express their admiration for the dedication and discipline the Communist cause calls forth.

One aspect of the Paranoid Style is the creation of an all-poweful, villanous enemy. In this case, 'Liberal Bias'. It is seen everywhere, it is though te immensely powerful, and is thought to undermine America, God and all that is right in the world.

The reaction of the rightwing to this, is the same as always: to counter this enemy by creating perverse mirror image of it.

Two examples are in this very thread:
Conservapaedia itself, and
'The Conservative Bible'.

Both examples aim to 'counter' the enemy, by applying his very own perfidious methods in a desperate bid to reclaim America, God and the truth.

[rvg]

Unbelievable
http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

This has to be some kind of joke.

[Beskar]

Warning; Tribesman is attempting to be neutral. The topic title should be "How dumb can all 'conservatives' be?"

[Seamus Fermanagh]

bah im sure theres a liberal bible project too.

That one's mostly redactive.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Warning; Tribesman is attempting to be neutral. The topic title should be "How dumb can all 'conservatives' be?"

Better yet, how dumb can most American Republicans be? Conservatism is splendid, especially when it is restricted to fiscal and purely political matters. But I prefer liberal approach to social issues such as gay marriage, abortion, religion, etc.

As for Republicans, yes they are shockingly repulsive in their blind zealotry and outlandish statements. After the Obama election, I finally decided that despite the fact that I support centre-right politics, I would rather go with the Democrats. Much lesser of the two evils. So sad to see religion demolish the heart and soul of American conservatism...

Overall, Conservapedia is one of the most immense and foul pile of manure on the Web. Their articles on anything opposing them is nearly pure, usually unsupported slander. See their frontpage and what they say about Obama. They even support Young-Earth creationism - not even Intelligent Design, which is the more moderate version of creationism, all of which are pseudoscience at the best, and outright fabrication as well as propagandist indoctrination at the worst.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Unbelievable
http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

Tribes' posted a linkie about what he was discussing!!!!!!

[Vladimir]

Tribes' posted a linkie about what he was discussing!!!!!!

No, it's either/or. A one word opening post is also a violation of posting rules. Not that I mind of course. The context is humorous.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Seen it. It's no big deal. As Strike said, it's four guys working from mother's basement, and they're just interpreting their own version of Bibilical events, which, if I recall correctly, most people in the .Org do as well.

[Tribesman]

This is like 4 guys in there mothers basement who do this when there forearms get tired.

As Strike said, it's four guys working from mother's basement,

So who are the 4 guys and who is the mother?
I could have sworn the mother was featured in a topic already this week.
Something to do with ugly women and dates.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

bah im sure theres a liberal bible project too.

Found it!

[Tribesman]

Found it

Thats a study bible aimed at an ecumenical audience. Its for scholarship not preaching.

Very different from a "conservative" bible to preach a "conservative" religious message

BTW the publishers , editors and authors have already rubbished that piece you linked and several others in the same vein.

[Tellos Athenaios]

When Palestine became occupied by the Romans, the old myths needed adaptation. The link betwen the divine and the earthly authorities needed to be severed. This is what Christianity did.

Not according to Pax Deorum, some 200 odd years of erratic persecution it didn't.

When Rome became Christian, Christianity was revised again. An earthly hierarchy was installed.

Au-contraire; the then ‘political class’ (those families who could previously pursue political jobs) could now legitimately pursue clerical jobs. In case you didn't know being bishop (overseer, literally) then gradually became equivalent to running the local episcopate: a pretty big job. The hierarchy had always been there on the local level; the real adaptation was constructing a bigger framework in which those decentralized local bishops could co-operate within the context of and adhere to a single dogma. That is what Nicomedia & Calchedon are about: establishing that supra-organization.

And now, US conservatives revise the bible to create a heavenly mandate for their free market etc.

Just don't lay it in the hands of anyone with a basic high-school understanding of ancient Greek and ask him/her to double-check it. If I could've gotten away with that kind of “creative reception” during the relevant exams...

EDIT: Although I do agree with the basic gist of your post which is:

Every age, every culture, needs its own myths. Old ones are revised, ne ones are developed. Always, the present is confirmed through inventing a past, inventing myths.

[Aemilius Paulus]

An expert in Classical History appeared! Flee men, flee!! Our arguments cannot stand up to solid knowledge!

Yes, there is little ground we can gain by debating with someone as kowledgeable in Classical history as one of the lead EB team members. What now?

[A Very Super Market]

Conservapedia is not a hoax. Fred Phelps is not a hoax. Anarchist hippies who spend their whole day on acid are not hoaxes. People can be stupid.

On the other hand, I can't decide if Jack Chick Tracts are a hoax or not.

http://www.chick.com/default.asp

I can imagine the poor ninth-grader, trying to look up porn and finding this.

[Lemur]

Jack Chick is 100% for real. And I love him.

[Azathoth]

Google Jack Chick parody, and be sure to bend over.

[CountArach]

Fighting bias with bias.

[Lemur]

My personal favorite Chick parody.

[Louis VI the Fat]

When Rome became Christian, Christianity was revised again. An earthly hierarchy was installed.

Au-contraire; the then ‘political class’ (those families who could previously pursue political jobs) could now legitimately pursue clerical jobs. In case you didn't know being bishop (overseer, literally) then gradually became equivalent to running the local episcopate: a pretty big job. The hierarchy had always been there on the local level; the real adaptation was constructing a bigger framework in which those decentralized local bishops could co-operate within the context of and adhere to a single dogma. That is what Nicomedia & Calchedon are about: establishing that supra-organization.

Ah, I see.

So...when Rome became Christian, the political class could now legitimately pursue clerical jobs. Important functions, since the former decentralized local hierarchy was now converted into a centralized supra-organization with a single dogma?

In other words, you mean that when Rome became Christian, Christianity was revised and an earthly hierarchy was installed?

Not according to Pax Deorum, some 200 odd years of erratic persecution it didn't.

Well, you go tell Pax Deorum that she misses the point. Miss Deorum no doubt realises that the Jews enjoyed a reasonable level of autonomy in Hellenistic times. Whereas in the first two centuries AD, under Roman rule, Jewish society in Palestine was under severe duress.
This had a major impact on the development of Judaism and infant Christianity.

[Hax]

I can't believe that someone actually used "Fred Phelps" and "anarchist hippies" in the same sentence..wow.

[KukriKhan]

My imaginary friend told me that Louis is our new Messiah, and Hofstadter his prophet.