The Upper Room

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12:43 PM

@Caleb Do you think the interest question is not a dupe of the older one?

@curiousdannii Probably. I got distracted about the time I was reviewing that.

@ThaddeusB Not sure about that one. First, we don't have any Able questions. Second there are a lot of things that could come up related to Cain that aren't related to Able at all.

3 hours later…

ThaddeusB

3:20 PM

@Caleb I was thinking that many/most of the questions are about the story of Cain and Abel and it feels odd to tag them "cain". The usage instructions could make it clear that a question about Cain only is fine... I'll probably make a meta post on it to gauge what others think.

Caleb

@ThaddeusB A meta post is fine, but I'd be inclined to see what questions crop up that have a need for something other than what we have. We can't make up tags without questions anyway, but I could see us ending up with curse-of-cain or something like that before much comes up about Able.

Bear in a Studebaker

3:55 PM

@curiousdannii @Caleb Looks like I didn't read the comments when I voted to reopen. I've voted to close again. Sorry about that.

2 hours later…

fredsbend

6:19 PM

@ThaddeusB Except Alexander the Great personally conquered the known world, named cities after himself, and forced vassals to pay tribute to Greece. Not a good example with Jesus, who apparently annoyed some people in a backwoods Roman province and got himself killed. If Alexander didn't exist, then there would have to be a secret cabal working to conquer the world consisting of not a single person desiring to seize the glory for himself. Doubtful.

Jesus on the other hand, did seemingly create a cabal of people willing to put the cause before themselves, willingly giving all the glory to Jesus, whether real or not, whether living or not.

The Christ myth theory is unlikely, but among well-known ancient figures, he's a little more likely to be fiction.

@LeeWoofenden I think it's more a matter of intellectual laze. They don't want to believe, which is fine and is their choice, but the easiest way to dismiss it is to completely deny the premise.

"It's all based on bull crap!" and so forth.

Lee Woofenden

@fredsbend That's why I put "doctrinal" in quotes. ;-)

fredsbend

I guess you're right. I was reading into what you wrote.

ThaddeusB

6:38 PM

@fredsbend Except we know a person named Alexander did such things largely because of the written works about him, which come from hundreds of years later. Alexander could "easily" be a composite figure created by combining the real exploits of several different rulers. That a city is named Alexandria, just suggests that someone was named Alexander at some point in history, not necessarily that "Alexander the Great" conquered many lands...

El'endia Starman

@ThaddeusB There were multiple cities named Alexandria, though. Something like 11, if I recall correctly.

ThaddeusB

Of course the idea that Alexander the Great is entirely made up is non-sense, just as the idea that Jesus is entirely made up is non-sense. Neither hypothesis warrants serious discussion - maybe Alexander is less likely to be a wholesale invention but you are talking about 1000:1 vs. 10,000:1, or something like that.

@El'endiaStarman So Alexander was a common name and the cities were unrelated... later people noticed the similar name and invented a figure to explain them. ;)

Lee Woofenden

@ThaddeusB Of course, everything "out there" could just be a product of our mind and imagination:

Idealism

In philosophy, idealism is the group of philosophies which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing. In a sociological sense, idealism emphasizes how human ideas—especially beliefs and values—shape society. As an ontological doctrine, idealism goes further, asserting that all entities are composed of mind or spirit. Idealism thus rejects physicalist and dualist theories that fail to ascribe priority to...

@ThaddeusB That's obviously what happened!!!!!!!

ThaddeusB

alvoutila

http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/33742/refuting-false-claim-about-the-catholic-church-in-the-medieval-ages/33766#33766
Relating to this I have following question: Does to the following holds true; common folk had possibility to read psalms in the lingua franca( common language between church and common folk) starting from year 1000 in Europe?

I mean is this offtopic? comments?

ThaddeusB

7:16 PM

@alvoutila Are you asking if a new question (something like "Did common Europeans have the possibility to read the Psalms in a common spoken language starting in 1000?") would be on-topic?

alvoutila

@ThaddeusB I think that I'd like to ask that did common folk have possibility to read psalms in common language starting in 1000 in Europe. I think in case of Africa answer would be no, or what?

alvoutila

7:34 PM

answer to your question is yes-

ThaddeusB

7:59 PM

@alvoutila I just wasn't clear if you were asking about whether a new question would be on-topic or were asking something about the old question... Yes, I think it should be on-topic as a history of Christianity question. But, make sure to explain why you are asking as otherwise people may think it is not really a "Christianity question" but a "pure history" question.

3 hours later…

Ask Elisha

11:06 PM

Q: Did ordinary(uneducated) citizens consider crusades a failure?

Did ordinary people (non noble, non-clergy, non-participants) view the crusades as a failure, and did the Catholic church lose reputation/prestige because of them? (Obviously the first would have been considered a success, so this question only applies to later crusades).