Ron Maimon

592 reputation

bio	website
	location	New York City
	age	39
visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
	seen	May 17 at 6:19
stats	profile views	615

A Christian would probably say I'm an atheist, and an atheist would say I am religious. I read the new testament, and much of the old-testament. I also translated a few old-testament books from Hebrew to English.

I find Bible literalism repugnant. God doesn't ask you to lie about physics, biology, or history, nor about the textual history of the Biblical texts.

I like Christian theology because I think it is the most progressive of all the old-world religious systems. I am very impressed with the way that Christians can denounce bad past practices, while keeping the core message alive.

	592 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	1 year, 5 months
28 badges		location	New York City		seen	May 17 at 6:19

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Jan 16	revised	What scholarship exists behind the WikiSource translation of the Bible? Hofstadter
Jan 16	revised	What scholarship exists behind the WikiSource translation of the Bible? expand
Jan 16	answered	What scholarship exists behind the WikiSource translation of the Bible?
Jan 16	answered	Should “Jesus” be rendered “Yeshu‘a” in English?
Jan 16	comment	Does Genesis 9:5 say that God holds animals accountable for killing humans? @Caleb: I don't like these translations--- they take the word "evakesh" and deconstruct it as "demand a reckoning", when it means "ask for" as in "ask for it back". The reason I did a translation is to avoid unnecessary verbiage which wrecks the reading flow.
Jan 15	comment	Does Genesis 9:5 say that God holds animals accountable for killing humans? @wax eagle: Done, thanks. I did the original on a phone, this is why it was basically just a link.
Jan 15	comment	Are there Biblical reasons why a Christian should not believe that Global Warming is happening @David: Likewise--- I was a bit touchy, I guess.
Jan 15	comment	Was Onan really struck dead by God for masturbating? @Affable Geek: I did the Wikisource translation, so I know what's in it, and I can vouch for its accuracy. Other translations tend to disguise Priestly's dippy repetitive writing by writing a better translation than the original. They also tend to mistranslate stuff (although KJ is exceptionally good in this regard). I kept Aramaic inflected Hebrew noticible, I used the same translation for the same word wherever possible, and I tried to match syllable count and meter, where relevant. The reason that blood is worse than anything else is because the blood is the seat of the soul, as quoted.
Jan 15	comment	Are there Biblical reasons why a Christian should not believe that Global Warming is happening @David: Where did I tell you to shut up? You opened a meta-thread regarding this answer, which comes with the relevant passage quoted directly from the Bible, claiming it is a poor answer because it is unsupported.
Jan 15	comment	Are there Biblical reasons why a Christian should not believe that Global Warming is happening @David Stratton: Stop trying to censor me. If you don't like the answer, downvote it! The passage global warming deniers use, and anti-environmentalists in general, use is this one. I have no interest in your censorship guidelines. Stackexchange has the voting mechanism to deal with unpopular answers, there is no need of a second mechanism.
Jan 15	answered	Who wrote the book of Genesis?
Jan 15	comment	Who wrote the book of Genesis? Yahweh Eloheinu is not used anywhere in the Pentateuch. Yahweh Elohim is used in Genesis 2 exclusively, to introduce the Yahwist narrative, to identify Yahweh as "Elohim", as God.
Jan 15	answered	Was Onan really struck dead by God for masturbating?
Jan 15	awarded	Citizen Patrol
Jan 15	revised	Does Genesis 9:5 say that God holds animals accountable for killing humans? link
Jan 15	answered	Are there Biblical reasons why a Christian should not believe that Global Warming is happening
Jan 14	answered	Does Genesis 9:5 say that God holds animals accountable for killing humans?
Jan 13	comment	Is Christmas biblical? @Narnian: Not everything is true--- slavery is false. Within religion, truth is spiritual, and one can believe divergent doctrines, and thus try to understand the range of human experience. Jesus is the eternal son of God, and that this is a valid tradition, worthy of study and respect. But at the same time the Jewish position is worthy, and the Muslim, and the Buddhist meditation tradition, and the Pagan tradition of solstice celebration and Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night Dream. You don't have to reject Shakespeare to appreciate Joyce, or Exodus, or John, all these speak eternal truths.
Jan 12	comment	Is Christmas biblical? @Narnian: There is a huge difference between asserting that Christianity is true and asserting that other religions are false.
Jan 12	awarded	Revival