I’ve been blocked from commenting on a Christian blog. Was I being a troll? Was I being offensive? No, actually it was the opposite.
Some guy called Nick Norelli writes a blog called “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth –
Study to show thyself approved unto God… (2 Tim. 2:15)”. Apparently Nick is only interested in study if it agrees with his point of view though. On April 6, he wrote a blog post called “Out of Touch with Reality“. Guess who is out of touch with reality? That’s right – me.
Nick wrote a blog post attacking my intelligence. “Mr. Reilly shows himself to be woefully out of touch with reality.” It wasn’t bad enough that he got his argument wrong, claiming that I had, in another discussion on another site (which, by the way, was a very civil debate on both sides) claimed that “all scholars” agreed with my position on the historicity of Jesus, something I had not done.
So I left a comment on Nick post defending myself.
That lead to a discussion with some of the folks who read Nick’s blog and I believe the discussion was civil and honest. True that some of Nick’s readers, like Nick himself, are very dismissive of anyone who disagrees with their position. Instead of debating facts or refuting my position by providing evidence, they prefer to say things like:
“… his arguments reflect a slanted type of scholarship that doesn’t accurately represent the data.”
“… your doubt that Jesus even existed renders you unfit for me to engage in such matters.” (That’s the great Nick himself speaking.)
“… you just don’t know what you’re talking about.” (That’s Nick again.)
“I’m not even willing to discuss your arguments with you let alone debate them.” (Nick, again.)
So, as you can see, typical Christian avoidance and insults. Instead of debating facts, they would rather insult your intelligence, your knowledge or, as Nick did, just end up blocking you from the discussion.
I’d like to remind you again that HE started it by writing a blog post insulting my mental state (“out of touch with reality”).
You weren’t trolling. You were being perfectly calm and rational. Saying to you ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about’ is pretty dodgy, but it’s par for the course in many online debates. But cutting you from the conversation is very dodgy. You were being perfectly polite.
Sounds very similar to a story that an online friend of mine had, so he started his own site for these types of discussions.
http://www.differhonestly.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26
I’m sorry you had to deal with such a jerk, Cam. Having read through the discussion myself, I wanted to spit on him, which the disadvantage of discussions on the internet I suppose 🙂 If he didn’t want to discuss the topic, he should have simply closed the debate. He clearly was insulting you, and his denial began as funny and ended as tragic. Hopefully we here are better conversation buddies for you!
Cameron-
If I were accused of out of touch with HIS reality, I would take it as a complement.
On the subject of the historical validity of Jesus, have you read any of the books by Timothy Freke? He and Peter Gandy have written “Jesus and the Lost Goddess”, “The Jesus Mysteries” and “The Laughing Jesus” each of which are very interesting reading. “The Jesus Mysteries” is the one that deals most directly with he Jesus myth, but I enjoyed them all.
Cheers!
C
Just more reading material concerning the historical presence, or lack there of, of jesus. More importantly, how he was a copy of many older solar messiahs.
Who Was Jesus – D.M. Murdock
Christ in Egypt – D.M. Murdock
The Christ Conspiracy – Acharya S
The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors – Kersey Graves