The Conservatives have claimed Good Friday

There appears to have been on this thread, a general consensus of opinion that the existence of God and Jesus, or the existence of any god for that matter, can be neither proved or disproved Whitewavemark

Agedp1953

PippaZ
As a repost to Pulman I would quote Lewis.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.[15]

That is not a repost - it's an interesting addition. I found the man fascinating when he was interviewed a year or so ago (that means it's probably three as time goes so fast) He seems to be saying he believes he is the Son of God in spite of himself!

PippaZ
As to Jesus name, yes Joshua will do, Yeshua will do. As Shakespeare said “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

Whitewavemark2

As a humanist I find it puzzling. There are (apparently) historic records to show that Buddha, Jesus and Mohammed existed.

How does one distinguish between them and decide who is the real spiritual leader?

It's faith, isn't it Whitewave. I doubt that all the people who follow these spiritual leaders actually all believe in exactly the same thing

PippaZ
I am unsure of who you are talking about now. Lewis died many ago so I suppose it must therefore be Pulman.
If so it doesn’t make sense that Jesus would believe he was the Son of God in spite of himself. Have you actually read the New Testament?

janeainsworth

I’ll just leave this here.....perhaps we should leave the politicians to their dirty point scoring and cultural appropriation and let them get on with it.

Yet another poster who has completely missed the point.

Agedp1953

PippaZ
I am unsure of who you are talking about now. Lewis died many ago so I suppose it must therefore be Pulman.
If so it doesn’t make sense that Jesus would believe he was the Son of God in spite of himself. Have you actually read the New Testament?

Do you know Agedp, although this has been a difficult thread and not particularly friendly, it has generally - only generally, been polite. It's a shame it couldn't continue. Sarcasm needs to be very clever to be effective.

Oh the tyranny of sensitivity. Actually it wasn’t sarcasm just an interesting addition.

It was simply an acknowledgement that it is a day regarded as special by Christians.

Cannot agree more GrannyRose15 so as Christians who regard it as special leave us to it instead of dissecting it bit by bit if you don't believe then your choice Good Friday and Easter is sacred to some of us and always will be.

GrannyGravy13

Do you find these from Twitter by the Labour Party, Liberal and Greens offensive also?

Well said granny gravy. What they are wanting to do is acknowledge days and festivals that they know their supporters and constituents feel are special. It should not be seen as offensive at all, especially as all parties seem to do it.

I'm not sure having, or attempting to have the last word makes you right GrannyRose. Those showing generalised spring pictures wishing a Happy Easter where acknowledging Easter is special - probably to us all in different ways. The Conservative one was completely different and, even if you don't feel insulted others obviously do.

I am not sure how often this has to be repeated for you to realise it is not about how you feel. I think we have got that message. It is about the offense it gave to others and the simple lack of knowledge in producing something like that. Other people's feelings will not change however often your give them your opinion; they have their own.

What I do find shocking is that you cannot see it might upset some people.

where were

Agedp1953 refers to the efficacy of eyewitnesses, which I believe you cannot trust implicitly.

Some of you may remember the shooting by police of Jean Charles de Menezes on the London underground in 2005. This man was believed to be a fugitive involved with previous bombing attempts. I was at home that day when the news came in and i listened to the story unfolding. The news teams were interviewing eyewitnesses at the station.

It transpired that Mr de Meneze walked into the station, picked up a free newspaper and used his oyster card to go through the barriers. One eyewitness said Mr de Meneze leapt over the barriers, another said he had explosives around his body, others said that the police challenged him. It later transpired that a policeman had leapt the barriers and that Mr de Meneze had not been challenged.

You can see from the above and the subsequent investigations that people believed they saw something, which in fact they didn't and that accounts between eyewitnesses vary.

Given that 2000 years have elapsed since the birth of Jesus, the delays in writing the gospels, omissions, changes made because some people disagreed with or did not like what was written, errors in translation, printing errors, how can anyone be sure that what they are reading in the Bible is truly accurate?

That's how I saw it too Grannyrose and 3nanny and what I find shocking is that those who did not find it offensive, are being derided for having a different point of view. Especially when some of those are Christians and Easter is such an important time of the year.

"How can anyone be sure that what they are reading in the Bible is truly accurate?" I can only answer for myself Dinahmo and for me it is my faith.

Dinahmo.
My only answer to your question is that I have read all the witness statements and read the corroborating evidence and believe it to be true.
Like any jury it is up to you to make your own mind up. However I would ask that you look at all the evidence first and then make a considered judgement before coming to a decision.

...what I find shocking is that those who did not find it offensive, are being derided for having a different point of view.

That is simply not true. The comments have not been that anyone thinks you should find it shocking - that is up to you - but that you do not seem to accept that other people may. Earlier in the thread some even went so far as to express doubt about the honesty of those who said they felt it was insulting. That is shocking. The fact that those calling themselves Christians could not even express sympathy for others point of view was truly revealing. Mahatma Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” He is not the only one to think that.

Agedp1953

Dinahmo.
My only answer to your question is that I have read all the witness statements and read the corroborating evidence and believe it to be true.
Like any jury it is up to you to make your own mind up. However I would ask that you look at all the evidence first and then make a considered judgement before coming to a decision.

But actually, no one needs to and, in reality, very few do. It has been obvious from some of the posts on here that some do not take "all the evidence" but just what is put before them. They still have their faith and may well be living by it, possibly more than those with greater knowledge, possibly not. One thing that is noticeable about declared Christians (or rather those who keep declaring the fact) is just how judgemental they are of others and how hypocritical. Love they neighbour Christians say and yet the behaviour on GN often belies any attempt to do that - it's just the opposite. So why tell someone they should understand before they make a decision when we see the way those, who say they understand, behave towards others. Why would they want to do that?

I dont feel GN is a very loving place either!

Ideally GN-ers would accept that others are allowed their own thoughts and feelings and don't try to invalidate them or police what they are "allowed" to say!

The conservatives (or anyone) can claim anything- but it doesn't make it theirs or about them. Easter is Easter, just like it always has been. It doesn't belong to the conservatives (it never has and it never will!)

GransNet hasn’t been a nice place for sometime, hence the loss of many posters who were here from the start.

That's sad Anniebach, sorry to hear that. I only joined a few months ago. It's not a positive place! I want to leave and can't figure out how.

We are only allowed our opinion if it fits with the anti-Conservative rhetoric which has taken over the N & P threads so much so that they are now effectively an echo chamber.

I don't care who did or didn't find it offensive.

What I care about is that there is a government minister attempting to try to associate his party with a religious festival. He's not wishing anyone "Happy Whatever", he's not saying how he understands the solemnity of the day. He's just saying "This day that has so much significance is associated with us." I don't expect anybody thinks it is, but it's all about the Conservatives, not the religion. In particular Zadawi, not even the party. The party has more sense.

* It's not a positive place! I want to leave and can't figure out how.*

How to leave? Just don't post anymore. it is not a club.

OnwardandUpward it is so sad and I am sorry you didn’t know GransNet as it use to be . There are still some really nice posters but far from the number there use to be. You will find which threads to avoid if you feel bullied or upset. Hope you stay and find how friendly some posters are .