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frankPodmore

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London-based writer. Often climbing.

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frankPodmore ,
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No. But physical proof is not the standard we use for determining someone's historical existence.

frankPodmore ,
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Dinosaurs aren't people.

frankPodmore , (edited )
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I agree with you that Jesus wasn't God, who doesn't exist, and that there were no miracles, which are impossible. However, this is not the same thing as saying that there's no evidence for the existence of Jesus, the Jewish apocalyptic preacher.

The earliest documents about Jesus, such as the Pauline Epistles, were written by people who knew people who knew him. In a mostly illiterate society 2,000 years ago, this is about as good as evidence gets. It's also the exact same kind of evidence as a journalist or researcher writing an account based on interviews with people. This was how, e.g, Herodotus wrote his histories. When Herodotus says 'A guy rode a dolphin once' we dismiss that. But we don't say 'The people in the Histories didn't exist, except those for whom there's physical evidence, which is about three of them, not including the author'. We do much the same with Jesus and the miracles.

If the Apostles had wanted, for some reason, to make up a guy, that would have been risky. Other people would have just said, 'That guy didn't exist'. If they had anyway decided to make up a guy, they'd have invented someone who actually fulfilled the Jewish propehcies of the Messiah, instead of inventing Jesus, who obviously didn't. This suggests they didn't invent him, which strengthens the plausibility of the evidence we do have.

A third way of looking at this is to ask if there are any comparable figures, religious founders from the historic era, who we now think were wholly made up in the way you're suggesting. But there aren't. The Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, Zoroaster - they all certainly existed. Indeed, I can't think of any figures form the time period who were actually imaginary.

frankPodmore , (edited )
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It's certainly possible that sayings of other people were later attributed to him, but to really make this case you'd need to have quotations that were attributed to multiple sources, including him, if you see what I mean. Absent that, it could be true, but there's no particular reason to believe it.

There are enough specific biographical details about Jesus of Nazareth to make it likely that there's a specific, real central figure. For example, the fact that he was from Nazareth was a problem for his early followers (it didn't match the Messianic prophecies), which is why they invented the odd story of the census, so that they could claim he'd been born in Bethlehem, the hometown of King David, from whom Jesus was supposedly descended. That seems unlikely to have happened if there hadn't been a real, central historical figure.

Also, none of the early non-Christian sources claim he wasn't real or that he was a composite, which they surely would have done if there was any doubt on the matter.

frankPodmore ,
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This is what He wanted.

frankPodmore ,
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Well, you've convinced me! What should I do, o wise one?

frankPodmore ,
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You cannot achieve any good by hurting people.

People are so convinced that if we're more cruel to criminals, they'll stop committing crimes, or if we're harsher to workers, we'll work harder, or if you're tough on border controls, immigrants will go away. It does not work and it cannot work.

frankPodmore ,
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🫡

frankPodmore ,
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This is a fair point, as far as it goes, and I'm happy to accept 'mass shooters curently engaged in a mass shooting' as an exception to the rule!

frankPodmore ,
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Very lame of me, but I'm really looking forward to the Conservatives losing the next British General Election.

frankPodmore ,
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It sounds like a dial tone to me, with a lot of fuzz. Could be a pager, as doctors used to use them a lot.

frankPodmore , (edited )
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Alright, music nerds, help me out: what was the 'lost chord'? It wasn't the one Paul described in the canteen scene!

EDIT: It also wasn't the Hard Day's Night chord, or the A Day in the Life (which is just E Major, anyway) chord, which would be the obvious ones.

frankPodmore ,
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Extra weird hang-up to have, because the films have always had English and American accents side-by-side, even though there's clearly no England or America!

Anyway, it's really no different to them calling their ships X-wings and Y-wings, even though they don't use our alphabet.

frankPodmore ,
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You're right and it's very weird, because it's not at all interesting to think of films this way. Basically, the form it takes is:

None of this film is real!

But... I knew that already? It's a film?

frankPodmore , (edited )
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I kinda think that if you can imagine a one-line fix to a plot hole, it isn't really a plot hole.

I remember someone insisting to me that there was this huge plot hole in the film of the Fellowship of the Ring, because Merry and Pippin don't get told about what Frodo and Sam are actually doing until the Council of Elrond, but still willingly run around risking life and limb to help them. Now, not only is this not a plot hole in itself (I'm pretty sure I'd help anyone fleeing a demonic horseman, just on principle, never mind if that person was my lifelong friend/cousin), it's also quite obvious that they could have been told everything offscreen. The audience didn't need to hear all that explanation again, five minutes after we first heard it.

A lot of plot holes people like to complain about are basically of this nature. 'Can you imagine a fix?' Yep, easily. 'Did the audience need to hear it?' Nope, because I could easily imagine it. 'Well, there you go, then.'

frankPodmore ,
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Sorry!

In the original cut they did use the Latin alphabet, so this is, incredibly, yet another thing George Lucas did to make the first film retroactively annoying.

frankPodmore ,
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I think it's a category error to think of people as having (or having to have) a purpose. We just are.

What are the most mindblowingly creative, inventive, or otherwise otherworldly albums you know of?

One of my favorite things to do while stoned is listen to albums that are really unique, artful, and/or jam packed with soul and energy, as in that head space music just hits completely differently and it just lends to me finding a deep love and appreciation for the art of music. What're some of your favorites?

frankPodmore ,
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Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.

I once got really stoned and fell asleep while listening to it on a loop. I had all these insane dreams where I was walking through a pitch black jungle. I could feel all this stuff, the different textures of plants, the ground under foot, animals brushing by in the night, but I couldn't see anything: a totally non-visual dream. It wasn't scary, just super weird. Never experienced anything like it before or since.

What happened to all the baddies you knew growing up?

I don't know if this is something people say in other countries, but in my country, there's this common cliché or "wisdom" where adults will assure you that the people who picked on you in environments like school will universally develop lives of hardship later on, one way or another getting into mayhem....

frankPodmore ,
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The serious psychos are in and out of jail. The ones who were just kinda dicks sometimes (which to be honest probably includes me) are basically okay. And why shouldn't we be? Being a dick when you're still learning to be a person shouldn't carry a life sentence of any kind.

frankPodmore ,
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He's number 15.

The War Doctor wasn't the Doctor because he abandoned the promise he made and the name along with it. So, Tennant was the 10th. He didn't fully regenerate that other time in the Meta-Crisis, so he was only/still 10. The Other Tennant is a human, not a Time Lord, and so not the Doctor. Plus, he lives in another universe. The Doctor's Daughter was also a clone and also not a new Doctor, because she wasn't the product of a regeneration.

Then we had Smith, Capaldi and Whittaker as 11, 12 and 13.

13 regenerated into 14 (Tennant again). Then the Bi-generation happened, which again wasn't a regeneration from 14's POV (same face, same personality), but was a full regeneration in that it produced a new Doctor, number 15.

So, they're only a new Doctor if they are a product of a full regeneration, who uses the name 'the Doctor', isn't a clone, is a Time Lord, and isn't a weird spin-off (I'm looking at you, Peter Cushing).

I'm not saying the above makes 'sense' outside of the Whoniverse, but I think it's a reasonably accurate summary of the official position!

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