I am an intransigent atheist, but not a militant one. This means that I am an uncompromising advocate of reason and that I am fighting for reason, not against religion. I must also mention that I do respect religion in its philosophical aspects, in the sense that it represents an early form of philosophy.
Philosophers have played a game going way back where they believe that popular religion comes in handy as a fiction for keeping the mob in line, but they view themselves as god-optional. The philosophes in the Enlightenment started the experiment of letting the mob in on the truth, and the experiment has apparently gone so far in parts of Europe like Estonia that some populations have lost familiarity with christian beliefs, or even how to pronounce Jesus’ name in their own language. Or so Phil Zuckerman claims:
The mob is pretty well educated these days, and the standard of living is so high that there’s much less incentive to step out of line. I don’t think we can compare modern nations to historical nations to make any claim about whether religion keeps people in line.
The claim that people can’t pronounce Jesus’ name might apply to former Soviet Union countries, but I doubt it applies anywhere else in Europe.
We don’t know that. It was likely some variant of the name commonly translated as “Joshua” in English. It could have been Yeshua or Yehoshua or a variety of slightly Aramacized variants of that.
Ayn Rand, to a Catholic Priest.
Philosophers have played a game going way back where they believe that popular religion comes in handy as a fiction for keeping the mob in line, but they view themselves as god-optional. The philosophes in the Enlightenment started the experiment of letting the mob in on the truth, and the experiment has apparently gone so far in parts of Europe like Estonia that some populations have lost familiarity with christian beliefs, or even how to pronounce Jesus’ name in their own language. Or so Phil Zuckerman claims:
https://books.google.com/books?id=C-glNscSpiUC&lpg=PP1&dq=phil%20zuckerman&pg=PA96#v=onepage&q=estonia&f=false
The mob is pretty well educated these days, and the standard of living is so high that there’s much less incentive to step out of line. I don’t think we can compare modern nations to historical nations to make any claim about whether religion keeps people in line.
The claim that people can’t pronounce Jesus’ name might apply to former Soviet Union countries, but I doubt it applies anywhere else in Europe.
Do you know that Jesus’s actual name is Yeshua?
We don’t know that. It was likely some variant of the name commonly translated as “Joshua” in English. It could have been Yeshua or Yehoshua or a variety of slightly Aramacized variants of that.
But English language’s “Jesus” is still far off.
Sure, but I fail to see how that’s relevant to the point in question.
“some populations have lost familiarity with christian beliefs, or even how to pronounce Jesus’ name in their own language.”