Talking with Bill Zuersher and his book Seeing through Christianity

Talking with Bill Zuersher and his book “Seeing through Christianity: A Critique of Beliefs and Evidence” damienmarieathope.com/2018/03/...
Damien Marie AtHope (axiological atheist) damienmarieathope.com/
I am an Axiological Atheist, with a Rationalist Persuasion, who Supports Anarcho-Humanism: damienmarieathope.com/2018/01/...
Axiological Atheism can be thought to involve ethical/value theory reasoned and moral argument-driven apatheism, ignosticism, atheism, anti-theism, anti-religionism, secularism, and humanism. Roughly understood axiological atheism = Strong Disbelief as well as Strong Secularism and Humanism.
Axiological Atheism Explained: damienmarieathope.com/2015/10/...
Here is my blog on the evolution of religion and the memes used are my art: damienmarieathope.com/2018/01/...
Damien Marie AtHope ("At Hope") Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.
I AM interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman's Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ableism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, "Anarcho-Humanist.”
I am an (Axiological Atheist) a far-leftist, "Anarcho-Humanist.” Also an atheist-humanist philosopher & pre-historical writer/researcher at damienmarieathope.com
Damien webpage: damienmarieathope.com/
Damien blog: damienmarieathope.com/blog/
Damien Marie AtHope's Prehistory Knowledge: Art, Blog Posts, and videos
damienmarieathope.com/2021/11...

[@warrensmith8161]

Have you considered how the invention of writing may have influenced the development of religion? When you think about it, writing is the closest man gets to real magic. Someone can read a book that they know is fictional but still cry when a key character is killed. In some part of our brain that fictional character is real to us. The opening lines of the Gospel of John state clearly that "...the Word was God..." and the Sefer Yetzirah links letters of the Hebrew alphabet to the creation. (I consider the opening lines of the Gospel of John to be an allegoric interpretation of the opening lines of Genesis and this served as a deliberate allusion to the works of Philo of Alexandria.) A "world" created on a written page would also have four corners. In writing, everything is possible. If you wanted to create a "man" by writing on a Sumerian clay tablet, he would literally be made from "dust". In allegory there is also a "dualism" in which "eternal life" can be found in the literal words, while the true truth (or "evil") can be hidden underneath. “In the name of the Graces, what an almighty wise man Protagoras must have been! He spoke these things in a parable to the common herd, like you and me, but told the truth, his Truth, in secret to his own disciples.” From Plato’s Theaetetus

[@billzuersher2135]

The advent of writing was critically important. Controlling, or even guiding, large groups of people requires shared beliefs. Many of these shared beliefs are social constructs, that is, fictions we all agree on (and then typically forget they are fictions). This includes notions of nationality, of kingship, and of a divine intention for humans. Writing facilitates the dissemination of these social constructs. Of course, we must remember that literacy was exceptional until recently. In Roman Palestine, even among the Jews, explicitly “people of the book,” the literacy rate is estimated to have been 10% at most. Literacy really exploded with the printing press, whose invention coincided nicely with the Protestant Reformation, which encouraged reading the (now far more accessible) Christian Bible.