kronisk

As they say, horniness is the stepmother of invention.

Arguing that it’s informal logical fallacy is intentionally misleading.

Formally, perhaps, sure. I may have phrased that poorly. Let’s call it attempting to shut down discussion by appealing to academic credentials instead… had you appealed to the actual research backing the claim, I wouldn’t have had an issue with that.

we can use inductive reasoning

Well done Sherlock! And how useful all of this could have been if in fact we did not know the argument, but fortunately, both OPs claim and the claim of the authors are out in the open here.

Jesus Christ, how about countering his actual argument instead of this passive-aggressive appeal to authority? Anyone with actual experience in academia and/or expert knowledge of a subject can tell you there’s a lot of drivel that pass peer review, but more importantly, this is Lemmy, a place where people can discuss articles and other content posted to the platform regardless of academic credentials.

I agree with OP that the methodology described in the quote seems incredibly shaky and far-fetched. If you don’t agree, let’s hear why.

Well, Michelangelo got paid for painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as well. Who’s “they” and what’s your point?

But you can’t control people with that concept, because you can’t control the sun.

Oh, so Akhenaten couldn’t control people?

Which by the way is a town name that very often gets mispronounced by people who only read it in books.

It’s Διάδοχοι so rather Dee-AH-Do-©hee with accent on A, actually more like thee-AH-do-hee but that might sound a bit weird if you don’t have a feel for greek pronounciation. A small tip is that “i” is never pronounced as in “die” in greek but as “ee” (or as in “tin” if short).

Edit: I know modern greek, not ancient. The χ might have been more like a K (as the end of truck) in ancient times but I’m not sure. My suggestion above would be a lot closer to the correct pronunciation though.

Dee-AH-doh-kee like in ancient greek is probably what you want to use. Sorry for the confusion.

It’s really not, but please do explain your line of reasoning.

There are no pagans alive today?
Wew lad. Ignorant AF.

There are more or less well informed re-enactments perhaps, but the connection to the pagan traditions relevant here (no, not only roman, but western european polytheistic traditions) were essentially completely severed by christianisation, industrialisation and modernity. There are small pockets in eastern europe and northern scandinavia where some traditions survived, barely. (A convincing argument could be made that modernity and industrialisation actually was a harder blow to lingering remnants of folk beliefs than the conversion to christianity, but that’s a discussion for another day.) I am very familiar with the historical sources, european folk beliefs and various neo-pagan movements, so I’m not making this argument out of ignorance. You may still think I’m wrong of course.

Also why are you specifying only roman pagan? That’s completely non sensical.

I’m not actually, but look at the meme again. The context of this discussion is imagery of roman deities from the european renaissance.

It is blatantly obvious that a vast majority of the miracles and practices of Jesus was directly stolen from various pagan religions. Christmas trees, stockings, winter solstice celebrations…hel even the days of the week are stolen from various pagan religions.

Yes, and so what? The argument made about the Olympic ceremony in the meme is still confused and inaccurate.

Edit: and you seem to believe I’m a Christian; I’m not.

It’s not like the Christian appropriation of non-christian things just ended sometime before the high renaissance.

By that time, there were next to zero pagans left in western europe to appropriate from. The appropriation of pagan holidays and themes was mostly motivated by easing the conversion to christianity, so yes, it wasn’t really a thing after the conversion was complete. Local traditions and syncretism (saint worship etc) living on was mostly discouraged by the church so there is no appropriation argument to be made there either really.(The rest of the world is another issue; we’re talking pagan here, which specifically refers to european polytheistic traditions.)

I’d argue it’s ongoing.

Well, go ahead and argue. Isn’t the tendency of modern evangelicals rather to be scared out of their minds by any suggestion of heathendom, basically equating it to satanism? Jehovahs Witnesses for instance does not celebrate christmas for this very reason?

And even if Leonardo did not appropriate, the Christians now reacting with fury to the depiction of “their” last supper are appropriating.

Jan van Bijlert who painted Les Festin des Dieux was a christian… His depiction of Roman gods and entities are probably as accurate as The lion at Gripsholm Castle is to a real lion. And again, at the time there were no Roman Pagans alive to appropriate from, just as there are none today. You make no sense.

That’s a pretty poor excuse since the meme makes a statement presented as factual that falls apart upon scrutiny. Without this connection, the meme is nothing.

Secondly, the meme isn’t actually funny, it just validates the previously held beliefs of this community. There is no joke, just a poorly argued “gotcha”. Validation feels good, but it’s not actually humor even if the two is often confused.

This meme is just confused. The Feast of the Gods motif would be familiar to da Vinci and whether it was deliberately referenced or perhaps just a visual convention of how to portray a feast, and who influenced who are questions best asked to an art historian specialized on the time period. But ultimately it doesn’t really matter - da Vinci’s The Last Supper is one of the most iconic images in history and it’s not strange that people watching makes the connection, I certainly did even if I also got the reference to Les Festin des Dieux. Of course the idea that the ceremony mocks Jesus or whatever is a hysterical reaction, but that’s American evangelicals for you.

Connecting this to christian adaptation of Pagan holidays and motifs, however, is farfetched and ahistorical. The Last Supper is a painting, Leonardo is not the christian church. Leonardo was active during the high renaissance, a time when the ideas and imagery of (mostly pagan) Antiquity was reintroduced into christian europe. References to pagan rome and greece was à la mode in art.

It’s on my list, and it’s a bit higher up now because of your comment…thanks for the recommendation(?).

Obra Dinn is such a unique experience, a shame (though unavoidable) that there is zero replay value though. My jaw literally dropped a few times during that game.

Well, there’s a difference between democrats not having any power because of a coup or because R did their politics so well…I’m not defending this interpretation btw, but you asked.

Fair point, but I would argue that if you had that kind of experience on twitter, you’re weren’t really the target demographic.

Desperate and out of touch, yes, but deliberately fucking up a platform and ruining his “Iron Man” persona? He’s too stupid and too invested in what people think of him.

There’s a version of this conspiracy I could buy though: the Saudis gave him money and stroked his ego knowing that there was no way he wouldn’t fuck the whole thing up. Everyone except him knew how this was going to end. That conspiracy I could get behind.

Well, since he’s talking specifically to christians, in the context that he wants all christians to vote: he could have meant that he will fix all their concerns during his term – no more abortions, “christian values” in school, etc – so that next election, they don’t have to worry anymore. Just come out and vote this time, he’ll fix America so good that the liberals can’t even undo it if they win the next one (but they won’t, because everyone will be happy in this new golden age).

I don’t buy this conspiracy theory at all, 1) twitter is disinformation heaven, which is very useful to authoritarian regimes and 2) Musky would never intentionally do anything to harm his public image, he’s a textbook narcissist after all.

“I hate that site, I hope someone Musks it up soon”

Favourite Amiga games: Secret of Monkey Island 1&2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Rick Dangerous 1&2, Pirates!, Flashback, Lemmings, Eye of the Beholder…just off the top of my head

Favourite now: The Witness, Braid, Portal, Obra Dinn, Papers Please, Fez, Talos Principle, BoTW, The Last Door…etc.