Bloody New Atheists!

[laconicsax]

[Lost-in-FL]

1. And vile too!

:rofl:

[onager]

2. Ha! Thanks! The same thing happened to...

Philo of Alexandria, long before the Jesus myth got started.

While I was living in Alexandria I read a lot of books about the place. I think the snark about Philo was written by another Alexandria resident, E.M. Forster.

I sure ain't E.M. Forster, so here's the story in my words:

Philo was going around Alexandria spouting off about the wonderful, awesome Gawd of the Jewish people. He was unwise enough to do that among the scientists and literati who worked in the Alexandria Library.

Naturally, being a bunch of skeptical cranks, they asked him for proof.

And just as naturally, and as always, he had none.

So he came up with some long-winded gibberish about a "mediating logos," some sort of thing-a-ma-jig that mediated between God and man. Apparently so that God didn't have to get his hands dirty (or actually be VISIBLE and stuff), but I'm just guessing.

It's interesting that, despite all the brainpower at the Alexandria Library, that city never developed much in the way of philosophy. I've read that this was intentional.

For one reason, the Ptolemaic rulers were already on shaky ground, since they were a bunch of Macedonians pretending to be Egyptian Pharoahs (with the connivance of the Egyptian High Priests). The last thing they wanted was a bunch of intelligent people sitting around discussing concepts like democracy.

For another reason, philosophy didn't put any money in the bank, the way the inventions and scientific projects coming out of the Library often did.

AFAIK, Alexandria's only contribution to philosophy was Neo-Platonism. And that was allegedly invented by a fellow who worked on the docks in Alexandria.