Village Atheism and Pseudo Scholarship

Submitted for your approval:

A YouTube video blogger who calls himself calpurniuspiso (more on the irony of that handle later). Mr. Piso likes to post little crocumentary videos of himself bashing Christianity and presenting "evidence" that Christianity is nothing but a psychotic belief system.

Mr. Piso usually starts out his videos by calling believers "retarded, psychotic, and delusional". In one video in particular, he listed believers in God as "either children, incredibly ignorant, insane, users of 'magic mushrooms', or completely retarded". I commented on his video by informing him that he's a sad little man, and that I'm a believer in God; and I'm also an adult, have education, am certified mentally sane, drug and alcohol free, and my IQ is in the 140's. Mr. Piso's answer to me was:

"Sorry truth hurts. Please go see neurologist so your brain can be saved from Christ-psychosis that makes you ACCEPT resurrecting zombies, demonic possession & other schizophrenia type deluded beliefs as TRUE.

Only an ignorant deluded IDIOT would believe in God

God is a CREATION of the BRAIN.Let's go to a neurology lab & I'll PROVE IT to you
We are inthe 21st Century Theotard NOT the 12

This is NOT bigotry simply a PROVEN FACT. 2+2=4 NOT 6
You have a faulty BRAIN. Bye SAVE it"

This is hilarious. "Piso" doesn't even know the difference between a psychologist, who deals with emotional disorders, and a neurologist, who treats physical diseases that affect the brain, spinal cord, and central nervous system. Piso also seems gleefully ignorant of the fact that religious belief is a defining aspect of all human cultures, and therefore has never been classified as a mental disorder in the MDS IV, the catalogue of all known and defined mental disorders used by virtually all psychologists.

On top of that, I could have gotten a more mature, creative response from a 14 year old with a text phone. The old tired reminder that we aren't in the 12th century anymore? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

Let's get to his supposed "scholarship", which is even worse.

He stated in one of his little videos that the Crucifixion never happened; in fact, he claims the word crucify was "mistranslated" because the Greek word "kremo" (a root verb meaning "hang") sounds like the Latin word "crema", meaning "to burn". Piso goes on to claim that the Romans never crucified people, and that there's no evidence for it. Instead, they burned people at the stake.

Piso's problems are threefold:

First of all, he's relying on questionable scholarship that missapplies the root verb "kremo" as it was used in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament). Kremo is NEVER used in the New Testament, period. The word for the New Testament autographers used for "crucify" was "stauroo", which is a far cry from "kremo". The only word in the New Testament that was even slightly close to "kremo" was "kremannumi", which is descriptive of something hung from a nail. Kremannumi was used in reference to the thieves crucified with Jesus. One of these guys mocked Jesus before he died. I'd imagine mocking would be the last thing on one's mind if he was burning to death.

Second, there is PHYSICAL evidence that the Romans did crucify people in the 1st Century. In 1968, archaeologists dicovered a Jewish tomb from the 1st Century that contained the remains of a crucified human being.

Third, there is documentary evidence from ROMAN historians that Jesus existed and was crucified. There is also Roman testimony that people BELIEVED in Jesus' Crucifixion and Resurrection, and refused to renounce their beliefs, even under torture.

This is just one point Piso gets wrong, but it's the fulcrum of his argument that Jesus never existed and that the story of Jesus was really the story of Julius Caesar. The fact is, the whole premise FAILS based on the reality of the Crucifixion and Piso's piss-poor argument against that event.

The saddest part is that, when you point out the obvious errors to a wacko like calpurniuspiso, he just flushes your comments and hurls a bunch of puerile insults. Such is the face of Village Atheism and one of its "bright stars". Even sadder is that, despite Piso's defenders' claims of evidence being found in "expensive history books", I easily debunked Piso's argument with a Strong's Concordance and a Vine's Expository Dictionary. Ding!

Now here's an ironic twist: calpurnuispiso's handle is in reference to Vespasius Calpurnius Piso, who some claim was a Roman nobleman that invented Jesus in the 4th Century. Research into this claim reveals that Calpurnius Piso never existed. The claim is completely bogus.

Video blogger Piso's handle, like his YouTube channel, are based on nothing but pure baloney.

Bon Appetit, Village Atheists!