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Worldbuilding

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    $\begingroup$ I think Paul was more politically motivated than driven by divine vision (which he may or may not have invented to bolster his claims) but i agree that Paul is probably a good point of influence. $\endgroup$
    – Konrad Rudolph
    Commented Aug 11, 2018 at 11:47
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    $\begingroup$ @KonradRudolph : politically motivated? Come on, how could someone be politically motivated to give up a position of power and join a (then) heavily oppressed group and risk persecution? Such a conversion is unlikely to happen without strong personal conviction and strong belief. No one switches from the winning side to the (at the moment) losing side for personal political gain. But it's true that Paul helped a lot in having Christianity spread outside of the Jewish community. But that happened later, after he traveled a lot and established churches all around the empire. $\endgroup$
    – vsz
    Commented Aug 12, 2018 at 9:06
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    $\begingroup$ @vsz shrug lots of potential reasons, but I didn’t say that they wouldn’t require strong personal conviction. I’m just saying that reasons that don’t involve divine visions are, historically speaking, quite a lot more likely than reasons that do. And that’s even if you’re religious. For non-religious people it’s even more one-sided since the chance of divine visions is exactly 0. $\endgroup$
    – Konrad Rudolph
    Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 8:49
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    $\begingroup$ @KonradRudolph : It's not even about the miracles. You claimed that his actions were not driven by his beliefs, but by his political calculations. Which is absurd. Had the New Testament been a political propaganda, it would have shown the Apostles in the best possible light. But instead is shows their mistakes, their failures, their doubts. Everything strongly indicates they really believed what they were preaching, and risked their lives for what they believed. They couldn't have gotten any worldly benefits, and there were some who gave up positions of power to do what they believed was right $\endgroup$
    – vsz
    Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 14:40
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    $\begingroup$ @KonradRudolph : Well, than this brings us nowhere, because one could say the same about historians arguing that the apostles were only motivated by political gain, to be writing purely carefully-crafted propaganda. $\endgroup$
    – vsz
    Commented Aug 13, 2018 at 18:18