Note: You are not restricted by language. You gain the ability to temporarily understand and speak their language.

  • Vaggumon@lemmy.world
    252·
    1 year ago

    As an atheist, Adam or Eve, from the time just after being tossed from the Garden.

    Barring that, George Washington, maybe I can convince him to be a bit more clear on a few of the rights they want to write into my countries founding.

  • untrainedtribble@lemmy.world
    182·
    1 year ago

    I would have to say Jesus. Arguably the most influential figure in human history as far as how his story (whether you believe it or not) has shaped the world we live in now. Of course others would be in the conversation (Muhammad, Alexander the Great, Gandhi, etc. but if you could meet Jesus and see a miracle in person that would be quite the story to bring back

      • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        Great questions

        The puzzle is an enduring one because no explanation seems to tidy away all the loose ends

        If Jesus was a figment of James’ imagination, what are we to make of Paul’s (who was definitely real) association with Peter (by Paul’s own writing)? and his separate association with Luke (by Luke’s own writing)? As late as Acts 1:14 Luke is saying Peter is hanging out with Mary mother of Jesus.

        Explaining that away as a result of the actions of a third unknown party, James, seems far more convoluted than “a man Jesus basically existed, preached a spiritual interpretation of the Torah, was baptised, crucified and had a mother Mary”.

        Which was essentially the position of the secular Jesus seminar.

          • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
            1·
            1 year ago

            Apostel Luke

            Luke wasn’t an apostle

            Paul meets the ministry in an area full of weird cults. That’s all we have…A small claim that Peter or James could have just come up on their own.

            Far too simplistic. Why would either set about a forgery that results in their untimely death? (Acts 12) Or if you think the writer of Acts faked James’ death what would be the point of that when he was a prominent leader of the Jerusalem church? Same goes for the early church tradition of Peter’s martyrdom. The details of course may be embellished, but it’s substantially more reliable to conclude that both James and Peter were at least killed early.

            Paul writes about learning from the community at Jerusalem that its leaders were “Peter, James and John” (Gal 2). Were all three in on the forgery?

            Paul also writes of the terrible living conditions all apostles lived under (1 Cor 4:9-13). If we take Paul as at least genuine in his delusion, we have to also explain why he reports the Jerusalem church leaders enduring similar suffering.

            The simplest explaination is that they were at least personally convinced of the truth of what they were doing. Convinced and wrong. But them being forgerers themselves makes no sense and has even less evidence that that various other scenarios.

              • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 year ago

                Assuming they knew that would happen

                it was perfectly obvious to everyone that a) pissing off the jews (Yahweh’s Son loves me) and b) pissing off the romans (Caesar answers to someone greater) was going to end with violence being done to them. everyone was familiar with Caesar’s enemies being executed via crucifixion and the gospels (regardless of who you think wrote them) assume everyone is familiar with the Jews summarily executing blasphemers by stoning

                the “apostles as forgers” theory assumes the following without being able to show any of it:

                • Peter, James, and John collude to write a fiction that all know will give the Romans and Jews cause to execute them - why?

                • They start a literary tradition in which they are dumb, hot-headed imbeciles with faltering faith - why?

                • They live in poverty and suffering, taking care of the poor and the permanently disabled, for something they know to be a lie - as documented by an independent witness Paul - why?

                • Why would forgers invent entirely an entirely selfless doctrine that they know to be founded on nothing - no riches, no multiple wives, no permission to wage war etc

                • Why would forgers invent really unhelpful details such as Jesus’ baptism, temple clearance, carrying of swords at his arrest, his crucifixion. When these render the basic gospel unbelievable to Jews and Greeks. A crucified Messiah? Actually physically crucified by the Roman state? was a nonsense. Why not invent a spiritual priest who sacrifices in the heavenly temple and renders the earthly one obsolete? (like is seen in Hebrews) Why involve any physical details whatsoever? Why invent embarrassment, shame and humiliation at cost to ones self? How on earth to keep this conspiracy pact together in the face of persecution, physical violence and death? And for what motivation?

                Apostolic forgery is a nonsense really

                It is far far simpler to allow that Jesus of Nazareth had a physical historical reality. That he preached a spiritual Torah, self-denial, and ideals controversial to both Jews and Greeks (because these are among the least likely things to have been invented). That he was popular with crowds and was crucified after causing a riot at the temple at Passover. His subsequent followers became convinced they had experienced him resurrected. Everything else easily follows from that. People who wrote, did so believing what they were writing. People Paul met (and persecuted) believed what they said. Peter and James believed what they said, to the point of being martyred.

                None of this requires any spiritual belief. It’s purely naturalistic.

    • banana_meccanica@feddit.it
      71·
      1 year ago

      To me look a delusional plan meet Jesus. Probably so far from his legend, a normal poor guy traveling talking about visions and classical wish of revenge vs the local politicals. I think you can find a lot of Jesus in any time of human history, even now for sure there will be many who walks in deserts making their way.

        • banana_meccanica@feddit.it
          2·
          1 year ago

          Well what about all legends from Asia side then? Like India is full of gods. We are obsessed with Jesus because was inside the interest area of European dominioum and legend keep going with wars, almost 500 years of religion war before to export this obsession to America continent.

              • FourPacketsOfPeanuts@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 year ago

                But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”

                From your other replies I know you know the material well enough to know this is from a parable, which makes me think you’re being a tad disingenuous

                If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.

                And? Saying you have to renounce your family to be a disciple != go invade your nearest European neighbour

    • FluffyPotato@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      Ooo yea, Jesus for me too if he existed. I would love to see his reaction to thr kind of a religion he spawned. Also the possibility of getting a lot of Christians to chill the fuck out with the bigotry and hatred if you write down what the actual beliefs of Jesus were.

  • Proteus@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 year ago

    I think someone like Hammurabi would be interesting. Are we restricted by language though? if so, I’d have to say someone like Aleister Crowley or “Mark Twain”

  • Starb3an@sh.itjust.works
    8·
    1 year ago

    Assuming they’re not restricted in any means I’d talk to Biden and ask if we’ve had contact with aliens.

    Other than that, I’d talk to Nicholas Tesla and try to get wireless energy transmission

  • Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 year ago

    I think I’d like to have a chat with Teddy Roosevelt. Nothing political in nature, I just want to hear his stories and what it was like seeing Yosemite way back when.

    If not Roosevelt, then maybe an ancient Greek philosopher. Socrates or Plato maybe.

    • Kerfuffle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      121·
      1 year ago

      I want to talk to the first homospaien that ever came to be. Ask him/her where they came from.

      A species isn’t an actual thing, it’s just an approach to classifying organisms that people find convenient to use. It has grey areas and isn’t always applied consistently.

      It’s a little like the fallacy of the heap: if you drop a grain of sand, you don’t have a heap of sand. If you keep droppings of sand, you’ll end up with a heap. But then if you remove a grain of sand, it doesn’t suddenly stop being a heap: it’s kind of vague and ambiguous, there isn’t a definite boundary where you can add or remove a single grain of sand and transition between definitely a heap of sand/definitely not a heap of sand.

        • PsychedSy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Speciation isn’t a one birth kind of thing. It’s a human categorization and has to do with populations, not individuals. There is no first human.

          • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of a species. Generally the term includes the unknown element of a distinct act of creation.

            • Charles Darwin

            I’m pretty sure most people understand what I mean; Let me talk to the first thing with human thought that lived in this on planet.

            • PsychedSy@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 year ago

              That’s still a continuum, but I get what you mean. I was just trying to explain their point.

              I’d be curious how a homo from when we were physically modern thinks and acts. Or maybe right after a bottleneck. Or mitochondrial eve. You’d learn a lot about nature vs nurture.

  • rhacer@lemmy.world
    71·
    1 year ago

    Winston Churchill, how did you find your way through those bleak dark days, and encourage a nation?

  • banana_meccanica@feddit.it
    6·
    1 year ago

    No one actually, because I am not able to understand the smart people and probably that hour of conversation will ending with silence. Will be enough look some of them, or just listening, but at this point I will prefer get in touch with some of my bloodline, like my grandfather that is not historical for the world but still it is for me.

    • AnAngryAlpaca@feddit.de
      5·
      1 year ago

      Alcohol free beer? By Zeus! An ale without the gift of Dionysus? You’d brew a concoction that lacks the divine elixir? It’s like crafting a lyre with no strings, an amphitheater with no stage! An absurdity, a paradox, a spectacle of mockery! I fear it’s the minds of your generation that have been graced by the touch of madness, not the other way around.

      Alas, it is a peculiar notion to abandon the very essence of the brew that lends spirit to our celebrations and solace in our solitude. Surely this could only be the invention of an age that has strayed far from the wisdom of the ancients. My heart weeps for such detachment from the sublime offerings of Dionysus. The God of the grape harvest, wine, and ecstasy would certainly frown upon this aberration.

      Such an invention, devoid of the spirit, may suggest an insidious plague upon your generation’s psyche. An affliction perhaps borne of a world fraught with complexities and contradictions, unlike our harmonious existence guided by the wisdom of the gods.

      May Athena grant you the wisdom to appreciate the true essence of things and may Asclepius protect your wellbeing. Your generation, so advanced in many ways, seems to be wrestling with the inner turmoil of what truly gives pleasure and brings unity to your convivial gatherings. Please, heed my words, and seek balance and wisdom in all things.