• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Can science disprove the existence of God?

Crypto2015

Active Member
Your wasting time and space with testimony and appeals to authority ... I asked for your take on the evidence. Do note that none of these are contemporaneous: Mark, Luke, Matthew, John, Paul, James, Jude, Tacitus, Pliny the Young, Josephus, Thallus, and Lucian.

Wiki is grand, it now reads" "... the only two events, despite the lack of contemporaneous cross-reference, that are subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[9][11][55][56]"

So, you modified wikipedia to say what you wanted it to say, in spite of the fact that you are not an expert on the subject and that, basically, you don't know what you are talking about. That proves that you are very dishonest in your beliefs and that you are not in search of the truth.

Also, how can the apostle Matthew, for example, not be a contemporary of Jesus? Do you even know what contemporaneous means?
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
So, you modified wikipedia to say what you wanted it to say, in spite of the fact that you are not an expert on the subject and that, basically, you don't know what you are talking about. That proves that you are very dishonest in your beliefs and that you are not in search of the truth.

Also, how can the apostle Matthew, for example, not be a contemporary of Jesus? Do you even know what contemporaneous means?
Why would you assume that the Gospel of Matthew was actually written by Matthew?

And why would an eyewitness have to use someone else's account as a source?
 

Crypto2015

Active Member
Why would you assume that the Gospel of Matthew was actually written by Matthew?

And why would an eyewitness have to use someone else's account as a source?

There are many events that are narrated exclusively by Matthew. If Matthew hadn't had his own personal knowledge of the events related to Jesus' ministry, he wouldn't have been able to narrate things that aren't contained neither in Mark's nor in Luke's gospels. Also, according to the writings of the early Church fathers, Mark was one of the apostle Peter's closest companions. Since Peter was closer to Jesus than the apostle Matthew, perhaps Peter (and hence Mark) knew more about Jesus' ministry than Matthew. Hence, that explains why Matthew would have wanted to take some passages from Mark's gospel. Also, anyone who has at least a little bit of experience in writing knows that it is awfully difficult to describe something on paper, even if you are an eyewitness to the events that you are narrating. Hence, perhaps Matthew copied passages from Mark's gospel simply because he liked the way in which Mark had narrated the events, and since he knew that what Mark had written was true, he didn't feel that he was in the obligation to change it. Furthermore, Matthew may have considered Mark's gospel a divinely inspired document. That was another strong reason for him to use Mark's gospel.

The authorship of Matthew's gospel is attributed to the apostle Matthew based on the writings of the early church fathers, such as Papias and Eusebius, and on the fact that the earliest manuscripts contain the title "Gospel according to Matthew".
 
Last edited:

Vouthon

Dominus Deus tuus ignis consumens est
Premium Member
As I understand the theistic claim of an omnipotent, transcendent creator deity and the parallel religious claim of a spiritual afterlife, both posit a belief in concepts that are outside the bounds of the study of science. Science has to do with falsifiability, verifiability, empirical tests and reproducability of measurements.

A religious claim about a transcendent, extra-material Deity not comparable with or defined by anything pertaining to physical laws or verifiable observations does seem to be outside the remit of science since it is inherently un-scientific.

Science is the study of the cosmos, the natural world, the universe and how it operates; just as psychology is the study of the mind.

The question seems to me to be more philosophic in nature.

Sure, I think you can logically argue for and against theism but I'm just not sure that science could ever approve or disapprove a claim regarding something thought to be prior to and beyond existence.

The nature of the theistic/spiritual claim is a claim regarding a supposed reality separate or distinct from physical actions and not controlled by physical laws. In this view the Supreme Deity can causally influence physical matter and human behavior, but has no basis or description in science. The claim is thus a claim about something that is not within the purview of science and lies outside science.

So I don't know for sure but I have my doubts.

I suppose one could argue that science could one day make the concept of God redundant by filling in all or most of our present gaps in knowledge regarding how the universe and reality came to be, or by proving once and for all that everything can be explained with recourse to natural, physical laws and thus prove that nothing exterior (I.e. supernatural) has ever causally influenced matter.

But then you'd still have the distant deistic God to contend with - the great rational, wholly transcendent Supreme Being of the French Enlightenment philosophers. Methinks the God of Deism would be harder to disprove scientifically than the supernatural God of the revealed religions in that event, since the Deist God concept does not rely upon any alleged revelations to humanity or divine interventions in human history.
 
Last edited:

Shad

Veteran Member
So, you modified wikipedia to say what you wanted it to say, in spite of the fact that you are not an expert on the subject and that, basically, you don't know what you are talking about. That proves that you are very dishonest in your beliefs and that you are not in search of the truth.

Also, how can the apostle Matthew, for example, not be a contemporary of Jesus? Do you even know what contemporaneous means?

Your wasting time and space with testimony and appeals to authority ... I asked for your take on the evidence. Do note that none of these are contemporaneous: Mark, Luke, Matthew, John, Paul, James, Jude, Tacitus, Pliny the Young, Josephus, Thallus, and Lucian.

Wiki is grand, it now reads" "... the only two events, despite the lack of contemporaneous cross-reference, that are subject to "almost universal assent" are that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and was crucified by the order of the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate.[9][11][55][56]"

You can go back through the Wiki's page to see changes made here: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Historicity_of_Jesus&action=history

None of the recent changes made include anything you have claimed Sapiens has done. Likewise changes charged to Crypto are not new either.
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
So, you modified wikipedia to say what you wanted it to say, in spite of the fact that you are not an expert on the subject and that, basically, you don't know what you are talking about. That proves that you are very dishonest in your beliefs and that you are not in search of the truth.

Also, how can the apostle Matthew, for example, not be a contemporary of Jesus? Do you even know what contemporaneous means?
I'd say that on the rather narrow specialty of contemporaneous support for the historicity of Jesus I know much more than most and, frankly, as much as any of the experts you've named. It is a rather narrow field that can be mastered in less than an hour.

Contemporaneous comes from the Latin prefix con- meaning "together with" and temporaneus, meaning "time." Two contemporaneous events happen together in time. There are no contemporaneous sources that support the historicity of Jesus, all sources are from years decades and centuries later.

You owe me several heart felt apologies.
 

Crypto2015

Active Member
I'd say that on the rather narrow specialty of contemporaneous support for the historicity of Jesus I know much more than most and, frankly, as much as any of the experts you've named. It is a rather narrow field that can be mastered in less than an hour.

Contemporaneous comes from the Latin prefix con- meaning "together with" and temporaneus, meaning "time." Two contemporaneous events happen together in time. There are no contemporaneous sources that support the historicity of Jesus, all sources are from years decades and centuries later.

You owe me several heart felt apologies.

Why? You said that you changed the page. Perhaps other people erased your changes because they knew that you were utterly wrong. Do you honestly think that in order for an event to be historical someone must write about said event almost at the same time as the event unfolds? That is simply ludicrous. The whole history of mankind would have to be considered a fable if we were to accept your criteria for historicity.
 

Sapiens

Polymathematician
Why? You said that you changed the page. Perhaps other people erased your changes because they knew that you were utterly wrong. Do you honestly think that in order for an event to be historical someone must write about said event almost at the same time as the event unfolds? That is simply ludicrous. The whole history of mankind would have to be considered a fable if we were to accept your criteria for historicity.
You claimed to have evidence.

I asked you to present your evidence.

Instead of evidence you give me an appeal to authority and insult me.

So far, you have no evidence to present, all you've got is apologetics from people who have an economic stake in the claim. That is simply ludicrous.

I ask you again to present your evidence.

My point in changing wiki (which I'm sure was changed back by someone who holds your views) was to make the point that wiki is only as good as it authors, though you use it as a primary source.
 

Crypto2015

Active Member
You claimed to have evidence.

I asked you to present your evidence.

Instead of evidence you give me an appeal to authority and insult me.

So far, you have no evidence to present, all you've got is apologetics from people who have an economic stake in the claim. That is simply ludicrous.

I ask you again to present your evidence.

My point in changing wiki (which I'm sure was changed back by someone who holds your views) was to make the point that wiki is only as good as it authors, though you use it as a primary source.

Stop playing the victim. What you did (changing the Wikipedia page) was silly and irresponsible because you have no knowledge whatsoever about this topic. If this offends you, it is your problem, not mine. I posted the evidence you were asking for. By the way, it seems to me that you don't really understand what "appeal to authority" is.

"An Appeal to Authority is a fallacy with the following form: Person A is (claimed to be) an authority on subject S. Person A makes claim C about subject S. Therefore, C is true."

www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html

If I tell you that the whole community of historians agree on the fact that Jesus' baptism and Jesus' crucifixion are historical facts, I am not appealing to authority, since I am not citing the opinion of a small group of experts, but the consensus of the entire community of historians, which includes both Christian and non-Christian historians. This consensus is based on the most stringent criteria for historicity. Hence, it is indirectly based on evidence. Evidence that you do not recognize simply because you expected someone to be writing the Gospel right at the foot of the cross, which is unrealistic.
 

Attachments

  • upload_2016-6-1_9-53-9.jpeg
    upload_2016-6-1_9-53-9.jpeg
    5 KB · Views: 116

Sapiens

Polymathematician
Stop playing the victim. What you did (changing the Wikipedia page) was silly and irresponsible because you have no knowledge whatsoever about this topic. If this offends you, it is your problem, not mine. I posted the evidence you were asking for. By the way, it seems to me that you don't really understand what "appeal to authority" is.

"An Appeal to Authority is a fallacy with the following form: Person A is (claimed to be) an authority on subject S. Person A makes claim C about subject S. Therefore, C is true."

www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html

If I tell you that the whole community of historians agree on the fact that Jesus' baptism and Jesus' crucifixion are historical facts, I am not appealing to authority, since I am not citing the opinion of a small group of experts, but the consensus of the entire community of historians, which includes both Christian and non-Christian historians. This consensus is based on the most stringent criteria for historicity. Hence, it is indirectly based on evidence. Evidence that you do not recognize simply because you expected someone to be writing the Gospel right at the foot of the cross, which is unrealistic.
You are still just quoting authorities, real or imagined, you still have yet to provide any of the evidence that you claimed to have.

Of course changing that wiki page was silly, you were using it as an authority and I guess I converted you to my view of how silly that was right quick.

So ... were's all that evidence?
 
Last edited:

Crypto2015

Active Member
You are still just quoting authorities, real or imagined, you still have yet to provide any of the evidence that you claimed to have.

Of course changing that wiki page was silly, you were using it as an authority and I guess I converted you to my view of how silly that was right quick.

So ... were's all that evidence?

You say that I am quoting authorities, "real of imagined". This is not true. What I am quoting is the consensus of the academic community. I didn't "imagine" the academic community or its consensus, but, on the contrary, I provided sources that prove that this community sees the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus as historical facts. Sources that, by the way, you dishonestly tried to destroy because they don't fit into your non-academic, unrealistic view of history.

Regarding the evidence for the historicity of Jesus, you have the Gospel of John (written by an eyewitness, most probably the apostle John), the Gospel of Matthew (most probably written by the apostle Matthew, who was an eyewitness), the Gospel of Mark (written based on the testimony of the apostle Peter, an eyewitness), The Gospel of Luke (who received his knowledge from the members of the early church, including the apostle Paul, who had seen the resurrected Jesus). Then you have the epistles of James, Jude, and Peter, all of whom were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry and resurrection. You also have the acts of the Apostles, written by Luke.

When it comes to extra-biblical sources you have the writings of Pliny the Younger, Josephus, Tacitus, Julius Africanus, Suetonious, Origen, Lucian of Samosata, and the Jewish Talmud. You also have Gnostic gospels, such as The Gospel of Truth (135-160 AD), the Apocryphon of John (120-130 AD), The Gospel of Thomas (140-200 AD). Notably, early Christian sources also quote the "Acts of Herod" that make mention of Jesus' crucifixion and constitute the reports that Herod sent to the emperor Tiberius. This work, however, has been lost.

Then you have the letter that Clement, a member of the Roman church, sent to the Corinthian church in 95 AD, the letter that the bishop Ignatius sent to the Trallians in 110-115 AD, the letter that Ignatius sent to the Smyrneans in 110-115 AD, the letter that Ignatius sent to the Magnesians in 110-115 AD, the letter that Quadratus sent to the Emperor Hadrian in 125 AD (""The deeds of our Saviour were always before you, for they were true miracles; those that were healed, those that were raised from the dead, who were seen, not only when healed and when raised, but were always present. They remained living a long time, not only whilst our Lord was on earth, but likewise when He had left the earth. So that some of them have also lived to our own times."), and the writings of Justin Martyr (150 AD).

For the sake of comparison, we have only five literary sources for the life of Alexander the Great (356 BC to 323 BC): (1) Diodorus Siculus's 17th book of Universal History, written three centuries after the death of Alexander. (2) Quintus Curtius Rufus's History of Alexander, written three centuries after the death of Alexander. (3) Plutarch's Life of Alexander, written two centuries after the death of Alexander. (4) Flavius Arrianus Xenophon's Campaigns of Alexander, written two centuries after the death of Alexander. (5) M. Junianus Justinus's writings, written one hundred years after the death of Alexander. This last book is plagued with factual errors.

Also, there were only 20 to 80 thousand people living in Jerusalem during Jesus' ministry. Do you think that a movement based on Jesus' ministry and resurrection would have prospered in Jerusalem if Jesus had never existed? All of the leaders of the early church averred that Jesus preached publicly and had thousands of followers that more than once followed him to Jerusalem. Would they have been able to claim such a thing if the inhabitants of Jerusalem had known for a fact that no such person as Jesus Christ had ever existed?
 
Last edited:

Crypto2015

Active Member
You are still just quoting authorities, real or imagined, you still have yet to provide any of the evidence that you claimed to have.

Of course changing that wiki page was silly, you were using it as an authority and I guess I converted you to my view of how silly that was right quick.

So ... were's all that evidence?

If you are interested in the truth, take a look at this:

 

Shad

Veteran Member
I didn't claim anything. He claimed to have changed them.

My point was that nothing was changed as claimed and I showed you, and others, how to check if the claim was true. Also there is the fact that you quoted, first, a section below the section Sapiens quoted, second. So the point was missed by quoting the wrong section then continued when you accepted the claim of changes based on the wrong section.
 

Crypto2015

Active Member
My point was that nothing was changed as claimed and I showed you, and others, how to check if the claim was true. Also there is the fact that you quoted, first, a section below the section Sapiens quoted, second. So the point was missed by quoting the wrong section then continued when you accepted the claim of changes based on the wrong section.

Read his latest posts. He changed the page and then someone else removed what he had written.
 
Last edited:

Sapiens

Polymathematician
If you are interested in the truth, take a look at this:


I am interested in seeing you meet the commitment that you made to provide contemporaneous cross-references for the historicity of Jesus. Sorry, the video does not do so. Besides, I really don't think that teaching a course in Miracles (APOL 920: Miracles) at Liberty University gets you into the "academic community."

Rationalwiki exposes Habermas for what he is:

Habermas's work does not resemble the work of historians. Rather, he is stating that the events in the gospels are basically self-evidently true, which is just as fallacious as stating the events leading up to Mohammad's ascension are true by citing Islamic scripture. He provides no external verification. Here is a walk through of Habermas's "facts" to show that the are not historical facts or are unknowns.

  1. As far as we know, Jesus (if he existed) is told to have been crucified only in the gospels, about 45 to 70 years after Jesus died. No contemporary eye-witness reports this execution, nor does Paul ever mention the crucifixion. The claim that Jesus was crucified is unhistorical in of itself. Torah Law states any blasphemer should be put to death and then hung for display. This law is confirmed and elaborated in the Mishnah tractate Sanhedrin: people could be executed either by stoning, burning, decapitation, or strangulation, but whichever it was, when the crime was blasphemy the corpse was then hung on a pole for display, apparently like a slab of meat, which resembled a crucifixion. And whether executed or not, a body had to be taken down by sunset. Nowhere in the law does it state that the punishment was by crucifixion.
  2. Again, this is only mentioned in the gospels way after Jesus supposedly died. If Jesus did exist and was executed as a blasphemer, the Mishnah tractate Sanhedrin goes on to explain the law regarding the burial of condemned men: they did not bury the condemned in the burial grounds of his ancestors, but there were two graveyards made ready for the use of the court, one for those who were beheaded or strangled, and one for those who were stoned or burned.(6.5e-f) This is confirmed in three other sources: the Talmud, the Tosefta, and the Midrash Rabbah. Jesus, as a blasphemer, would be ear-marked for stoning and thus for the Graveyard of the Stoned and Burned. The Mishnah itself goes on to explain that only "when the flesh was completely decomposed were the bones gathered and buried in their proper place," i.e. only then could the family rebury the condemned man in their ancestral tomb. There were no apparent exceptions made for execution by a Gentile government (Talmud, Sanhedrin 47b).
  3. We have no records of the disciples' emotions or personal feelings. The gospel authors were not contemporary witnesses, Relying on the gospel authors is not a satisfactory answer.
  4. As discussed in point 2 above, Jesus was not buried in a tomb. As a blasphemer, to be properly buried by Jewish law, Jesus would have to wait to become bones before buried in a tomb (and that take a lot longer than 3 days).
  5. Such experiences, if they happened, can be explained without miracles.
  6. That is assuming they were never doubters, or they merely claim they were never doubters. All we have is the word of some anonymous authors. Perhaps only half the disciples were believers, and the gospel authors reported that they were all believes to give credulity to the resurrection story. Without individual or contemporary testimony, we cannot be sure that they all became believers.
  7. Rather, the atonement was the more appropriate central message. Resurrection means nothing without the atonement.
  8. Jerusalem was the center of education and religious diversion. Followers of various beliefs all testify as to their experiences and faith, such as Apollonius of Tyana raising the dead.
  9. This can be achieved without a historical figure, such as with cargo cults. The sudden rise of the Mormon Church does not prove that God lives on a planet or an angel visited Joseph Smith. Also, Habermas would likely reject a Muslim using this argument in favor of the validity of Islam.
  10. Setting a date of worship does not require an historical figure to exist. You might as well point to the Muslim choice of Friday as their day of worship as some sort argument for the validity of Islam.
  11. Again, this is assuming James existed, was a doubter and did not lie. Habermas's only reason for assuming this is biblical inerrancy.
  12. Paul himself is emphatic about never having witnessed Jesus or his resurrection, and claims to have changed his views on the road to Damascus after having a vision. Also, compare Paul's claims of skepticism and dis-/unbelief with those made by Lee Strobel...
The Oz analogy
Using the same logic and type of "evidence" employed by Gary Habermas for the historicity of Jesus, we can make a solid case for the historicity of the Wizard of Oz (by assuming the inerrancy of The Wizard of Oz, of course):

Fact 1: Independent Testimony: The oldest account comes from Frank with subsequent expansion and collaborative evidence supplied by Noel, Florence, Edgar, and John. For instance, Frank simply describes the twister hitting the Mid-West, but from the other four we can deduce that it specifically hit Kansas. We can verify that tornadoes hit Kansas and have done so for many centuries. This knowledge of local geography and climate further supports that all five authors were eye witnesses intimately familiar with the course of events.

Fact 2: The Wicked Witch of the East Actually Died: This has been confirmed by five chiropractors, who all agree that a house falling from the sky at great heights could kill her. The fifth chiropractor, unlike the previous four, did not state unequivocally that the Wicked Witch would necessarily die, but is sure that the most likely scenario would result in her death.

Fact 3: The Radical Change in the Munchkin Behavior: The Munchkins were terrified on the Wicked Witch of the East. However, after the house fell on the Wicked Witch, the Munchkins were happy, singing and proclaiming that she did in fact die. They would not do any of this unless the Wicked Witch of the East had actually died, otherwise she would hurt them. No other scenario can plausibly explain a paradigm shift of this magnitude.

Fact 4: The Ruby Slippers: Dorothy possessed the Ruby Slippers, which would be impossible unless the Wicked Witch of the East was actually dead. Dorothy having the Ruby Slippers has been independently verified by both the Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West. These two are constantly at odds with each other, and thus they would not agree on Dorothy having the Slippers if it wasn't true.

Fact 5: The Yellow Brick Road: If the Yellow Brick Road did not exist, there would be no way for Dorothy to get to the Emerald City from Munchkin Land. Since we know that she did make it to the Emerald City, the Yellow Brick Road must logically (have) exist(ed). Furthermore, the existence of the Yellow Brick Road has been verified through the independent eye witness testimonies of the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion who also traveled it.

Bonus: The Munchkin Land Factor: If the Wicked Witch of the East was not dead, the flying monkeys could easily have verified that by coming in to investigate it at any time. Since they didn't and believed she was in fact dead, there is no reason to believe that they would have lied or been mistaken about it.

Footnote concerning the Ruby Slippers: There are four popular versions of The Wizard of Oz. In the oldest version, Dorothy has "silver shoes" and in the other three she has "ruby slippers". Note that some fundamentalists who rely solely onFrank's text will insist that the Ruby Slippers were actually Silver Shoes. Since slippers are a type of shoe, this is not actually a contradiction. The (supposed!) difference can easily be explained by the shoes being made of rubies and having silver buckles. The four versions of the Wizard of Oz certainly compliment each other, but they do not contradict each other. Frank simply neglected to mention the ruby bits and Noel/Florence/Edgar/John omitted the silver bits.

A similar analysis can be performed for Homer, and any number of other writers of historical novels.
 
Last edited:

Sapiens

Polymathematician
You say that I am quoting authorities, "real of imagined". This is not true. What I am quoting is the consensus of the academic community. I didn't "imagine" the academic community or its consensus, but, on the contrary, I provided sources that prove that this community sees the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus as historical facts. Sources that, by the way, you dishonestly tried to destroy because they don't fit into your non-academic, unrealistic view of history.
I am a member of the academic community, I have been my entire professional life, as were my parents and three of four of my grandparents. I did not say that you were imagining anything, though that would be a fruitful pursuit, I said "authorities, real or imagine,d" which references the "authorities" self-perception, tainted as it is with the problem of no Jesus means no paycheck confusticated with a severe lack of scientific rigor.

But that is neither here nor there, the challenge you accepted and failed to fulfill was to present your claimed contemporaneous evidence for the historicity of Jesus.
Regarding the evidence for the historicity of Jesus, you have the Gospel of John (written by an eyewitness, most probably the apostle John), the Gospel of Matthew (most probably written by the apostle Matthew, who was an eyewitness), the Gospel of Mark (written based on the testimony of the apostle Peter, an eyewitness), The Gospel of Luke (who received his knowledge from the members of the early church, including the apostle Paul, who had seen the resurrected Jesus). Then you have the epistles of James, Jude, and Peter, all of whom were eyewitnesses to Jesus' ministry and resurrection. You also have the acts of the Apostles, written by Luke.
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
When it comes to extra-biblical sources you have the writings of Pliny the Younger, Josephus, Tacitus, Julius Africanus, Suetonious, Origen, Lucian of Samosata, and the Jewish Talmud. You also have Gnostic gospels, such as The Gospel of Truth (135-160 AD), the Apocryphon of John (120-130 AD), The Gospel of Thomas (140-200 AD). Notably, early Christian sources also quote the "Acts of Herod" that make mention of Jesus' crucifixion and constitute the reports that Herod sent to the emperor Tiberius. This work, however, has been lost.
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
Then you have the letter that Clement, a member of the Roman church, sent to the Corinthian church in 95 AD, the letter that the bishop Ignatius sent to the Trallians in 110-115 AD, the letter that Ignatius sent to the Smyrneans in 110-115 AD, the letter that Ignatius sent to the Magnesians in 110-115 AD, the letter that Quadratus sent to the Emperor Hadrian in 125 AD (""The deeds of our Saviour were always before you, for they were true miracles; those that were healed, those that were raised from the dead, who were seen, not only when healed and when raised, but were always present. They remained living a long time, not only whilst our Lord was on earth, but likewise when He had left the earth. So that some of them have also lived to our own times."), and the writings of Justin Martyr (150 AD).
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
For the sake of comparison, we have only five literary sources for the life of Alexander the Great (356 BC to 323 BC): (1) Diodorus Siculus's 17th book of Universal History, written three centuries after the death of Alexander. (2) Quintus Curtius Rufus's History of Alexander, written three centuries after the death of Alexander. (3) Plutarch's Life of Alexander, written two centuries after the death of Alexander. (4) Flavius Arrianus Xenophon's Campaigns of Alexander, written two centuries after the death of Alexander. (5) M. Junianus Justinus's writings, written one hundred years after the death of Alexander. This last book is plagued with factual errors.
Sorry ... that has nothing to do with meeting your claim, a claim that does not involve Alexander. That is an entirely different argument.
Also, there were only 20 to 80 thousand people living in Jerusalem during Jesus' ministry. Do you think that a movement based on Jesus' ministry and resurrection would have prospered in Jerusalem if Jesus had never existed? All of the leaders of the early church averred that Jesus preached publicly and had thousands of followers that more than once followed him to Jerusalem. Would they have been able to claim such a thing if the inhabitants of Jerusalem had known for a fact that no such person as Jesus Christ had ever existed?
That is inference from a single line of reasoning, woefully inadequate to be called contemporaneous evidence of historicity ... but typical of the sort of claptrap that your fellow travelers attempt to pass off. But that is off the point.

Sorry ... that too has nothing to do with meeting your claim.

Care to try again?
 

Crypto2015

Active Member
I am interested in seeing you meet the commitment that you made to provide contemporaneous cross-references for the historicity of Jesus. Sorry, the video does not do so.
I am a member of the academic community, I have been my entire professional life, as were my parents and three of four of my grandparents. I did not say that you were imagining anything, though that would be a fruitful pursuit, I said "authorities, real or imagine,d" which references the "authorities" self-perception, tainted as it is with the problem of no Jesus means no paycheck confusticated with a severe lack of scientific rigor.

But that is neither here nor there, the challenge you accepted and failed to fulfill was to present your claimed contemporaneous evidence for the historicity of Jesus.
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
Sorry ... none of the above are contemporaneous.
Sorry ... that has nothing to do with meeting your claim, a claim that does not involve Alexander. That is an entirely different argument.That is inference from a single line of reasoning, woefully inadequate to be called contemporaneous evidence of historicity ... but typical of the sort of claptrap that your fellow travelers attempt to pass off. But that is off the point.

Sorry ... that too has nothing to do with meeting your claim.

Care to try again?

Right now I am reading a book by Bart Ehrman, one of the leading New Testament scholars of our time. By the way, Bart Ehrman is not a Christian. The book is called "Did Jesus exist?". In this book he explains that people who hold views such as yours (i.e., that Jesus did not exist) are called mythicists. All mythicists are easily refuted by the academic community and the vast majority of them are laughed at by the academic community. The reason for this is that it is easy for an academic that actually has training in the New Testament field to trace the written and oral traditions of the Gospels back into right after the crucifixion. Ehrman explains that both of Josephus's passages about Jesus are actually accepted as genuine by the vast majority of scholars, although the lengthier passage (i.e. the Testimonium Flavianum) is considered to contain later modifications by Christian scribes. Modifications that, nonetheless, do not disqualify the passage as a valid historical reference for Jesus' existence.

Bart Ehrman also goes on to explain that the Gospels are historical sources. Mythicist normally do not consider them to be reliable historical sources, which is
an irrational and unscientific stance from their part. The Gospels are actually historical material of prime quality, since when it comes to providing a historical background for the events they are narrating, the authors of the Gospels are scrupulous in citing names and dates that have proven over and over again to be correct. Furthermore, mythicist cannot call into question the historical reliability of the Gospels just because the Gospels narrate miracles, since virtually all of the great historians of Jesus' times, Tacitus and Herodotus included, narrate miracles in their historical accounts. That the Gospels are biased in favor of Jesus? All of the historical documents that we have are biased in one way or another. For instance, you cannot dismissed the early accounts of the American War of Independence just because they were written by Americans.

So, tracing back the written and oral traditions of the Gospels right into Jesus times is something that scholars do by considering the sources for the Gospels and epistles. All of these sources constitute independent attestations for Jesus' life and death. There are several independent attestations that include the Gospel of Mark (70 AD), the Gospel of Matthew (80-85 AD), the Gospel of Luke (80-85 AD), the Gospel of John (90-95 AD), the written and/or oral tradition included into the Gospel of Thomas (perhaps 50 AD), the "Q" source used by Matthew and Luke (written material that probably dated to 50 AD), the Gospel of Peter, the "M" source used by Matthew, and the "L" source used by Luke (probably written material). So, you have several independent attestations for Jesus' existence that are derived from a careful and systematic evaluation of the written material.

Also,scholars are certain that these written and oral traditions date back to Jesus' life because, among other things, the Gospels contain traces of the original Aramaic(Jesus' native language). For instance, phrases like "Talitha cumi" (Mark 5:41) or "Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani" (Mark 15:34). Also, some passages that do not make perfect sense in Greek, do make perfect sense when translated back into Aramaic. For example, "Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2: 27-28). In Greek the "therefore" does not make sense, since the Sabbath being made for man does not have any connection with the Son of Man being Lord of the Sabbath. However, in Aramaic the word for "man" and "son of man" is one and the same: "barnash". So, the original Aramaic was "Sabbath was made for barnash, not barnash for Sabbath. Therefore, barnash is Lord of the Sabbath".

There is much more than this. I'll post it later. You need to understand that your stance on this topic is not only unwarranted, but actually preposterous. You have no evidence whatsoever to claim the non-existence of Jesus. Your position is based simply on the irrational denial of the numerous independent attestations of Jesus' existence.
 
Top