Did Jesus exist?

[athrock]

Maybe the authors deliberately included what may look like "embarresing details" in order to try and sneakily add credibility.

But I agree, I don't see how anyone can claim to know what would embarress an unknown author. And even if it did embarress them, I still don't see it as much of an argument. We're then assuming they are being dishonest enough to miss stuff out, to try and establish that they are actually being honest and we should believe what they say. Except, you know, they talk about a load of ridiculous shit that didn't happen as well. Kind of blows anyone's credibility for me, and I'd stick to what could actually be verified. I wouldn't take their word for squat.

The gospel writers were stupid enough to believe in fairy tales but smart enough to build in some embarrassing details to convince the rest of us?



True Story

In the early days of Mormonism, one of its leaders (Brigham Young, possibly), actually taught that the moon was inhabited by men who were six feet tall and dressed like Quakers. More recently, of course, astronomy and a few landings on the moon have demonstrated that to be false.

Confronted by the scientific evidence that the moon is not inhabited in the way his church leader had once taught, a modern-day Mormon actually suggested that perhaps the moon's inhabitants are living underground.

Pretty desperate, huh? But that's the kind of mental gymnastics people will perform to reduce the cognitive dissonance they feel when two things they believe to be true conflict.

You're doing the same thing, rob. 

Confronted by things in the gospels that meet the criterion of embarrassment, you desperately spin elaborate explanations to avoid the obvious possibility that the authors were simply telling what they knew to be true. But you can't admit that, because you've decided that the gospels are false and nothing will convince you otherwise.

So, while you claim to be for reason, logic, science, evidence and so forth, the fact of the matter is that you are so biased against the Bible and Christianity that you cannot possibly consider anything that goes counter to what you have already decided upon. Anything counter to your belief must be false.

Which is not exactly how good science is done, is it?

Pretty desperate, huh?