Any Evidence For A Historical Jesus?

[Fpvpilot]

One of the rules I want to make clear from the get-go is I'm going to use the Bible (sorry to beat this to death but I want to be clear). Any admission from the other side that the true story of Jesus bore no resemblance to the Gospel character or that his ministry was nowhere near as famous as the Gospels relate will be effectively conceding the debate.

I have no intention of debating the lack of existence of "some guy named Yeshua who lived in 1st century Judea" or some other poorly defined Jesus-of-the-Gaps.

Hi, DeistPaladin,

Thank you for your willingness to debate. I agree to argue that it is reasonable to believe Jesus existed in the first century C.E. By “Jesus” I mean a Jewish man who was crucified under Pontius Pilate’s authority during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, was a reputed miracle worker, and had a successful ministry during his lifetime. Here is the proposed format:

1. Each debater introduces himself and makes his initial case.

2. Each debater posts a rebuttal to his opponents opening post.

3. Each debater supplies a closing post.

This format will hopefully ensure that each debater’s time is used efficiently and will assist each debater in remaining focused.

Regarding behavioral guidelines:

1. Each debater will clearly explain his method for determining whether or not someone existed or something happened in antiquity.

2. Each debater will cite his sources.

3. Neither debater will commit ad hominen fallacies (i.e., calling the other person names).

4. Neither debater will make an “argument from hyperlink” (posting a link to a web page or entire web site as their rebuttal to the other person’s argumentation).

Again, thank you for offering to debate with me. This debate will probably be my final contribution to Atheist Forums for a while, because my schedule is beginning to become busy again.

Just let me know where you would like to set up the debate thread. Do you want to contact the moderators or would you prefer for me to do so? You are probably more familiar with the procedures for formal debates on Atheist Forums than I am.

Kind regards,

Fpvpilot