Evidence: The Gathering

[Randy Carson]

Why do you say "so-called"? It IS evidence, and it IS indirect or circumstantial...so why the scare quotes?

Do you agree with the California judicial system that there is no qualitative distinction between direct and circumstantial evidence"?

And what, specifically, do you find "incredibly shallow"?

I didn't add scare quotes... lol that was all you. In sum, I meant so-called with regards to your claim of miraculous occurrences. Circumstantial evidence, in this case, isn't an appropriate designation. I simply don't see a small collection of panegyrics and theologically-driven biographies as adequate, granted the nature of the claim Christians want to make, and considering all of the resources available, for establishing anything beyond that which most historians already acknowledge. In fact, the universal silence from the ancient world about Jesus' life on earth for the first thirty years following his public ministry and death, and outside of church politics for at least another century with a few exceptions of debatable significance, almost certainly attests to the fictional status of his resurrection and more substantial miracles that the three largely contradictory Gospel accounts must already lead one to conclude when read on their face.

Who bothers to write a contemporaneous biography about someone who hasn't achieved anything yet?

There were a lot of neighbors who thought (Bill Gates, Alvin Edison, Henry Ford, Orville Wright, Steve Jobs...) was a bit of an odd-duck...working at all hours in his garage on some danged contraption...he didn't get famous until much later.

So, the biographies we do have were written retrospectively because AFTER these types of folks made it big, THEN people want to go back and learn about them.

Are the Gospels any different? Did Luke interview Mary, for example, to get the background story about the Annunciation from her?

But why would we expect there to be much written about Jesus in a largely illiterate age when even more famous people got scant mention in the ancient histories? Even Pontius Pilate was long-thought to be a mythical figure until an inscription bearing his name was finally discovered on a stone tablet a few years ago.

Jimmy Akin addresses this one point in "The Procurator and the Peasant" here, Nestor, and it would be worth reading.

I do appreciate your objections - you're clearly thinking which is refreshing in this forum - but you need to appreciate that they are easily overcome.