(January 23, 2011 at 3:57 am)noselfwilling Wrote: The Bible is not one source, but 66 books over 1500 years by 40 authors in different places and languages. Moreover, we have 17 non-Christian sources within 150 years of Jesus' death, 12 which speak of His death, 7 of His resurrection and 7 of His deity.The Simpsons isn't one source either, but rather several hundred episodes running over 20 years now by dozens of different authors and contributors, many of which have different faiths and outlooks. It doesnt mean the simpsons are real either.
(January 23, 2011 at 3:57 am)noselfwilling Wrote: And there are over 25,000 archaelogical finds for the Bible.And I'm sure they're often interpreted that way.
(January 23, 2011 at 3:57 am)noselfwilling Wrote: You admit batman was a comic, so why waste your time and bring him into the discussion to be a candidate for the uncreated Creator? Lack of volume of material for Jesus is not a valid excuse to reject the historical Jesus since He has more sources than any ten figures in antiquity combined. So not sure what the problem is? Are you just trying to avoid the opening post still not dealing with it?I brought Batman up as an example of why your claims about the size of the bible's following over the years is irrelevant. That being because having a bunch of authors over a long period of time doesn't validate the claims within the books, it doesn't make the characters in the books real, nor does it produce witnesses that can be found, living or dead.
If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers...
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
