(July 11, 2016 at 5:31 pm)SteveII Wrote:(July 11, 2016 at 4:39 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: I am fine with accepting descriptions of historical events in the NT that can also be verified from other sources. The NT does contain many such descriptions of historical events.
It is the supernatural god claims that I am referring to as being the claim, not evidence, in the NT.
The fact that there are 27 documents is meaningless. I can point out hundreds of documents written by sincere honest people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Does the number of books and articles written by "abductees" lend any credibility to their claims?
Jesus claimed to be God. 27 documents support this as historical fact. Jesus did miracles and rose from the dead to support his claim. 27 documents support this as historical fact. Your alien analogy is significantly wanting. Do 27 of these alien abduction accounts catalog the same series of events (not similar experiences, the same exact events)?
Quote:And their were churches already in existence that believed the entire resurrection story did not occur on earth, but in a supernatural realm.
Your fallacious thinking is not doing you any favors.
There were churches that believed this before 50-60 AD? Can you provide a link or references for this so I can review?
Maybe not as early as the dates you mention, but pretty early.
Docetics existed in the 1st century, however. They did not believe that the Jesus story took place in a supernatural realm, but they did have drastically different Christian beliefs than post Council of Nicea Christians for sure.
They believed that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion. Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
