Quote:Their primary evidence is Paul's epistles, not the gospels.Over 100 years after "paul" supposedly made jesusism safe for gentiles one of those gentiles, Justin Martyr, wrote a long Apologia to Emperor Antoninus Pius c 160. In it he never refers to any of the gospels by name - the names had not been assigned then - and he never refers to anyone named "paul." He does know about Marcion who he calls a heretic.
The thing is we know from slightly later xtian writers ( Irenaeus and Tertullian) that Marcion was the first to produce a canon of scripture and in that canon this supreme heretic listed 10 epistles of this paul character. You should read up on Marcionism. It would do you some good.
We don't know what those original epistles said. All we know is what emerged after the proto-orthodox finished their re-write of them. All we can be certain of is that Justin Martyr was singularly unimpressed at best.
Carrier also demolishes the epistles as historical sources.
And here we sit.
