(July 3, 2017 at 6:15 pm)TheBeardedDude Wrote:(July 3, 2017 at 5:56 pm)SteveII Wrote: 2. That's seem like a pretty lame reason to reject Christianity. Obviously there will be differences in interpretation about minor things, but clearly there is a fairly large core that is agreed upon by all protestant churches. BTW, the vast majority of denominations were formed around cultural and church governance issues rather than doctrinal issues.
3. Setting aside that that verse is in Matthew, yes, if people saw it, what right do I have to call them a liar?
No, you have been reading to many atheist blogs. The NT has nothing at all in common with Greek or Roman mythology. The list of similarities are tortured and silly.
Why do you think that the people who wrote the stories were not eyewitnesses? There were many documents written before the gospels. The editors of the gospels could have been eyewitnesses themselves, known them, or sought them out. What we do know was that people believed the content of the gospels long before they were written (there were churches throughout the Roman empire by 50 AD). To many documents, too many people, too many facts to support the 'legend developed' hypothesis.
Pt 2) it's not "the reason" I rejected Christianity or a god. It's one of many reasons that started my questioning of my religion. Your opinion on it being "lame" isn't relevant.
Pt 3) people claim to have seen it. People also claim to have been abducted by aliens. They may sincerely believe it, and are therefore not really lying. But they also aren't telling a truth about the universe.
On the similarity with Greek and Roman mythology, I don't know what "atheist blogs" you're referring to. I mean that they present a man-like God with supernatural abilities who visits humans and wows them with magic. I'm not talking about any sort of Zeitgeist-type (the movie) connection. Please stop assuming.
None of the NT books can be traced to earlier than 70 CE. That's at least 4 decades after Jesus supposedly died. So no, I don't believe any of the stories can validly be attributed to firsthand/eyewitness accounts. The closest you get is Paul claiming to have met Jesus' brother and Paul claiming to have had a vision (hallucination) of Jesus. That's it. That's not even convincing that he me Jesus' brother let alone that any of the stories he wrote after it are accurate/true.
Cheers
TheBeardedDude
3. There are no similarities between the claims of the NT and that of an alien abductee. One person can be mistaken (or lying). Dozens or hundreds are no mistaken.
No, there is nothing even remotely similar to God coming to earth; teaching love, peace and redemption; and then, because it was the only way, died (paid other people's penalty) in order to bridge the gap so that people could have a personal relationship with him. If you think this has some basis in older mythology, give an example. Otherwise the objection was just a straw man.
The Pauline epistles were almost all written in the 50s. Twenty years had past since Jesus' death and there were already churches spread from Jerusalem to Rome. Paul's language was constantly referring to their shared belief in Christ's death and resurrection. The existing church's theology, Paul's theology, the disciples theology and the gospels theology all match. John and Peter were both eyewitnesses and wrote books.
