RE: Josephus and other contemporaries on Jesus
July 12, 2018 at 12:45 pm
(This post was last modified: July 12, 2018 at 12:46 pm by RoadRunner79.)
(July 12, 2018 at 12:07 pm)Khemikal Wrote: I think you misunderstand the mythicist argument, entirely. It doesn;t rely on an argument from silence..that;s just a supporting addendum. It relies, primarily, on the contents of the gospels themselves in the character of jesus, the surrounding cultural, political, and religious context of the earliest point at which a kernel of the stories could have been concocted, the fact that magic men aren;t real no matter who;s writing about them..and then.,..finally..the fact that there is nothing to contradict this very obvious reading of a religious myth...except, for example..that you hold silly beliefs.
That last part is where the argument from silence is so amusing...not because it would mean anything by itself, but juxtaposed against how well evidenced you imagine a mythical character to be. Even the very religious understand the mythicist argument..they seemlessly apply it to a whole range of other heroes..but when it comes to their hero we;ll hear "but what about all the evidence!?!"...there;s only one cogent response...what evidence...?
I don't think that once you are making a claim, you can then fall back on skepticism. At least not without retracting the claim. Even as supporting evidence, it isn't that strong, when you start asking (looking at) who and where you think should have wrote otherwise.
It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. - Alexander Vilenkin
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther