(April 3, 2020 at 1:51 pm)Vicki Q Wrote: It's one of these things where you say it's just so bizarre it probably didn't happen, but so much about it is odd that it must have.
By that logic, Travis Walton was really abducted by aliens:
Travis Walton UFO incident
Okay, you're a literalist, at least with respect to the canonical Gospels -- miracles of Jesus (water into wine), bodily resurrection from the dead, etc. But, why did the pagan philosopher Seneca never once, in all of his writings (124 letters, plus a bunch of other stuff) never, even once, mention the existence of Jesus:
Seneca the Younger
Why did Josephus, in his The Jewish War never once mention Jesus' existence, but yet, discuss, at length, Pontius Pilate??
Jospehus on Jesus
Do you understand why, as a former believer, now atheist, that I do not take the existence of Jesus as being some first-century miracle worker who traveled about Palestine raising people from the dead and giving sight to the blind as a serious historical possibility?? Instead, is it not far more probable that Jesus was just some early first century apocalyptic loon whom the Romans crucified at the behest of the Jewish authorities who were in Jerusalem after Jesus started an altercation in the Temple on the Day of Passover?
By the way, was Jesus crucified on Friday (as recorded in the Synoptics) or on Passover (a Thursday), as recorded in John's Gospel? Or, is this explicit contradiction so bizarre that it must be accepted as being historically true??
