RE: Whats even attractive about Christianity anyway that people want to stay in ignorance
March 7, 2012 at 2:27 am
(This post was last modified: March 7, 2012 at 2:29 am by Undeceived.)
(March 6, 2012 at 10:15 pm)Stimbo Wrote:(March 6, 2012 at 4:33 am)Undeceived Wrote: You'd like me to propose new evidence. Let's start with science. Rick Larson used a professional astronomy program to determine the stars' formation at the time of Jesus' birth. It included one star (Jupiter) coming into conjunction with several others, touching the Leo and Virgin constellations, and creating what was probably the brightest star in the history of human civilization. What's more, it would have appeared to be in the west at Jesus' birth (to Magi from Persia) and then appeared to be slightly south from Herod's palace where the Magi stopped first. There was also a blood moon (lunar eclipse) on the afternoon Jesus died, visible from Israel (Joel 2:31 and Acts 2:20).
http://www.bethlehemstar.net/dance/dance.htm
http://www.bethlehemstar.net/day/day.htm
Since star patterns are predictable, it's easy to go back in time and see what the sky looked like when. No rebuttals have been attempted.
Indeed. Here's one of those no rebuttals:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-9105-pos...#pid196272
And here's part 2:
http://atheistforums.org/thread-9105-pos...#pid196486
You're welcome.
Your first link seems to say that, yes, this series of events did happen in 2-3 BC but required "dedicated nightly observation by persons who must have known ahead of time what to look for." Well, astronomers and the constellations go back thousands of years. Persia (we'll suppose that is the 'East') was probably the most scientifically advanced region in the world. They did have astronomers who would track and record the patterns of the stars. They could even predict some of the paths. Old Testament prophecies spoke of a virgin and the Messiah from the line of Judah (lion or 'Leo'). Larson suggests the Magii were probably remnants of Jews from their captivity in Persia 400 years ago. Jews would have seen the significance of the lion and virgin, particularly when they are crowned by kingly Regulus. In any case, the whole point of the Star apologetically is that it may have formed on Jesus' date of birth while representing everything the prophesied Messiah was and Jesus was recorded to have been--born of a virgin, of the tribe of Judah, and "King of the Jews." Luke wrote the star event into his Gospel, so obviously it was a big enough to remember. If he made up the event, then you have an incredible coincidence. Either it was large enough to draw astronomers (rendering at least part of the story true) or Luke lucked out big time.
In your second link, you say "There was a series of interesting planetary motion during this period - but so what?" basically admitting it was interesting and symbolic, but not improbable to be a coincidence either. So I found no evidence against the bethlehem star, which is what I expected when you said "rebuttal." When one sees a pattern they usually jump to a conclusion. By that logic, the combination of old testament prophecy, description in the Gospel, and only recent discovery of a confirmation of that Gospel's description means more than coincidence. Why is there a virgin next to a lion in the sky at all, and the two just happen to signify Mary and Jesus' tribe? One answer is that God created the universe with Jesus in mind and designed the heavens to declare his glory (Psalm 19:1).
