Modern examples of gullibility as evidence against Christian claims

[Tea Earl Grey Hot]

How can you guys be so sure that Jesus fulfilled any prophecy if no NT writer saw Jesus for themselves?

Mark, Matthew and John were eyewitness followers of Jesus. We can reasonably conclude this because of the detail of their separate writings and because other 1st and 2nd century writers mention them and/or quote their book, as well as internal agreement (http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6187). Jews were not known for their myths--they didn't have any (apart from what naysayers allege) and they considered such pagan works blasphemous. Can you write a book in which your character fulfills several hundred predictions? And sell it to a rigid, skeptical audience as history from within their lifetime?
FallentoReason, do you believe Jesus was a real man? Why or why not?

Thor basically replied what I was going to say to you. I would add too Christianity was tiny tiny tiny movement in its first 200 years so it's not like they were very successful at "selling" Christianity in the first place to the jews. You make it sound like there was a big explosion of Christianity that took a sizable chunk of jews against all odds. Christianity eventually opened up to gentiles too which helped its growth. Judaism was already attractive to many gentiles before Christianity came along and Christianity provided what they liked about Judaism without all the food laws and the nasty circumcision (this depended of course on which sect of Christianity you went to though).

I'd recommend reading Richard Carrier's "Not the Impossible Faith" where he spends over 500 pages demolishing the argument that Christianity couldn't have been successful without a supernatural cause. I've seen every argument you used refuted in that book.