Is Christianity Illogical?

[spockrates]

It would be committing an informal fallacy to adopt the opinion of an amateure when it contradicts that of the vast majority of professional scholars. Such would be illogical.

...no, that doesn't contradict logic. Trusting the professional opinion of a vast majority of scholars might be a useful heuristic--that is, it might lead you to true beliefs more often than it leads you to false beliefs--but that doesn't make it illogical to disagree with a vast majority of professional scholars.

A layperson (in the sense of not being a scientist) in, say, 1600 who believes that something like black holes exist...is not committing an error in logic merely because a vast majority of members in the set of "professional scholars" disagrees with his belief.

And when you really think about it, your argument would lead to some absurdity. Suppose that at time t, a vast majority of scholars believes that p. If your argument is true, then it entails contradiction for an amateur to assert ~p at time t.

Now suppose that at some time t' > t, a vast majority of scholars believes that ~p. If your argument is true, then it does not entail contradiction for an amateur to assert ~p at time t'.

Isn't this an absurd result? If ~p entails contradiction at time t, shouldn't it also entail contradiction at time t'? That is, either p entails contradiction, or it does not; why should this vary over time?

Yes, that sounds reasonable. Thank you. Please allow me to clarify: It is an informal logical fallacy to take the word of someone whose knowledge of the subject is suspect. Example: The profession basketball player Shak recommending the use of the Icy Hot patch to heal damaged muscle tissue. The man may be an expert in basketball, but not in medicine. Before one uses the patch, it would be wise to consult a physician.

Now in the case of the translation of the Greek word of the gospel being rope, rather than camel, the person suggesting this needs to demonstrate the one claiming the alternate translation knows what she is talking about. Sound reasonable?