(December 15, 2012 at 11:12 pm)Undeceived Wrote:(December 15, 2012 at 10:27 pm)FallentoReason Wrote: What happens when you find multiple copies of Anne's work and you realised there's events that have been added that earlier copies don't have? Does the reliability of the diary rise, drop or stay the same?You would look at the first copy and see if the additions at all conflict with its content. The reliability of the first copy doesn't change. I don't see what this has to do with the Gospels. There are what, three chapters in their entirety that were added a few years later? All the critical components are written within thirty years of Jesus' life--and supported by outside sources. An "addition" ten years after that point is hardly any more likely to be fictional.
So one question: Say “Mark” was discovered to have been written in A.D.33. Would that make you consider it less likely to be fictional?
What "outside sources" are you referring to? The three historians who never mentioned Jesus but did mention his followers? Or the one guy who did mention Jesus by name but the flow of his prose abruptly changes from his previous entries when he does? What about the other 40 recorders of history at the time within the geological proximity to these events who didn't have a single thing to say on the topic?
Besides that, are you aware of the Council of Nicea, where basically a bunch of people got together 300 years after the fact and inserted or removed into/from canon a bunch of shit in the bible, which led to the bible as we know it today? In other words, the bible has been cherry-picked after the fact. By men who stood to gain the most from it; power, sway, and influence. Because, funny thing, they did; it was called the beginning of the catholic church, now one of the most powerful institutions in the world and the face of Christianity for over a millenia.
And yet despite the cherry-picking there's STILL a bunch of contradictions in the bible! The gospel writers, the "canon" ones, couldn't even figure out what the hell the sign over Jesus' head said, or how many people were there to witness him being on the cross, or how many people went into the cave where he was buried, or what the hell his life was like before he started wandering the desert! THE MOST IMPORTANT MAN TO THE LARGEST RELIGION IN THE WORLD and we don't even know his fucking life story?? We know the intricate details of motherfucking King Tut, but NOT of Jesus Christ until he started spouting his shit that is just so coincidentally well-suited to ensuring that people on high can stay on high and those on the bottom can be satisfied with their shitty lots in life. THEN suddenly we know ALL about it. How convenient!
And you don't feel ANY suspicion about this? None at ALL? Seriously, drop the pretense of being afraid of eternal damnation for a moment [especially since you've never witnessed anything to suggest it actually exists], and just THINK about how all this is stacking up. If this were a relationship [and according to you Christians it is supposed to be that, actually], at this point, if you were a complete gullible idiot you'd be questioning your significant other about her behavior; why is she going out at 11pm wearing a red low-cut dress that's cut just under her ass while wearing thigh-high leather boots with 6 inch heels and coming back with her hair messy and her face flushed and sighing contently, when she said all she was doing was going out to get some groceries [despite the fact you've never seen any grocery store in the area open past 10 pm]? And why does she never come BACK with the groceries? And why does she leave the room when certain calls are received? And why does the number calling her always match the one that calls her just before she leaves at night?
If you refuse to acknowledge all this shit piling up against your "faith," then you're essentially as gullible and stupid as the guy who, witnessing all this, just shrugs and goes "Eh. Maybe she's just really, really trying to find groceries and it gets her really flustered when she can't find them...and maybe she's being called by someone who really loves groceries too and she just doesn't want to bore me with the ambience of their conversation about it because she knows they bore me. She's totally faithful to me, she's telling the truth, I KNOW she is because I have FAITH."
That's you. You're that guy. ALL Christians are THAT GUY.
