(August 14, 2013 at 8:50 am)pineapplebunnybounce Wrote: (reply)
Thank you for your reply.
So the question I'm insistently asking is, where did the fundamental changes in belief come from? Your suggestions-
Quote: It could've been driven by faith, motive, profit, may even have been rewritten
Faith- how could a change in faith be driven by faith? If I believe X is a true religious statement, then I will assert X until something changes my ideas (what I think happened here).
Motive- my point exactly; what motive?
Profit- given the atmosphere in C1 Israel, a really good kicking is considerably more likely than profit. Can I stress that religion wasn't a game there. Get it wrong, and your death would be painful and imminent, from the Romans, the Sanhedrin or the lynch mob.
May have been rewritten- I'm not sure what you think was rewritten, or how rewriting something could affect belief in this case.
Quote: You do know that there are several living humans claiming to be messiahs right now and they all have a following?
And if enough evidence is generated that one of them in the future has indeed inaugurated 'Olam Ha Ba' (the age to come) we will all need to review our beliefs. I am suggesting such evidence exists in the case of Jesus.
Quote: And jesus was supposedly tortured...he probably had a lot of facial hair...so they pretend.
I have no idea whether Jesus had a beard or not. That one has origins in art, not historical study. (I believe long hair wasn't the fashion at the time, contra Hollywood.) The claim that he was facially mutilated beyond recognition also has no basis. The disciples were in no doubt that they had seen Jesus resurrected. The suggestion that a facially damaged person wandered in claiming to be him (why?) and they believed it (why?), whilst highly original, fails on plausibility.
Quote: Maybe someone heard something wrong, and then this belief started, and then the disciples thought it'd be a good idea to keep it going.
Heard what wrong? How could that create a huge change in beliefs on a series of vitally important questions? Why would the disciples think it a good idea to continue (again, religion wasn't a game)?
Quote: I don't know, Vicki, I wasn't there, a million things could've happened.
I'm still waiting for any one which has me going “Actually, that's a decent alternative”.
I don't think any scientific laws were broken at all. Our understanding of Science is incomplete, and needs revising according to evidence.
If we start with an open mind on the existence of God, then there is reason to suppose that He could communicate with us by appearing in human form. Could this human form be killed? What would happen if it did? We have no data to help us with these questions.
And if my mother appeared to me and made me dinner, it would have exactly the same sort of impact on my beliefs that Jesus re-appearance had on the disciples beliefs.
Quote: science wins every time.
Science, Linguistics, Geography. Which is better?
