(October 18, 2013 at 1:01 pm)DeistPaladin Wrote: It's not a red herring when it relates to your assertions.Yes, but it doesn't relate, so it is a red herring.
Quote:I've pointed out contradictions in the Gospel accounts.You've alleged contradictions.
Quote:Your counter-thesis is that it's just not possible there could have been any contradictions because Christians would have been aware of them and wouldn't have believed them if that had been the case.No, my main argument was that there was no contradiction based on the text alone. You needed to add to the text to create contradiction. Then regarding historical events I noted that I take the word of people who lived close in time to the events over the word of some historians thousands of years later. It was only when you misunderstood this argument and said that early Christians didn't have both Matt & Luke for comparison that I had to show you're wrong on that count, too.
Therefore, your logic seems to be, that there either must be an undefined very good reason for the contradictions or else historians must be wrong about the dates.
Quote:This is not just ad hoc reasoning but the ad hocs themselves aren't even proposed or defined. It's furthermore based on the bare assertion fallacy that the early Christians were all very well-educated and knew the dates of events like the death of Herod the Great with pin-point accuracy.Bullshit. You're alleging a difference of ten years. They didn't need pinpoint accuracy. If Luke were off on the rulers by ten years, people of the time would have known. Your desperation is showing in the pinpoint accuracy exaggeration.
Quote:But brushing past your bare assertions and arguments from incredulity, I have pointed out that, according to the very Bible, there were early Christians during the lifetime of John who didn't believe Jesus was a flesh-and-blood being, surely a historical reality more obvious than the trivia of when a certain political leader died. Hence, a counter-example has been offered that does not conform to your thesis that the early Christians were both skeptical and fully educated about history.Again, a theological position has nothing to do with knowledge of mundane history. Non sequitur and poisoning the well fallacies.
Quote:If I'm wrong about you, my dead father just spoke to me and told me to tell you that Jesus isn't real and you should worship the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Now prove me wrong.Until I have reason to believe that you've provided extraordinary evidence, you're not on the level of Jesus and the apostles.