(October 26, 2013 at 2:19 pm)MindForgedManacle Wrote: Aractus, from what I can tell you're parroting William Lane Craig's claim that those are the 4 indispute facts regarding Jesus. Couple of responses.I'm not sure exactly who pointed these out, however they hold as true, including for people like Ehrman who are secular/non-believing NT/Greek historians/scholars.
Firstly, I've heard Ehrman voice some disagreement with such. He has mentioned that he at best agrees with 1 and a half of those facts. Further (assuming I didn't misunderstand him), in his debate with William Lane Craig he said that even within the NT scholar/critic community, Craig has tried to hide the fact that he holds a minority position regarding his views on questions of Jesus' historicity.
You could think of it in terms of Holocaust denial. Some of the "facts" are open for discussion, such as the exact number of people who were killed - estimated to be 11 million - but I don't think anyone would be surprised if that figured turned out to be 11.5 million or 12 million. But some of the indisputable facts would be that Nazi's targeted Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled and people who resisted the Nazi regime. That they systematically and deliberately practised genocide, in addition to forced labour.
The same can be said for the life of Christ - there are some facts - in fact well more than the four that I've listed - that are well beyond disputed. Other facts would include that Paul wrote "at least" these 7 epistles: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
For Religion & Health see:[/b][/size] Williams & Sternthal. (2007). Spirituality, religion and health: Evidence and research directions. Med. J. Aust., 186(10), S47-S50. -LINK
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke
The WIN/Gallup End of Year Survey 2013 found the US was perceived to be the greatest threat to world peace by a huge margin, with 24% of respondents fearful of the US followed by: 8% for Pakistan, and 6% for China. This was followed by 5% each for: Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, North Korea. -LINK
"That's disgusting. There were clean athletes out there that have had their whole careers ruined by people like Lance Armstrong who just bended thoughts to fit their circumstances. He didn't look up cheating because he wanted to stop, he wanted to justify what he was doing and to keep that continuing on." - Nicole Cooke



