"Gospel Quest" (or The Jesus Timeline)

[Simon Moon]

Are you saying that their belief precedes looking at the evidence?

Of course their belief precedes looking at the evidence. And on a side note, the Bible is not evidence, the Bible is the claim.

Imagine an alien coming to earth to study ancient texts. He has no knowledge of our religions, no beliefs about them one way or the other.

Besides the texts themselves, their sources, the people that wrote them, the previous myths they borrowed from, various translations, etc, etc, what would you expect this alien to find? That they actually tell of real supernatural events? Please...

Where did you get an idea like that?

From reality.

Is it possible to just up and believe something without knowing anything about it?

No. One must be informed of the premise, and the reasons to believe it before they will believe it.

Belief is the psychological state in which one accepts that a premise of proposition is true.

Where do you get the idea that blind faith is possible?

What do you mean by 'blind faith'? There seems to be many definitions for this phrase.

There was some evidence that first caused the believing scholar to believe, and that particular examining was not dependent on religion.

If so, then their level of what qualifies as evidence is pretty low.

William Lane Craig, for example, has said that 'the witness of the Holy Spirit' is all he needs. Which means he is basing his beliefs on a feeling, not good evidence.