(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: All you're doing is creating a needless division. There are facts that everyone, atheist, Christian, Muslim and Jew can agree upon you know.
We're talking about the lies in there - incidental facts are irrelevant.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: Okay and where's the evidence for that?
Made up stuff is evidence of someone making it up.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: Why would they do that?
Already told you: Mundane events of Jesus walking around and giving lectures won't draw in much of a following. But make up a miracle or two and suddenly you have a crowd. THAT would be the benefit.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: If they were making stuff up themselves then why did the synoptic gospel writers rely on a common written source?
To get their stories straight.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: You are not familiar with the contradictions, I am. Many of the contradictions in that list are nonsense, many are duplicated. For instance the genealogy is counted multiple times. Some are not even based on facts or events but on theology! If that list is your basis then you'd loose just about any argument with a Christian because it's a very poor quality one. It pretty much just lists a bunch of inconsistencies, not contradictions (although there are contradictions are hidden away in there), and you've shown no understanding of where the contradictions are and how to identify them.
If you are familiar with contradictions and consider the list to be of low quality then it should be easy for you to refute it. Put your money where your mouth is and then we can move on to the next list.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: Here's an actual contradiction that doesn't appear anywhere in your low quality list:
Mark 5:1: "They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes."
Luke 8:26: "Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee."
Matt 8:28: "And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, ..."
It is one of the relatively few examples of an actual contradiction in the NT. It's not just an inconsistency because both can't be true at the same time.
Gimme a few more.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: Furthermore, those kinds of inconsistencies in the list you posted are what you would expect to see in different accounts of the same event recorded by different people - there's nothing about them that suggests the authors are liars or inventing the stories as they go as is your claim. Whenever you have more than one account of an event there will always be inconsistencies, and some will be irreconcilably inconsistent (which is when that inconsistency becomes a contradiction).
That's the best evidence you have of their reliability - that they could be telling the truth and all of them made mistakes about the specifics? That's not much.
(September 19, 2014 at 1:42 am)Aractus Wrote: As I said before the NT contains a number of inconsistencies, but not very many actual contradictions - especially outside of the nativity. Get a better list - a more honest list. Because if you're going to accuse people of lying you can't use a blatantly dishonest list like that one.
Now who is accusing people of lying?
