(October 27, 2014 at 8:45 am)abaris Wrote: Let me put it this way: That some people may have believed that miracles occured. And we know nothing about Jesus's followers outside the bible. There are no contemporary accounts, but there may well have been campfire tales. And as it is with such tales, they grow and grow.We agree on everything here except that "we know nothing about Jesus's followers outside the bible." There are numerous writings by Christians of various background that didn't make it into the Canon. One with a historical interest can't eliminate the value of such testimony as it regards early Christian belief and practice because of the author's conversion to Christianity any more than a person's allegiance to Greece or Rome, or an Epicurean or Stoic philosophy for that matter, discredits everything they say.
The people Jesus supposedly preached to were superstitious illiterates that knew next to nothing about the world surrounding them.
The tales of Jesus aren't any more credible than Homer's Iliad. Yes, there is actually a city named Troy, yes, there has been fighting. But there's no evidence of Apoll showing up to shoot Achill with his arrow.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza