(February 4, 2015 at 7:39 pm)SteveII Wrote: No it is not. I thought since you have strong opinions that you think are well-founded, you would has some theory to put forward. But it is nice to know know that you are only about "prove it" and not about the why of anything.
Steve,
Here's what will happen if I hazard a guess regarding Paul's motivation for fabricating his story. After my guess you will claim that I couldn't possibly know with certainty what I claimed while ignoring its plausibility. You will simultaneously conflate this with Paul having no motivation while ignoring that you cannot be at all certain of this position either. This poorly reasoned 'fact' that Paul had no motivation to create a work of fiction results in you claiming that the stories are fact. So, instead of typing all this out previously I cut to the chase with my previous comment that you are claiming the truth of the Jesus shit because I can't claim definitive knowledge of the mind of Paul. Piss poor reasoning.
Here's plausible motivation: Anyone who has read the NT knows that Paul's mission was to establish and grow a church. Making shit up to increase participation seems like reasonable motivation to stretch the truth. Simply consider Paul's change of heart regarding circumcision; he ran into a crowd that told him circumcision was a deal killer. By fiat Paul changed God's mind on the matter in order to build his church.
Add to it the fact that we have two relatively recent examples of charlatans making shit up to create a religion: L. Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith. Hubbard is on record claiming that to really get rich one should start a religion. What possible assurance can you provide that Paul wasn't pulling the same stunt? What do you think of Muhammad? What makes Paul right and Muhammad wrong?
