It still remains that if Christianity is based on recycling old myths (including the Teacher of Righteousness):
1. The eyewitnesses of John, Peter, and James lied (with or without Paul's help). There has yet to be a plausible reason for such involved and far reaching deceit. Seeing the problem with that, some of you say, "Well, not so much as a lie...as...". Sorry, the deceit had to be intentional.
2. John, Peter, and James (with or without Paul's help) had access to all the myths mentioned (from Egyptian, Sumerian, Roman, Greek, eastern religions, etc.) and cleverly used them to be compatible with not only monotheism, but the monotheism of the OT.
I have yet to hear any scenario that is more probably than the disciples ALL believed what they were saying was true; and since some of them were eyewitnesses, they believed they saw these events (most important being the resurrection of Jesus). It is important to note that it does not matter what you believe about the events of Jesus' life or if you think their belief rational.
If the disciples all believed what they saw, wrote and spoke of, then the hypothesis of this thread, that Christianity is based on recycled myths, fails.
1. The eyewitnesses of John, Peter, and James lied (with or without Paul's help). There has yet to be a plausible reason for such involved and far reaching deceit. Seeing the problem with that, some of you say, "Well, not so much as a lie...as...". Sorry, the deceit had to be intentional.
2. John, Peter, and James (with or without Paul's help) had access to all the myths mentioned (from Egyptian, Sumerian, Roman, Greek, eastern religions, etc.) and cleverly used them to be compatible with not only monotheism, but the monotheism of the OT.
I have yet to hear any scenario that is more probably than the disciples ALL believed what they were saying was true; and since some of them were eyewitnesses, they believed they saw these events (most important being the resurrection of Jesus). It is important to note that it does not matter what you believe about the events of Jesus' life or if you think their belief rational.
If the disciples all believed what they saw, wrote and spoke of, then the hypothesis of this thread, that Christianity is based on recycled myths, fails.
