RE: The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
May 24, 2015 at 11:14 am
(This post was last modified: May 24, 2015 at 11:24 am by Jenny A.)
Randy,
I think you need to think about what the word plausible means. For example, how would you rate these events on a scale of one to ten, least to most plausible:
1) I had a cup of coffee this morning.
2) I saw a turkey walking down our suburban street yesterday.
3) I won the lottery several years ago, but I gambled the money away.
4) One of my children is a mathematical genius.
5) I own a cat that can open doors.
6) Someone dug up a grave in the cemetery down the street.
7) I raise flamingos for a living.
8) A duck billed platypus wandered in to my Oregon dining room.
9) I've met Big Foot.
10) My husband died of gun shot wounds three days ago. Today he visited alive and well and I touched the wounds.
I've placed them in my order. The first is very plausible. The second not so much, but far from impossible as I live near a small woods and turkeys do live here. Someone always wins the lottery and many people do piss the money away. Mathematical geniuses do exist and it is possible that I might have given birth to one. Cats do some pretty amazing things. People do dig up graves. Flamingos exist, but it would be hard to explain how I made a living raising them, though it's within the realm of possibility. Duck bill platypuses exist, but they are rare and they don't live in Oregon. Big foot sighting have been revealed as hoaxes so often without anyone actually producing one, that I find the idea that I met one highly implausible. The last is the least plausible of all as it describes an event ordinarily considered impossible.
On that scale the proposition that Jesus was buried in a shallow grave and dug up by dogs is about a 2 or 3 given that that is what often happened to people who were crucified. That he was buried in a tomb is about 5 to 7, since the Romans did not ordinarily allow relatives or anyone else to give executed persons a decent burial. That he rose from the dead is a ten.
I think you need to think about what the word plausible means. For example, how would you rate these events on a scale of one to ten, least to most plausible:
1) I had a cup of coffee this morning.
2) I saw a turkey walking down our suburban street yesterday.
3) I won the lottery several years ago, but I gambled the money away.
4) One of my children is a mathematical genius.
5) I own a cat that can open doors.
6) Someone dug up a grave in the cemetery down the street.
7) I raise flamingos for a living.
8) A duck billed platypus wandered in to my Oregon dining room.
9) I've met Big Foot.
10) My husband died of gun shot wounds three days ago. Today he visited alive and well and I touched the wounds.
I've placed them in my order. The first is very plausible. The second not so much, but far from impossible as I live near a small woods and turkeys do live here. Someone always wins the lottery and many people do piss the money away. Mathematical geniuses do exist and it is possible that I might have given birth to one. Cats do some pretty amazing things. People do dig up graves. Flamingos exist, but it would be hard to explain how I made a living raising them, though it's within the realm of possibility. Duck bill platypuses exist, but they are rare and they don't live in Oregon. Big foot sighting have been revealed as hoaxes so often without anyone actually producing one, that I find the idea that I met one highly implausible. The last is the least plausible of all as it describes an event ordinarily considered impossible.
On that scale the proposition that Jesus was buried in a shallow grave and dug up by dogs is about a 2 or 3 given that that is what often happened to people who were crucified. That he was buried in a tomb is about 5 to 7, since the Romans did not ordinarily allow relatives or anyone else to give executed persons a decent burial. That he rose from the dead is a ten.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
