(March 21, 2012 at 4:47 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Once again, the OP said nothing about the resurrection. You are moving away from the topic. Many here claim that Jesus never existed.Quote:The OP suggests that without historical support Christianity falls apart.
There is a bit more to it than that. To quote H. L. Mencken:
Either Jesus rose from the dead or he didn't. If he did, then Christianity becomes plausible; if he did not, then it is sheer nonsense.
So, at step one we need some historical reference to an actual person and then they need some evidence that he came back from the dead...and rose to heaven and all that stuff. They have actual evidence for neither but it is not too much to ask that they demonstrate that there was such a person to then meet condition #2.
Again, these are burdens that we did not hand them. They are stuck with them because of their own beliefs.
That is merely an opinion based on a judgement of the number of sources and the quality of those sources needed to assert that as a fact. In order to be consistent, the person making the claim that Jesus did not exist must apply the same standards to other figures of ancient history, like Socrates.
I'm already anticipating the retort about, "extra-ordinary claims having a higher burden of proof." So I want to remind everyone that the central question is focused entirely on whether Jesus was an historical figure or not. It has nothing to do with legends surrounding the man.