(August 14, 2012 at 11:56 pm)FallentoReason Wrote:(August 14, 2012 at 3:51 pm)spockrates Wrote: What are they? Reason for asking: I've been told by thoughtful atheists that looking for logical contradictions in Christian beliefs, or within the pages of the Bible is a waste of time. The explanation given is that there are much better reasons to give up on being Christian. I'm just wondering what the better reasons are so I can try them on and see how they fit.
For me personally I see a contradiction between what gets taught in any church today and what the history of the time has to say for itself. Even the Bible itself disagrees with e.g. Matthew/John being the ones who wrote their Gospels (they're in 3rd person).
After the many things that just didn't add up I got to a point where I had to be honest with myself and accept it for what it was... And personally it was anything but the story of the Son of God coming to save the world from what HE started.
Thucydides is believed by many scholars to be the greatest historian of ancient Greece. Does the fact that he wrote of himself in the third person prove he did not write any of the works scholars attribute to him?
http://www.answers.com/topic/thucydides
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Thucydides
(born 460died 404 ) Greatest of ancient Greek historians. An Athenian who commanded a fleet in the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides failed to prevent the capture of the important city of Amphipolis and consequently was exiled for 20 years. During that period he wrote his History of the Peloponnesian War; evidently he did not live to complete it, for it stops abruptly in 411 . It presents the first recorded political and moral analysis of a nation's war policies, treating the causes of the conflict, the characters of the two states, and the technical aspects of warfare in a carefully drawn, strictly chronological narrative of events, including some in which he took an active part.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
Thucydides
Thucydides writes of himself in the third person in his History. He relates that he was a general at the age of 30 (4.104); indicated that he was of the age of discretion during the entire war (5.26.5); expresses his pride as a soldier and his devotion to Pericles (2.31); defends the generals at Megara (4.73.4); reveals that he owns property in the mining district in Thrace (4.105.1); and relates the fact of his exile and the circumstances surrounding it (5.26).
"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains (no matter how improbable) must be the truth."
--Spock
--Spock