The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Hilarious. Ehrman is an atheist, so naturally he will draw some conclusions that I do not agree with.

But one thing is clear: Ehrman schools you again on the fact that yes, Jesus did exist.

So, what we're down to, Min, is the fact that Jesus really did exist and your whole life at this point is built upon the lie that He did not.

That's kinda sad, actually. Really sad.

I've never been a "Jesus Mythicist", like Carrier, but I still think Carrier's work needs to be carefully considered. I have always agreed with Ehrman's conclusion that it's likely Jesus was a real person, though I think Ehrman didn't consider thoroughly enough that Josephus' references to Christian testimony strongly implies it is testimony given at their execution trials (either by transcript or by interviewing the condemned). As such, it would not be necessarily indicative of a real Jesus or even a real trial by Pilate based on Roman records, but of a narrative gained from those condemned Christians about what happened. My Biblical History professor (a member of the team of scholars who translated the Nag Hammadi scrolls) and I had quite a long discussion about whether or not we could trust Ehrman's conclusion of Josephus' and Tacitus' historicity accounts, and pretty much came to the conclusion that it seems likely Jesus was a real person, but there are too many after-the-fact forgeries and too little information about sources of the data upon which the two rely to make a solid conclusion. Given that there was unquestionably a group called Christians, we decided to err on the side of "yeah he probably existed". None of this, of course, leads me to conclude that he was the Son of God or otherwise divine.

I don't understand how "Aha! Jesus existed!" is in any way a triumph for apologetics, since a large number of atheists (myself included) have no problem with an historical Jesus.

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I wasn't here for the C_L "bullying" incident, but I suspect it was just a fierce contention of an issue that got out of hand. People can get emotional and drop the pretense of civility that forms the basis of most social interactions. Given that she has such a high reputation, now, I suspect you're slanting the evidence here.

In case you are interested: http://atheistforums.org/thread-34779.html

Thanks for the kind words, btw.

I'll check it out when my fingers are not flying so furiously (and I can tone down the alliteration, apparently). 

I rarely agree with you, C_L, as you know... but your heart is kind and in the right place, and I think that is the single most important consideration when taking the measure of a person. So I like the hell out of ye.

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I may have to try that for myself as I am skeptical of that. However of the three major atheist forums: this one, ttaf, and A+ I know here and over at ttaf many theists are allowed to post freely provided they follow the same rules as everyone else. Now A+ is a bit different, but they have a rap for being nuts over there. 

TTAF is a great forum, but I just left there to come here because  they would not censor one particularly obnoxious Creationist, even to make him stop with mountains of copypasta, and I got tired of carrying the weight of debunking his Irreducible Complexity nonsense.