Pascal's Wager and the Selfishness of a "Good God"

[Thor]

It is believed by some scholars that Tactius gained his information about Christ from official records, perhaps actual reports written by Pilate.

Pure speculation. Where are these "official records"? Plus, Tacitus was born in 64 CE, well AFTER Jesus supposedly died.

Next.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillas, chief secretary of Emperor Hadrian, wrote, "Because the Jews at Rome caused continuous disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he expelled them from the City."

Suetonius was born in 69 CE. Again, well after Jesus supposedly lived. All he can offer is hearsay.

Next.

Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, a member of a priestly family and who became a Pharisee at the age of 19, became the court historian for Emperor Vespasian. In the Antiquities, he wrote about many persons and events of first century Palestine. He makes two references to Jesus.

BZZZZZZZZZTTT!!!

Josephus was born in 37 CE. Again, after Jesus supposedly died. Plus, many scholars believe his accounts of Jesus were inserted at a later date (probably by Eusebius). In any case, Josephus could not have been an eyewitness. At best, all he can offer is hearsay.

What else ya got?

Cornelius Tacitus
Tacitus lived from A.D. 55 to A.D. 120.

Stop right there! Tacitus wasn't born until over two decades AFTER Jesus supposedly died! AGAIN, all he can offer is hearsay!

Anything else?

Yes, there are no Atheist in fox-holes.

Bullshit. Why would an atheist suddenly turn to a being he doesn't believe exists just because his life is in peril? This makes no sense! Having been in the military, I can tell you that I never considered looking to an imaginary being for protection.

Everyone cries out for GOD at somepoint in their life.

Yes, I do it all the time. Mostly during sex. What? Do you expect us to cry out "Oh, Darwin!"?

We have no reason for being here if there is no God.

What a pile of crap! This statement is incredibly arrogant. Do you think some supernatural being created the entire universe, with all its galaxies, stars and planets, just for you?

Everything in life has a meaning and a purpose along with reasoning.

Really? Then please explain the "purpose" of Adolph Hitler or Pol Pot.

To simply state "I dont know why we are here is not enough, it seems null and invalid for us as humans to just simply exsist.

You want to plug "God" into gaps of human knowledge. This places you on the same level as the ancients who couldn't understand what caused natural phenomena, so they attributed it to a god of some sort.

Lucian of Samosata
Lucian was a Greek satirist of the latter half of the second century. He therefore lived within two hundred years of Jesus.

And he couldn't have possibly been an eyewitness to anything involving Jesus.

Next.

Pliny the Younger
Pliny was the Governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor (AD. 112). He was responsible for executing Christians for not worshipping or bowing down to a statue of the emperor Trajan. In a letter to the emperor Trajan, he describes how the people on trial for being Christians would describe how they sang songs to Christ because he was a god.

Pliny the Younger was born in 62 CE. Do I have to again point out the problem here?

Thallus and Phlegon
Both were ancient historians and both confirmed the fact that the land went dark when Jesus was crucified. This parallels what the Bible said happened when Jesus died.

We don't know when Thallus lived and we only have a few scraps of his work. Not exactly a source to hang your hat on. And Phlegon was born somewhere around 80 CE. So he could not possibly have confirmed ANYTHING that happened several decades before he was born!

Mara Bar-Serapion
Some time after 70 A.D., Mara Bar-Sarapion, who was probably a Stoic philosopher, wrote a letter to his son in which he describes how the Jews executed their King.

Actually, the letter was composed sometime between 73 CE and the 3rd century. Do I need to point out the problem here?

So, to summarize, what you've offered is a collection of writings by people who could not have been eyewitnesses.

Fail.

[Minimalist]

He was a Roman historian and has been described as the greatest historian of Rome,

Yes he was which makes it all the more odd that not a single ancient writer, xtian or otherwise, commented on this passage. In fact, nothing resembling it shows up until the early 5th century when a writer names Sulpicius Severus in Chronica makes some of the statements about Nero but does not mention Pilate or any of that other crap.

The Tacitus reference thus appears to be a much later xtian interpolation. Xtians were known for creating such lies. Josephus' Testimonium Flavianum being the most obvious.

BTW, before you get your JW kniickers in a twist, realize that not a single Roman writer Pliny, Suetonius, or Tacitus ever mentions the word "jesus." They mention "christ" ( christos ) which is merely Greek for "the anointed one" but none of them ever seem to have heard of anyone named "jesus."

At one point, Suetonius does mention Chrestus ( a Greek name ) but places him in Rome during the reign of Claudius. Your godboy was supposedly long dead by then so this one can be disregarded.