The usual introductions

[frankiej]

Inference/evidence of design, historical evidence for Jesus's existence and resurrection

This should be fun.

[Fryslân]

Hi and welcome!


We believe what we do in sight of the evidence provided.


What made you change your mind?

It was a number of things that slowly built up over time;

Inference/evidence of design, historical evidence for Jesus's existence and resurrection, my own experiences at the time and the testimonies of the Christians I had met.

It was enough for me to get started. It wasn't enough for it to be useful or simply believing it because it sounded great. There had to be evidence and like you've said, I believe in sight of that evidence. Since then I've continued to look at the evidence.

That's just a brief overview

What evidence?

[Reforged]

Awesome well we have abit of an induction procedure. Basically you're locked in a small, dark cellar with me for about half an hour. Its kind of a new thing we've implemented to catch up to the Catholics in terms of popularity and progress.
So, lets get this over with. Not going to lie, this will be a thoroughly unpleasant experience that will haunt you for the rest of your life and I will probably sing Victorian era nursery rhymes while its happening.
Aside from that enjoy your stay here. :-)

[Grazer501]

Inference/evidence of design, historical evidence for Jesus's existence and resurrection

This should be fun.

That's a popular reaction from atheists when this gets mentioned.

[Reforged]

This should be fun.

That's a popular reaction from atheists when this gets mentioned.

What are the other reactions?

[frankiej]

That's a popular reaction from atheists when this gets mentioned.

What are the other reactions?

Usually this

[Ace Otana]

This should be fun.

That's a popular reaction from atheists when this gets mentioned.

Well we do get a number of theists giving so-called 'evidence' but isn't actually evidence of anything.

[greneknight]

This should be fun.

That's a popular reaction from atheists when this gets mentioned.

Hi Grazer,

Welcome!!! I'm a Christian and an altar boy too. But I don't accept that there is any evidence or rational argument for the faith. I love doing debates and Tiberius, the chief here, just told me that there is a formal debate in AF and I'm going to debate with Godschild (a devout Christian) and I'll be arguing that the Bible contains untruths, falsehoods and even deliberate lies. If you like to do debates, do let me know. I'm also exploring my own faith and who knows, I might be converted to become a believing Christian.

Welcome again!!!

[Dumac Dwarfking]

It was a number of things that slowly built up over time;

Inference/evidence of design, historical evidence for Jesus's existence and resurrection, my own experiences at the time and the testimonies of the Christians I had met.

It was enough for me to get started. It wasn't enough for it to be useful or simply believing it because it sounded great. There had to be evidence and like you've said, I believe in sight of that evidence. Since then I've continued to look at the evidence.

That's just a brief overview

What evidence?

With regards to whether Jesus, or at least his stories were true, there is no evidence to support the case other than accounts in bible. In order for the accounts in the bible to qualify as being credible sources of evidence they would need to be contemporary accounts that took place close to the time of the events, they would need to be independent of one another (so not from the same author, or from a single bias group), there would need to be lotsof them, and they would need to be consistent with one another. The books pertaining to the resurrection of Christ in the bible adhere to none of these criteria. Without evidence, I have no reason to believe that he existed.

As for the big bang, that theory is predicated on the fact that the universe is always expanding, as evidenced by the cosmological red shift. In an expanding universe, the distance between two points it constantly increasing, thus affecting light travelling through that distance by stretching the wavelength. In the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum, red light has a longer wavelength than blue light, so cosmologists refer to this process as redshifting. It is testable and observable. I'm sure you'll find plenty of people here who know far more than myself on the subject, and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

As for evolution, here is a link that you may read at your own leisure - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/what_facts_support_evolution

[jonb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFx_QEi-vww
Why- What is the point of a god, not why do you want one, but what is its justification for it's existence is there any more to it than a cat or a cloud?