More Faith than Thomas

[FadingW]

If we believe the bible is a true account, the disciples including Thomas saw Jesus do many amazing things like multiplying food and healing blindness.

Yet supposedly Thomas would not believe Jesus rose from the dead, refused to until he could feel the wounds himself. He had the right idea.

Does christianity demand a measure of faith that even a supposed disciple of Jesus didn't have?

[Minimalist]

The "apostles" were there to serve as the Greek chorus for this little drama. It was their job to say "Holy Shit, Lord!" every time he did one of his magic tricks.

You'd think that after a while these assholes would come to expect this kind of behavior but it looks like that wasn't in the script.

[chatpilot]

Thomas questioned the resurrection of Christ and John the Baptist questioned whether Jesus was in fact the messiah Luke 7:20. Today's Christianity especially the fundamentalist/literalist don't question anything, they believe everything they hear. I agree with you FadingW that todays Christianity does in fact require more faith than that shown by the disciples of the mythical Christ.

[DeistPaladin]

Thomas is actually an example of what I would call "irrational skepticism". This is a refusal to believe something despite overwhelming evidence to support it.

What I call "irrational skepticism" includes:

"The lunar landing was faked"
"Evolution is just a lie made up by atheists"
"Global warming isn't really happening"

In the case of Thomas, according to the story, he'd witnessed:

- Jesus resurrecting three different people
- Jesus walking on water
- Jesus healing countless sick and handicapped people
- A booming voice from above introducing Jesus as his son
- Feeding thousands with magically generated food
- His transfiguration with, once again, the booming voice from above
- Jesus explaining on multiple occasions that he would die and be raised again

Now if you or I had witnessed such things, would it be rational to insist that he couldn't be back from the dead? Or would we be saying, "Oh, back from the dead is he? Did he say how things were on the other side?"

How many miracles do you need to witness to realize you're not dealing with an ordinary person?

I repeat what I said earlier, if you want to convince me Islam or Christianity is real, go heal Stephen Hawking and I will convert on the spot.