Jesus "a story too improbable not to be true."

[reverendjeremiah]

If you ever watch Joel Osteen preach, you can tell on his face that even he doesn't swallow the bullshit he's spewing. He's in it for the money.

Agreed

[Rev. Rye]

If you ever watch Joel Osteen preach, you can tell on his face that even he doesn't swallow the bullshit he's spewing. He's in it for the money.

Yeah. That's the thing about "prosperity gospel" preachers like Joel Osteen. They're very transparent about how they want more money.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Jesus "a story too improbable not to be true."

One of the more common and simple-minded apologist arguments. It could just as well be just be (and is) argued 'too improbable to BE be true" .Both arguments are based on the same logical fallacy; argument from incredulity/lack of imagination.

Argument from incredulity/Lack of imagination

Arguments from incredulity take the form:

P is too incredible (or: I cannot imagine how P could possibly be true); therefore P must be false.
It is obvious that P (or: I cannot imagine how P could possibly be false); therefore P must be true.

These arguments are similar to arguments from ignorance in that they too ignore and do not properly eliminate the possibility that something can be both incredible and still be true, or appear to be obvious and yet still be false.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance

[Anomalocaris]

The "too improbable not to be true" garbage harkens back to "credo quia absurdum" at the root of Christianity. But you have to be impressed by how utterly the very first Christian managed to condemn both Christians, and Christianity, with so pithy a phrase.

[Minimalist]

He's in it for the money.

So is the fucking pope.

[Cyberman]

He's in it for the money.

So is the fucking pope.

That's always been something that interests me. I can't think offhand of any other job for which a person needs to be either delusional and actually believe in fairytale crap, or else a deliberate liar, knowingly and hypocritically spreading bullshit while quietly racking up the old bank account. Except maybe politician, but even they don't get the free pass that popes and priests get.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I can't think offhand of any other job for which a person needs to be either delusional and actually believe in fairytale crap,

POTUS?( you just described G W Bush )

[Cyberman]

You missed a bit:

Except maybe politicians, but even they don't get the free pass that popes and priests get.

Also note that I didn't say that the delusional and the liars can't be found in other professions, just that only the priesthood seems to insist on those attributes as part of the job description.

[Happy UnBeliever]

You know if even if it were true and there is a 99.9% chance its not. Who could take anything the Bible says seriously, I mean really talking jackasses and snakes!

[reverendjeremiah]

You know if even if it were true and there is a 99.9% chance its not. Who could take anything the Bible says seriously, I mean really talking jackasses and snakes!

Who about Jonah's fish stomach apartment, or Jesus walking on water, turning water into wine, curing blindness with spit, raising the dead merely by telling them to "get up".

If things like that are considered "proof" that it actually happened...because they are so fantastic that they cant be false..

Then what of Marduk ripping Tiamat in half to create the earth and sky with her carcass?

Suddenly the Christian flip flops, and thinks that something like this is too fantastical to be true. It cant be. Only Jesus is true and fantastic. Anything else is fantastic and not true.