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Recent content by Snark

  1. S

    What is the purpose behind an eternal hell?

    Hypothetically, #2 could also be possible. It could be in the gospels etc. specifically to act as a deterrent. But if anything that's worse for me. Because it means that the Christian God believes that eternal torment is justified for the 'crime' of refusing to submit to him and is hoping to...
  2. S

    Reincarnation? Not A Chance!

    So your entire argument is that reincarnation is wrong because your holy book says it is? That's pretty unconvincing. Their holy book says it exists. How do you propose we decide which is correct?
  3. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    Philosophy. Art. Literature. Music. Journalism. Political theory. Even marketing if we must. (Are we considering the social sciences to be scientific subjects for this discussion? They don't follow the scientific method at least) I'll admit freely that they don't produce consistent goals in the...
  4. S

    Jesus - Was he anything more than a political figure?

    I'm with you to an extent, but I think you take the conclusions too far. It's fair to draw the distinction between astrology and the resurrection. As you fairly point out, where believers in astrology have a large amount of confirmation bias, Jews at the time of Jesus were disinclined to...
  5. S

    Jesus - Was he anything more than a political figure?

    It's certainly a compelling argument for those who believe it. But not in general; people at the time mostly rejected the claim. Various religions and individuals have made miraculous claims. Few of those have reached the status of Christianity; indeed most are largely forgotten about now. I...
  6. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    It's certainly true that sometimes new and radical ideas are rejected initally to be proven right later. And perhaps this is one of them. However, more frequently they continue to be rejected outside the fringe because they're wrong. To parahrase someone I can't remember the name of, while all...
  7. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    A handful of scholars, especially if we limit it to those scholars working in relevant academic fields. (Not that a physicist can't have a few on this. But they're an interested layman, just like you or I). Technically, if we're going to discount Christian scholars on the grounds of bias we...
  8. S

    What should Christian apologists say?

    Hypothetically, an argument that showed that it made more sense to adhere to the Christian religion then to not do so. I doubt such an argument actually exists and I don't think it's fair to expect apologists to make them. We're talking about something that requires at least some level of...
  9. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    What's your citation on the last bit? For me, I think that by far the most likely option is that Jesus was a flesh and blood figure who claimed to be the son of God. Several reasons. Firstly, for a religion to spring up that soon after from an entirely mythical figure strikes me as highly...
  10. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    I'm not particuarly interested in the mythical claims, at least not from a historical perspective. The historical method simply isn't set up to deal with issues like the resurrection. But why would you expect more on his claim to be the Son of God? Neither the Romans nor the Jewish community...
  11. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    How much evidence do you expect for an obscure Jewish preacher? Jesus' significance only arose later. Actually, he's pretty well attested if you compare him to similar figures like Theudas (only in Acts of the Apostles and Josephus) or Judas of Galilee (Acts of the Apostles and Josephus)...
  12. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    A position I've already rejected, no? I consider the gospels a valid historical source, albeit one that needs approaching with caution. Why couldn't it be that only faith could really appreciate and adequately report what happened in the Caesar of history? Or perhaps you want to come up...
  13. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    And history can tell us that they thought they were gods. It doesn't tell us that faith claim was correct. But if we're going to apply the arguments from the OP consistently, those who thought that they were are potentially the only reliable interpreters of history.
  14. S

    The Historicity of the Gospels

    Because it's a category mistake. Historical evidence is not reliant on faith. Neither is the faith of historical sources relevant. So I also reject those who claim we should reject evidence from early Christians solely on the basis of their religious beliefs. The idea that there is such a...
  15. S

    [FORUM CLOSED]Non-Christians: Read and Agree before Posting

    Read and agreed.
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