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Let's suppose God did....

JGG

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So which premise of that argument do you disagree with? One or two?

Number 1.

1. If God existed, then His existence would be obvious to everyone

Since God is not obviously something that exists, the only possible Gods are those that are purposefully hidden.
 
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Ana the Ist

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Actually, the existence of Jesus as a real physical human being is increasingly the subject of debate. If we look at the trend over time...Jesus appears to being transitioning from divine being, to human being, to mythological figure.
 
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Elioenai26

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That evolution was false.

Belief in evolution and belief in Christ are not mutually exclusive. In fact a number of well known scientists who are Christians believe in evolution and see no explicit contradiction with it and the Genesis accounts of creation. Me personally, I do not think it matters either way.

So I am happy to tell you that your misgivings regarding evolution and Christianity are unfounded!



I think you misunderstand what my point was. I was saying that the Bible could have falsely claimed that Jesus said he was God. Maybe Jesus never claimed such a thing.

Well this simply is not true. The Jews had Jesus killed primarily because of who He Himself claimed to be, not because of what others were saying about Him. In fact the inscription above His head on His cross indicates this. Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum means, Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews which is what Pilate had placed above His head. The Pharisees contested this rendering and desired for it to read rather: "He said He was the King of the Jews". But Pilate replied: "What I have written, I have written."

The Pharisees condemned Jesus at a private council of the Sanhedrin before taking Him to Pilate to ask that He be crucified. They condemned Him because Christ confessed that He was the Son of Man alluding to the prophecy of the Messiah recorded in Daniel and said that they would all see Him coming on the clouds of heaven.

If Christ's disciples and close associates of the disciples who wrote the New Testament, as you suggest, knew He was NOT the Messiah, then why would they willingly endure such hardships, tortures, imprisonments, and eventually martyrdom for their beliefs that they knew were not true?
 
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That has something to do with who wrote the books, when they did so and why.

Obviously the atheist is going to have some differences with you over the veracity of those texts.

It would be hard for instance to conclusively show that the Jewish people were looking for a messiah that was meant to be part of God himself.
 
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pjnlsn

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Ok.

What would God have to do convince you He existed?

Like I said, the complete answer i'm sure would be an insight into someone's personality, but in general: It depends on the situation and exactly what I saw, from what was suggested before.

But again, even if I (or any amount of people) believed, completely and without doubt, there still wouldn't be proof.
 
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Davian

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He may have been deceived. Self-deceived, at that.
 
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Dave Ellis

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Not at all, and I provided why that is in my previous response. He can exist but for some reason not have provided sufficient evidence to everyone.
 
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Dave Ellis

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Jesus historicity is not affirmed by a single contemporary historian. Tacitus and Josephus are the closest to the period, however came decades later and they mostly speak of Christians, rather than Jesus himself.

Furthermore, as neither one were Christians they also must have thought there was nothing to what the early Christians were saying.
 
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Dave Ellis

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It is worth noting there was a major division within early Christianity where some sects didn't believe Jesus was divine at all, he was just a prophet of sorts. That issue was not settled until the council of Nicaea centuries after the events in question.
 
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JGG

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No. That is not what I said at all.



I do not expect you to speculate about supernatural evidence.



Why would you not?

That is my point.

What is your point? I should believe the bible because its unbelievable?

You failed to answer my request for supernatural evidence.
 
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super animator

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It's a way of saying, absence of evidence *is* evidence of absence, with claims where evidence is expected.
That boils down on what evidence are you expecting and/or looking for. The whole absence of evidence is evidence of absence thing just screams argument from ignorance to me. Just because the person doesn't have any evidence doesn't mean the person won't have it in the future, or we simply couldn't find one yet.

It's the same way Carl Sagn famous quote "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" in his book Cosmos, I think.
 
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Dave Ellis

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And in many cases, Sagan is right.

However, say you have a young son who thinks there's a monster in the closet.... when you go open the closet and discover no monster, that is an instance where an absence of evidence, is evidence of absence.

In short, if we're talking about absence of a required item to make the idea work, that absence is evidence the idea is incorrect.

Sagan's famous line is not talking about situations like that though.
 
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variant

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The absence of evidence generally means that we can't start making assertions about a thing, and at that point religion is relegated to uselessness.

The Atheist doesn't need to make any assertions about anything supernatural, or about divinity or whatever.

We don't need to partake in other peoples fantasy life.
 
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Ana the Ist

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If I'm not mistaken, there were also those who believed Jesus wasn't even a physical being....and those who believed he lived roughly 100 years before his modernly agreed lifetime.
 
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Wiccan_Child

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That's why we say it's evidence of absence, not proof of absence.

Suppose you tell me there's an elephant in my garden, and I go out and have a look, and I don't see an elephant, nor do I see elephant poop, nor elephant tracks, nor elephant hide, nor a suspicious elephant trunk peeking out from behind my tree. There's a conspicuous absence of evidence for the existence of this alleged elephant, and this absence of evidence is itself evidence that the elephant does not exist.

It is perfectly reasonable to note the absence of evidence for elephants in my garden, and ipso facto conclude there are no elephants.
 
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Paradoxum

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I actually agree that evolution and Christianity are compatible. I meant that because I was so easily wrong once, with the same method of believing things I could be wrong about other beliefs.


Well aren't you just quoting the book that I'm not sure if all true anyway? I'm sure you don't take what other holy books say as history.

How do we know that the others that wrote the New Testament knew Jesus, or died for those beliefs? How do we know they were being truthful?


The development of Christianity seems to be very human.
 
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FrenchyBearpaw

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What caused this change?



Are you familiar with the statement that C.S. Lewis once made which goes something like:

"Jesus Christ was either God, a liar, or a lunatic"?

Do you agree with that statement?

Yes, I'm familiar with C.S. Lewis. I have read most of his books.

His statement is a false dilemma. He forgot to add a fourth, and most likely, option, that of myth. Jesus was either god, liar, lunatic or myth.
 
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FrenchyBearpaw

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His existence, or God as a concept?

Those are two distinct topics. Which one do you believe is logically impossible?

Yes, god is a concept. That we can conceive of a god does not make it's existence any more likely. We can believe in the concept of god as a god concept.
 
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