Kosh

Last night "48 hours" did a special on Christmas. I didn't take explicit notes, but I still have it recorded, so I may go back and do so. While they did interview some good scholars who were honest about the lack of evidence, the contradictions in the two birth narratives, etc, the real icing on the cake was an evangelical preacher who boldy proclaimed in an opening scene "You don't think it really happened? Come with me and I'll prove it".

Unfortunately his "proof" was more than a little dissapointing. Some of the things I remember as they trodded around the "holy land"

- His proof of the virgin birth

First, they played a scene of him being interviewed, where he forcefully proclamed "It happened, it is FACT, accept it!"
His proof was nothing more than the argument from embarrasment. That's right, since claiming a birth wihtout a named father would have been too scandalous, then the fact that they admitted to it must be proof that it happened as claimed.

Of course, we have discussed the argument from embarrassment many times and there are also articles in the library which discuss this.

- The Shepherds at the birth scene

He then dragged out an archaeologist (didn't recognize the name) who has uncovered a sheep stable in Bethlehem. But wait, it gets better! They also found <gasp> a sheep skull under an outcropping of rocks. This proves that there have been sheep in Bethlehem (no mention of dating methodologies for either of the finds, or even a date for that matter). And since we now know there were sheep there, and the bible says that shepherds were there, this somehow proves the story of Jesus' birth. And of course, there are all those nativity sets which show the sheep! (I added this last one).

The weakness of the reasoning is so bad, I honestly can't tell if they (48 hours) included it just make him look silly.

- Josephs house

They toured some peasant ruins which showed what he claimed would have been place at the back of the house where the animals were kept. Nothing new here, we've seen this information before. He also found a "manger", ie a stone watering trough. Somehow having these artifacts proves to him that the birth narrative is factual.

Empire State building? King Kong? Anyone?

- Slaughter of the innocents

"Bethlehem was a small place, we're talking about maybe 6 to 8 babies here.

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I may watch it again and take better notes on this.

But the scariest part is thinking of all the Xians who probably swallowed this stuff hook, line, and sinker.

On the brighter side, the "skeptic" scholars, and their credentials were impessive (including Crossan), did a good job of pointing out the borrowing from the OT of Moses stories, etc, and the attempts to subvert the Ceasar birth claims, missing narrative in Mark, the late dating of the Gospels. Still, the program at the beginning did completely overstate the certainty of historicity. They said "Jesus WAS born and lived and preached, this much we know as FACT".

Diogenes the Cynic

LOL.:rolling:

Did the preacher do that thing where the apologist invents a completely imaginary claim that "skeptics deny" something that skeptics have never denied or cared about?

"Skeptics deny that sheep ever existed in Judea but the skull of a sheep has been found RIGHT IN BETHLEHEM! Once again, the Bible was RIGHT!"