Just bear in mind that I'm a true skeptic. Don't buy your God, but nor do I buy Doherty's thesis (though I find it intriguing). Maybe the problem was you.

not a theist said:
The only problem is that we aren’t dealing with a hard science like biology or physics. In the above example you could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt based on points totally unrelated to the original argument. However, the existence of a man who lived close to 2,000 years ago, there is no definite proof.

To make it a little clearer, let’s break away from the Jesus example. Let’s say I claim x existed. I have 7 sources that mention him. Another person claims x didn’t exist and argues that 4 of the sources aren’t arguing for the actual existence of a person at all, but a mythological figure. I say fine, but lets look at the 3 other sources. The other person might say, well, given that I can show there are lots of bogus things said about the actual existence of this character, including several arguments for people believing he was nothing more than a mystical figure, and there aren’t a lot of sources talking about him, it is reasonable to assume that he didn’t exist. One line in some ancient text does not prove the existence of someone. I’m not claiming that this is the case with Jesus, but I believe this was the argumentation style of Mr. D. He doesn’t have to address every little detail and explain it away. You can’t prove that Jesus exists like you can prove gravity exists or that animals are still alive.

Most liberal Christians except that so much of the bible deals with stories that are supposed to make a point, that I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch for someone today to be a Christian and believe that Jesus was actually mythical.

For the record, I’m atheist, but I could care less whether or not Jesus was an actual human being. It seems odd to me that if Jesus was really the son of God that we wouldn’t have more material about him. I would think that he would be something of an original and it would be “obvious.” As others have pointed out, regardless of whether or not Jesus was an actual person, there are many miracles that could not have happened without others noticing.

Layman, does nomad pay you to pat him on the back every few posts or something? (Only half kidding.)

(Withdrawn in favor of Sauce for the goose ...)

[This message has been edited by JubalH (edited May 27, 2001).]