Baidarka

LP675- "If it were a present day case, of course no one would try the ‘God did it defense’. "

Why not?

gravitybow

Because twelve ordinary, church-going people who would swear it was true on Sunday would laugh it out of court on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday...

...including LP675.

LP675

Because it is not likely to go down very well.

Baidarka

LP675- "Because it is not likely to go down very well."

Is that because it is not credible?
The God did it defense is not credible?
Why not?

LP675

What you mean by “credible�?

Baidarka

Capable of being believed; plausible. 2. Worthy of confidence; reliable.

Baidarka

LP - "If it were a present day case, of course no one would try the ‘God did it defense’."
I think that you are implying that the "God did it" defense might have been credible in the first century CE.

Would you say that this is because the world was different in the olden days when God's miracles were always being demonstrated?
Or would you say that people were stupider and more gullible in the olden days and more likely to believe this kind of bull?

LP675

Of course if think it is ‘capable of being belived’. It is plausible that someone would be struck dead by God. But in 99.99999999999999999999999999999 % (rough estimation) of cases where someone dies in suspicious or strange circumstances it is going to be either death by ‘foul play’ or natural causes, and not God killing someone. I don’t know what percentage of any jury is likely to be atheist, but whatever that percentage is of the jury would think such a story is not capable of being believed (by themselves of course).


I would say neither that people were more stupid, or that the world was different. I suspect the general populace at that time believed in all sorts of pagan gods and believed that gods did all sorts of things to people such as strike them dead. That seems to be the picture portrayed in Acts. I am not an expert on first century popular/pagan religion though so I couldn’t say.

Baidarka

LP- "I suspect the general populace at that time believed in all sorts of pagan gods and believed that gods did all sorts of things to people such as strike them dead. That seems to be the picture portrayed in Acts. I am not an expert on first century popular/pagan religion though so I couldn’t say."

So you think that people were more gullible back then and therefore more likely to believe in supernatural stupidities!

PS - Oh by the way I have added The Murder of Sapphira to my Biblical images folder.
In this image I show the righteously indignant Peter accusing Sapphira of a dastardly capital crime and the feet of Peter's thugs can be plainly seen beneath the door.

Baidarka

LP- "But in 99.99999999999999999999999999999 % (rough estimation) of cases where someone dies in suspicious or strange circumstances it is going to be either death by ‘foul play’ or natural causes, and not God killing someone."

You need a lot more 9s.
There ain't no Zeus and there ain't no friggen Yaweh so your going to need a lot more of them there nines!