Uni

Funny. What was that appeal to authority about the preacher named Dan Barker? You know...The preeacher turned atheist...

convictions are dynamic mata...

-uni

JGL53

Not only that, but the atheist organization Dan Barker works with - the Freedom From Religion Foundation - has several other members who were long time fundamentalist christian preachers who converted to atheism latter in life - my only point here is that there seems to be as many, if not more, of these conversions of hard core christian to hard core atheist than in the other direction. So, the example of Anthony Flew doesn't prove anything particularly.

Sven

Newsflash: They do this all the time. A little bit of education sometimes helps.

How do you define life? Does a strand of self-replicating RNA qualify?

[snip remaining rant]

Sven

The user buckshot23. Did you really never run across him in Ev/Cr? Just search for his posts and enjoy yourselves.

Orthodox_Freethinker

In the first century, Christianity grew by the thousands despite severe persecution. What inspired them to endure was the belief that Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead.

Orthodox_Freethinker

You already know the answer to that question. What we have are the Gospels of Matthew and John, the Epistles of James, Peter and John. While no person witnessed the event itself, we have the testimony of those who witnessed the empty tomb and the post-resurrection appearances of Christ.
While you may not support their authorship, just as secular scholars may not support their authorship, the preponderance of evidence does.
Why not assess the Gospels with the same standards that we would use for finding the authorship of other ancient works?

Psalm 16:8-10; 30:3; 41:10; 118:17; Hosea 6:2

Psalm 16
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Psalm 30:3
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Psalm 41:10
But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

Hosea 6:1-2
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Asha'man

Actually, its pretty obvious that we have a story about witnesses, not testimony. Why is it so hard to understand the difference?

We do use the same standards on the Gospels that we use elsewhere, that's why the Gospels are considered anonymous stories rather than testimony.

John A. Broussard

Which, of course, doesn't deal with the issues I brought up, namely:

It took almost three centuries for Christianity to become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire.

Islam spread from the Indus to Spain in a little over one generation.

It's hard to explain that except to acknowledge that Allah is the true god.

Want to try again?

joedad

A story of Jesus rising from the dead. These stories had been inspiring people for millennia.

mata leao

uhh nooo, eyewitness of Jesus rising from the dead.