Freethought & Rationalism Archive

mens_sana · 07-26-2006, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gstafleu

I agree. We cannot just dismiss the supernatural bits just because now we "know better," without therewith affecting the credibility of the gosples as a whole. I have the impression that some think we can simply dismiss these events for reasons of modernity, and then carry on with the rest of the story as if nothing had changed. That is not the case: the supernatural events are part and parcel of the whole story. If you reject them, that affects your judgement of the whole, not just of the inconvenient bits.

We do not dismiss the supernatural bits just because we now "know better." The events are part of the story. So how do we handle them? We remember that gods and spirits were in every bush (burning or not), behind every drop of rain and every minute of drought (in a land of marginal farming), and the acts of these divinities permeate all writings of the period, not just the Christian ones. So, while these miracles are accepted as believed by the writers and many in their audiences, belief in them does NOT mean that they took place, or took place exactly as described.

Their belief is a given. Our judgement is not dependent on the beliefs of their culture.

Mythra · 07-27-2006, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gstafleu

Nevertheless, I can almost guarantee that none of the many alleged witnesses would have seen this zombies effect before. To them it would certainly have been unique and worth widely commenting about. Just compare the alleged events to a real one, the 9/11 attacks. .

Uh uh. The 9/11 attacks had an explanation that didn't violate a person's sense of reality. Although 9/11 was big news, it can't be compared to zombies parading through Jerusalem.

I would say it would be more like an alien from outer space doing a one-on-one interview with Wolf Blitzer.

No one for the next 100 years would be talking about anything else.

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