The Judeo-Christian God's Existence Is Just As Likely As Any Other God's Existence

I appreciate my opponent taking the time to challenge me, and I we have a fruitful discussion. To begin, I just want to be clear on my burden. Based on the resolution and my opponent's position, it appears that my goal is to show that the existence of the Christian God is more likely than the existence of other gods. I say this because his opening statement almost reads as if he were Con instead of Pro. On a pragmatic note, I cannot possibly make a comparison between Christianity and all known religions of the past and present given character constraints. Therefore, I will limit my comparisons to the mythologies mentioned in my opponent's opening remarks for the time being. When discussing likelihood, it helps to identify the criterion by which we can judge. If I were to venture a guess, my opponent and I could agree that a key criterion is that of evidentiary support. That is, that which has more evidentiary support is more likely than that with less. Therefore, I must show that Christianity has more evidence in its favor than does the other mythologies. This is not a burden to be taken lightly, but I feel it necessary to point out that it won't be necessary to prove beyond all doubt that God exists in order to win this debate. I only have to show that He is more likely to exist—or has more evidence in favor of His existing—than do other gods such as Zeus and Osiris. One difference between Christianity and Greek/Egyptian mythology is in their written texts. The New Testament has some 24,000 manuscripts, some of which date as early as 25 to 50 years of their original autographs. The Iliad ranks second, in terms of reliability, with 643 known manuscripts dated within 500 years of the original copies. Scholars have determined the New Testament to be 99.5% accurate to the original writings whereas the Iliad is agreed to be 95% accurate. [1] On balance, it would seem that Christianity is at least a little more likely to be true than Greek mythology, if only just slightly so. The gap widens when we consider total authorship. Much of Greek mythology is based on the writings of a single man, whereas the New Testament was written by several authors, none of whom are themselves the origin of the mythos. Homer wrote about the gods directly, but the New Testament authors wrote about Jesus, careful to site ways in which he fulfilled important Old Testament prophecies. Moreover, the multiple books of the New Testament add credibility, from a historian's point of view, since multiple accounts of any event serve to increase its likelihood. On balance, the New Testament is more likely to be true than Homer's writings. The most striking comparison is made between the nature of the Christian God and the gods of Greek and Egyptian mythology. The Christian God is defined as existing outside this universe, unchanging, the one-true God, the ultimate manifestation of goodness and righteousness, perfect. The gods of ancient mythology are capricious, appear to be a part of the physical universe rather than outside of it, imperfect, often petty, and interact with humanity on a raw, physical level. What happened to these mischievous and cantankerous gods? Did they just suddenly lose interest in humanity? So, in mythology, we have a multitude of strange gods that abruptly stopped interacting with humanity. In Christianity, we have a God that sent a Savior to redeem His creation. Not everyone believes that Jesus is who he said he was, but it's at least more likely than the accounts of Greek mythology. Another reason Christianity is more likely is because its presuppositions about reality better account for human experience than the presuppositions of mythology. If Greek mythology were true, what rationale would we have for scientific inquiry? Science couldn't possibly rely on the principle of induction (that the future will behave like the past) given the way these gods like to misbehave. On the other hand, if Christianity were true, science is completely justified. A perfectly ordered God made a fine-tuned and ordered universe that we can scientifically study, interpret, and dominate. The same could be said about morality, logic, and human dignity. Simply put, the presuppositions of Greek mythology cannot be actively and rationally lived out like the presuppositions of Christianity. So, Christianity as a worldview is certainly more likely to be true. Finally, the Christian God is more likely to be true because it is the most believed. As of 2000 [2] (data base on the last census), 33% of the world believe in Christianity and only .4% believe in "other" religions, which I assume is where Greek/Egyption mythology adherents would fall, if there are any. Surely, any religion with such steady worldwide appeal is more likely than one that is overwhelmingly rejected. It stands to reason, when looking at all the data, that Christianity has more evidence in its favor than Greek or Egyptian mythology. And so while the evidence presented in my opening argument doesn't prove God's existence beyond all doubt, it certainly shows that God is more likely to exist than Zeus or Osiris, which should be sufficient to satisfy the resolution as worded. I'll turn the floor now to my opponent for his arguments and rebuttals. 1. http://www.godandscience.org... 2. http://www.religioustolerance.org...