Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead

"Obviously the Bible counts as evidence. .. " No, the Bible does not count as evidence; it would be like using the Koran to prove that the moon split in twain as the Koran puts it. I conceded Jesus' crucifixion and life for purpose of this debate. In fact, I can easily argue (and will argue in the future) that Jesus that is mentioned in the current New Testament never even existed. =====> Rebuttals <====== I. Rebuttals to new arguments Since the Bible is the majority source for the claims of the resurrection for Christ, I will provide evidence that the Bible is a trustworthy document. Not only is it the majority source, it is the only source. One must pause to wonder why historians such as Philos and Josephus completely missed Jesus' resurrection and the aftershock of the dead saints resurrecting and the temple veil tearing apart. Lysanius, Nicodemus and the ben Gurion family. .. are all real people mentioned in the Bible. Just because the Bible contains historical people, does not mean that it is trustworthy. The Koran mentions people that we believe to have existed, yet we do not hold the Koran as a reliable historical evidence because of this. These historical people include, but by no means are limited to: Muhommad, Alexander the Great, Jesus (for the purpose of this debate), and Cyrus the Great. Nazareth, Capernaum, Jerusalem, Caesarea, Derbe in Turkey, Ephesus in Turkey and Corinth in Greece are real places, verified to have existed (or still do exist) See above. What does this prove? The argument is the equivalent of using the historical places in the Wizard of Oz (Kansas) to prove it is true! If we wish to elliminate the Bible as evidence, then we must elliminate the evidence that verifies the Bible. What evidence verifies the Bible? I already discounted the Josephus evidence as well as the other "evidence" that you provided in round 1! II. Further Rebuttals My opponent claims that the Bible is not a source to prove the resurrection, yet the Bible is the source of the information of the resurrection. Excluding the Bible as an evidence source in this debate, is the establishment of a strawman. In addition, if the Bible does not count for evidence, why has my opponent quoted it so ferverously in an attempt to confuse the chronology? The Bible is the very source we are debating. The resurrection is the event in question. It is not the establishment of a straw man because we are currently debating the reliability of the Greek Testament. I have quoted from the Bible for the following reasons: To prove that it is unreliable To show that it is full of contradictions. These contradictions cast shadows of doubt on the reliability of the source. 1. > How does a mismatched calendar date disprove an occurance? If my calendar claims Christmas is in February, does that mean Christmas was not celebrated? Your argument doesn't disprove the resurrection, it makes claims about the timeframe of it's occurance. I fail to see what your point is. What are you trying to prove? It appears my partner concedes that the GT contains contradictions in concerning the crucifixion of Jesus. One must pause to wonder the following: Why did the gospel of John forget what date Jesus was crucified on? I believe it is to make Jesus the passover lamb. [1] If we know that John contains this historical error, what other errors must John (and the other gospels) contain? 2. > You claim the Gospels should be rejected as a historical text, yet you agree that Jesus Christ was a person who was executed by the Romans through crucifixion. You can only know this by reading the Bible, reading the apocriphal texts or reading the secular sources, all of which you have discredited as "a very weak case quoting historians writting long after the alleged event. " I have indeed discredited my partner's evidence, which apparently, you dropped. As mentioned earlier, I do not believe Jesus ever exited to begin with [2] therefore, your opinion is straw-man and a red-herring. I concede Jesus' life for purpose of this debate. Conclusion My partner drops his arguments from the previous round. My partner has not answered any of my objections from the opening round. My partner has brought up new evidence in the previous round, which is a weaker case than his previous arguments. For the very fact that my partner doesn't even bother to defend his arguments, I urge an affirmative vote. I conclude that Jesus did not bodily rise from the dead. _______________Notes1. It appears that the Gospel of John continues to compare Jesus to the Passover lamb. See Bart Ehrmans Jesus, Interrupted for more on this doctrine. 2. The Jesus of the current GT is a legend. He was most likely a person who was personified into the Messiah and God incarnate. I do not believe this "Rabbi Jesus" even claimed to be God. See Bart Ehrman Misquoting Jesus to see more on how the GT transforms Jesus into a "rabbi" to the Messiah!