Spinkos tourney, 2nd round: The historical existence of Jesus

Pro has forfeited the 3rd round, dropping my entire argument. This puts me in the unique position of establishing new arguments, when the BOP rests on my opponent. In regards to historical evidence the only arguments I can make is arguments from ignorance, which is why the BOP rests on my opponent to begin with. In our modern legal system, hearsay is inadmissible in court; the reason being is that hearsay is unreliable. If a witness says “I was not there but a close friend said this is how it went down”, the testimony would not hold up; one needs an actual eye witness account. My opponent’s so called “proof” consists of nothing but hearsay, with no eye witness accounts to speak of. Despite the fact that the bible says Jesus supposedly resurrected the dead, healed the sick, and fed 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, not a single eye witness account can be provided; other than the authors of the bible whose accounts of the events differ from each other, leading some of the accounts to be excluded from the canon. Once again, such witnesses would be unreliable in any modern court, as their stories do not match. In addition to this the authors of the Gospel had a vested interest in establishing the Christian religion, which makes them unreliable sources. [1] Matt 14:1 -- At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus Apparently Jesus was a famous figure, in his own time; yet for some reason there is an astonishing lack of eyewitness accounts, beyond the founders of the Christian religion. If Jesus was famous as the bible implied, than there would be Roman and Jewish accounts from before or during his crucifixion. The sheer lack of historical record has left historians little to go by, other than the post-crucifixion writings of early Christians. [2] If Jesus was a historical figure, rather than a mythical origin of the Christian religion, than there would be accounts of his life and death from Roman and Jewish eyewitnesses. Since no such eyewitnesses can be accounted for, it can be justly assumed that Jesus was nothing more than a campfire story, to explain where Christianity originated. Christianity is more likely than not a product of the Roman Empire. Judaism and Jewish converts were widespread in the Roman Empire, not only in Jerusalem but also in other places such as Rome, and Egypt. Judaism at the time was vastly diverse, with multiple sects, many of which were not only radical, but revolutionary. [3]Christianity combines aspects of various religions within the Empire. Many Greco-Roman rulers and heroes were said to, or claimed to be fathered by Gods, in order to claim a sense of divine right for the rule, actions, or superiority of a person or group. At the time of Jesus’s mythical birth, the Emperor of Rome was Augustus, who claimed to be the son of god. Augustus’s full name is in actually “Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Divi Filius”, which means “Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus Son of God”. [4] According to the Greco-Roman legends, the hero Orion was granted the power to walk on water by his father Poseidon. Poseidon was the God of the sea, and was known as the Earth Shaker, because he was responsible for earthquakes and other natural disasters. [5] The Myth of Osiris is also similar to the resurrection of Jesus, in that after Osiris’s Death he was resurrected for a single day for a single day, before descending back into the underworld to act as the judge of the souls of the dead, and determine who shall make it to paradise. [6] Christianity also appealed to Judaism, as the story of the infant Moses is similar to the infant Jesus, in that both their mothers hid them from the persecution of the King/pharaoh. Also, there was no historical account of the slaughter of innocents. Due to the lack of reliable historical evidence, we can only conclude that Jesus was a mythical figure. 1.) http://www.atheistapologist.com... 2.) The First Christians: lack of historical records (Video) 3.) The First Christians: diversity of Judaism (Video) 4.) The First Christians: Imperial Son of God (Video) 5.) http://www.theoi.com... 6.) http://www.nemo.nu... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...