Belief in Christianity is rational

I will approach this based on the following : 1) Oral transmission: There is evidence that oral transmission is reliable. It's been observed that people can recite long poems from memory (1). Oral transmission also has set procedures and advanced techniques for preserving information: "The Elders would serve as mnemonic pegs to each other. They will be speaking individually uninterrupted in a circle one after another. When each Elder spoke they were conscious that other Elders would serve as "peer reviewer [and so] they did not delve into subject matter that would be questionable. They did joke with each other and they told stories, some true and some a bit exaggerated but in the end the result was a collective memory. This is the part which is exciting because when each Elder arrived they brought with them a piece of the knowledge puzzle. They had to reach back to the teachings of their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. These teachings were shared in the circle and these constituted a reconnaissance of collective memory and knowledge. In the end the Elders left with a knowledge that was built by the collectivity." (2) According to Kenneth Bailey's studies, oral transmission has been shown to be very reliable (3). I will quote from the site: "Bailey identifies three types of flexibility exercised by the community in these five types of traditions: 1) No flexibility - Proverbs and poems. There are reciters who are bound to repeat word for word proverbs and poems. If the reciter quotes a proverb with so much as a word missing, he subjects himself to public correction, and thereby to public humiliation. Exact memorization of these types of traditions are taken for granted, with no changes in wording allowed. " " 2) Some flexibility - The telling of stories and parables In a story some flexibility is allowed, and the order of events could be reversed. The flows of the story and its conclusion have to remain the same. The summary punch line is inviolable, as are the names of the characters in the story. Any proverbs within the story have to be repeated verbatim, otherwise the teller would be rejected. The story teller has a certain freedom to tell the story in his own way as long as the central thrust of the story is not changed (Bailey 42-44). To change the basic story line while retelling the account is unthinkable. Historical narratives important to the lives of individuals and villages also fall into this second level of flexibility that provides for both continuity and freedom for individual interpretations of the tradition. Flexibility is possible but authenticity is assured. Many of the Synoptic Gospels narratives and parables would fall into this category of flexibility. " "3) Total flexibility - This is the type that Bultmann and Crossan assert is standard, where the substance of things are changed. Here is where exaggerations are possible. Bailey does admit that that this does occasionally happens; nevertheless, Bailey found that this only happens in jokes, casual news of the day, and material that is irrelevant to the identity of the community and is not judged wise or valuable (Bailey 45). " These are the kinds of flexibility allowed in oral transmission, none which alters the entire message. "Bailey relates a tradition of the founder of the Egyptian Evangelical community, John Hogg. Hogg found the community in the 1850s and 1860s and there were many traditions of what he did. 50 years later, his daughter wrote the material based purely on oral stories told to her. Then 50 years later, Bailey separately and independently dipped into the same tradition in 1955-1965. Bailey found the same stories told with almost identical wording (Bailey 46-47). Neither exaggeration or embellishment occurred. " 2) Early date for the Gospels: There is now an acceptance of an early date for the Gospels: "We can already say emphatically that there is no long any basis for dating any book of the New Testament after about AD 80, two full generations before the date between 130 and 150 given by the more radical New Testament critics of today." (4) Papias living in A.D cites the Gospels, indicating that it had an earlier composition: "And the elder used to say this, Mark became Peter"s interpreter and wrote accurately all that he remembered, not, indeed, in order, of the things said and done by the Lord. For he had not heard the Lord, nor had followed him, but later on, followed Peter, who used to give teaching as necessity demanded but not making, as it were, an arrangement of the Lord"s oracles, so that Mark did nothing wrong in thus writing down single points as he remembered them. For to one thing he gave attention, to leave out nothing of what he had heard and to make no false statements in them." ("Interpretation of the Oracles of the Lord") We can then say that there is evidence that the Gospels were very close to it's oral traditions. 3) Authorship: Con claims that the disciples could not write, but evidence taken from Tektonics.org shows that it was very likely for the disciples to be literate (5): "The only hypothesis with enough flexibility to meet the requirements is that a body of loose notes stands behind the bulk of the synoptic tradition. The wide use of shorthand and the carrying of notebooks in the Graeco-Roman world, the school practice of circulating lecture notes and utilizing them in published works, and the later transmission of rabbinic tradition through shorthand notes support this hypothesis" " The time-estimates of the recording of these words/deeds continue to move earlier and earlier in history. So E.E. Ellis (Criswell Theological Review, Fall 88, p.7)" Matthew is also said to have an aramaic diary "N. Walker even suggests that Matthew kept an Aramaic 'diary' ("The Alleged Matthean Errata", New Testament Studies, 1963, 9: 391-4)," Greek was widespread in the ancient world "Greek, of course, was in widespread use in the Roman empire at this time. Even the Romans spoke Greek, as inscriptions in Rome and elsewhere attest. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that Greek was also in common use among the Jews of Palestine. The Hellenization of Palestine began even before the fourth-century B.C. conquest by Alexander the Great. Hellenistic culture among the Jews of Palestine spread more quickly after Alexander's conquest, especially when the country was ruled by the Seleucid monarch Antiochus IV Epiphanes (second century B.C.), and later under certain Jewish Hasmonean and Herodian kings" (p.59)." (5) The disciples are thus very likely to have written the Gospels. 4) Independacy This does not show that the Gospels are unreliable, but that it simply has an interdependent relationship. 5) Evidence for Jesus: While it's arguable that no contemporary historians actually lived in Jesus' time period, archaeological evidence clearly shows that Jesus existed (6). Other religions do not have the historical accuracy of the Bible minus the ones who simply teach religious philosophy. "Old Testament archaeology has rediscovered whole nations, resurrected important peoples, and in a most astonishing manner filled in historical gaps, adding immeasurably to the knowledge of biblical backgrounds." (7). Critics did not find any archaeological, historical, or scientific evidence supporting the book of mormon (8). Other faiths such as the Baha'i are obviously made of many different existing religions (9). Religious philosophies such as new age cults cannot be proven. Conclusion: There is more reason to believe in the beliefs of Christianity based on empirical evidence and logic. Many of the prophecies, historical, physical claims, and observations of human nature of the Bible can be tested and observed. Sources: 1. Honko, "Introduction: Oral and Semiliterary Epics," in The Epic: Oral and Written (eds., L. Honko, J. Handoo, and J. M. Foley; Mysore, India: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1998) 9. 2. Stephen J. Augustine, ""Oral Histories and Oral Traditions, in Aboriginal Oral Traditions: Theory, Practice, Ethics, ed. Rene Hulan and Renate Eigenbrod (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2008), ". 3. http://matt1618.freeyellow.com... 4. Recent Discoveries in Bible Lands. 136 5. http://www.ntgreek.org... 6. http://www.ucg.org... 7. Archaeology and the Old Testament, Unger, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954, p.15 8. http://en.wikipedia.org... 9. http://en.wikipedia.org...