From: ingles@engin.umich.edu (Ray Ingles)
Subject: Re: To All Truth Seekers!
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 00:08:22 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor

In article <yN1JsB3w165w@bluemoon.rn.com> darist@bluemoon.rn.com (david stroop) writes:
>From: achenbac@epcot.spdc.ti.com (Jeff Achenbach)
>Message-ID: <1992Oct9.183845.13941@spdc.ti.com>
> 
>>In article <1992Oct9.150735.23962@cs.tulane.edu>
>>goff@pops.navo.navy.mil writes:
>>>JESUS WAS A MYTH-
>>>   [a postulate]
>>
>>There are multiple sources confirming the existence of some  
>>historical figures.
>>...  What evidence besides the christian bible supports 
>>the stories of Jesus? 
> 
>What would the nature of any such requested evidence be, which 
>would support the stories of Jesus, assuming for a moment they 
>are true?  They would be religious writings like the Bible.  But 
>you reject such religious writings.  Therefore, you ask for 
>something which, if supplied, you will reject.  How safe. 
 
 Not necessarily. The only references we have regarding Jesus were
written at *least* 20 years after he died. A Roman history *from* *that*
*time* that mentioned him would be nice. How about a record of a major
eclipse ("It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the
whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining..." Luke
23:44-45) or earthquake ("The earth shook and the rocks split." Matthew
27:51) or a mass resurrection ("The tombs broke open and the bodies of
many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the
tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and
appeared to many people." Matthew 27:52-53) appearing in a Jewish or
Roman history of the time, whether or not they were attributed to Jesus?
I mean, these are fairly noticeable events, you'd imagine *lots* of people
would have written them down.

>You ask for the impossible when you ask for a an account not in 
>the Bible when all such accounts were incorporated *in* the 
>Bible. Why not ask for a little green man to come out of a flying 
>teacup and tell you about God?  That's pretty safe, too. 
 
 Oh, come on. You have completely misunderstood the question. We are not
asking for yet another mircle attributed to Jesus... we are asking for
another history of the time that mentions *any* of the miracles Jesus
was supposed to have done...

>>>BIBLE ACCOUNT IS INCORRECT:
>>>   [another postulate]
>>
>>Quite self serving, IMO, for the priesthood to rewrite and 
>>perpetuate the tales that put and kept them in positions of luxury
>>and power, with the ability to terminate anyone who dared disagree.
> 
>It is your hypothesis (that the Bible we now have was 
>fraudulently rewritten).  The burden of proof for it falls to 
>you. (Where have I heard *this* before?) 
 
 Well, now, actually, *Christians* make the claim that this book called
the Bible is an accurate history that describes quite well what Jesus said
and did. This is a pretty big claim, as Jesus is said to have done some
awfully peculiar and remarkable things.
 When we factor in the fact that there's this *other* book, which is supposed
to be straight dictation from God and describes some *completely different*
remarkable things, and there's a whole set of books that describe the supposed
direct intervention of supernatual beings in the Seige of Troy, and then
there are these *other* books which talk about... etc.
 We know that at most *one* of these books can be correct, as they are all
mutually exclusive, and perhaps *none* of them are correct. Given the great
number of such books, it seems only prudent to approach any one of them
with a skeptical bent. If you make the positive claim that one of them is
correct... you'd better be prepared to back it up, and back it up better
than the others are.

>DARIST


Sincerely,

Ray Ingles                  || The above opinions are probably
                            || not those of the University of
ingles@engin.umich.edu      || Michigan. Yet.
Newsgroups: alt.atheism