Debate: The God Debate: Does he exist?
Side: No

I would disagree. My faith in Christianity and Jesus is based on a foundation of evidence that I have found to be credible.You cannot have it both ways. Faith is belief not based on proof or evidence. If you have faith, then you do not have evidence and if you have evidence then you do not have faith. If you want to say that you have faith in something, that's fine but don't turn around and say you also have evidence.The argument goes like this:1.) Whatever begins to exist, has a cause of its existence (i.e. something has caused it to start existing).2.) The universe began to exist. i.e., the temporal regress of events is finite.3.) Therefore, the universe has a cause.Assuming the premises are correct this argument only goes to demonstrate that things which are caused have a cause. Obviously. This is nothing more than a redundancy. You need to show that this 'cause' must be God. The Kalam argument just assumes it is. Is it an absolute truth that there is no absolute truths?No.2 + 2 = 4. I would think you would agree that is an absolute truth?It is a mathematical truth, but math is an invention of man.Science is not the only way to truthI agree.you can't empirically prove a historical eventTrue, but you can corroborate it with independent written sources, and with archaeological evidence. Even so, there is a lot of subjectivity involved.I don't really think this is relevant. Should we not believe that Alexander the Great existed because he was not writing journals about each event that happened?I'm not saying Jesus (Yeshua) didn't exist, I'm saying that many of the things written about him are false or exaggerated. In particular the miracles he was said to have performed. There probably are things written about Alexander the Great which are false, but because he was never said to have performed any miracles then that isn't an issue.What biblical historians mean by legendary is that the documents were written so closely to the actual events that it is highly unlikely that the activities associated with Jesus are of a legendary qualityIf by legendary you mean "a person whose fame or notoriety makes him a source of exaggerated or romanticized tales or exploits" I believe this would describe Jesus quite well.there would have been people who were still alive that could have disputed them.There were, I believe they were called "Jews".This emperor of Ethiopia never claimed or demonstrated any sort of super natural ability Precisely, and yet people still see him as a messiah. Imagine if he claimed to have supernatural powers. Imagine if he had made that claim several thousand years ago, to a group of gullible nomadic herdsmen. See where I am going with this?How would one archaeologically prove this happened?That's up to you to figure out. The burden of proof rest upon you, when you say that these events happened. I think the question is "If they can't be archaeologically proven, how did you come to believe in them?"You can't take the Bible as ALL one or the other. Some parts are literal and some parts are metaphorical.And what qualifies one to determine which parts are literal and which parts are metaphorical?You can argue that no flood occurred, but do you have proof that it didn't?The absence of a universe layer of silt within the geologic column. The fact that there isn't enough water on earth. Even so, the burden of proof rests upon those who say it did happen.Remember, "There is no evidence of that" is not a refutation of what the Bible says.Yes it is. It's a refutation of what anybody or anything says, the Bible included. If no evidence, then on what basis do you maintain your belief?One could fall back on the, "Well I'll just wait until archaeology proves it to be true at a later date"No, this is fallacious. If no evidence is currently present, then you have no reason to assume that it will become present. It could just as easily be refuted by future evidence as supported by it. We can only make judgements based on what is currently available.What you are talking about it just wishful thinking.