Jon writes:
Shocked to see self-proclaimed intellectuals closing their mind to reasoning and evidence, I did more research and found out that there is a whole movement of these loons:
quote:
Wikipedia on Jesus Myth Theory
New Testament scholar Robert M. Price, who argues it is quite likely there never was an historical Jesus in the sense that the Gospel version is in essence a composite character and therefore unable to be reasonably verified as a single historical person, writes that the Jesus myth theory is based on three pillars:- There is no mention of a miracle-working Jesus in secular sources.
- The Pauline epistles, earlier than the gospels, do not provide evidence of a recent historical Jesus.
- The story of Jesus shows strong parallels to Middle Eastern religions about dying and rising gods, symbolizing the rebirth of the individual as a rite of passage. Price writes that Christian apologists have tried to minimize these parallels.
Clearly, anyone "who argues it is quite likely" must be completely closed minded.
And qualifying your arguments with solid reasons is obviously the first sign of a madman (or loon).
Jon writes:
What I take from this is that these people (anti-theists) are willing to close their minds to any reasonable evidence or discussion in order to continue under the delusion that no religion (especially the currently popular ones) could possibly have its origins in any actual historical events. Such closed-minded bias used to support a position contrary to any reasonable interpretation of reality is what is typically referred to as fundamentalism, which is an extremist form of belief. What is most important to this observation is not the belief itself that is held (the real Jesus may well have been so different from any accounts of his life as to be unrecognizable to any modern person studying the matter), but the fact that the belief is held and clung to in the face of reasoning against it.
And this is you demanding evidence of jesus not existing (even though you accept that "Jesus may well have been so different from any accounts of his life as to be unrecognizable to any modern person studying the matter").
What kind of discussion are you expecting, when you can't even state which particular jesus you are talking about?
When people talk about the christian jesus - they are not talking about someone "unrecognizable to any modern person".
But that seems to be the sole basis for your argument that atheists are closed minded - because they won't accept that a jesus "unrecognizable to any modern person" could have existed.
So, to summarise:
When someone says that the christian jesus is a myth: you respond by equivocating about who/what jesus was and then start demanding evidence for the non-existence of a mythical figure, complaining (incorrectly) that evidence of absence is a fallacious argument.
Edited by Panda, : No reason given.
Edited by Panda, : No reason given.
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