i think this topic is interesting - hearing how other people have made sense of it all. GIT i notice you saying, multiple times now, that you claim people much smarter than you and i say things...i say to you have some pride and realize you are strong and intelligent too...do not discredit yourself - you are smart. it is evident in your writing.
i always say - you are not stupid unless you refuse to learn. i dont care if it takes you 10 seconds or 10 days to figure it out...so long as you try.
so...here are my thoughts, and again i intend not to disrespect you in any way...
the only citation that can be made to "prove" anything is the bible itself. that is my problem.
if i wrote a book on life - and only quoted my own book of life as proof that my book of life was true - would you believe what i said?
think about that for a minute.
why is it that the only source that can verify the claims made in the bible is the bible itself?
from a historians point of view - that is not evidence enough to PROVE anything.
also - the type of evidence provided is hearsay from the mouth of men who had a defense to make, lest they be considered heratics like jesus was.
why would they lie? because if they did, and people bought it, their friend was a messiah. that is pretty powerful.
especially when you consider what the bible says about peter and others - that they were given a link to the divine...they could save as jesus could...they were instilled with the holy spirit...however you wish to word it.
so - what was to gain? divinity. being immortalized in a bible.
i see motives possible, that would prove nothing.
"The hope or knowledge of life after the "physical" world was what they were claiming to know existed from the resurrection. If they knew for certain that Jesus did not rise from the dead why would they continue preaching to the great detriment of both their physical and mental well being?"
because it benefited them. human nature is to be selfish. is that blasphemy? well...a few hundred years ago some christians likely would have murdered me for saying this...
but not being suppressed - these sentiments i share are commonplace in this world we live in.
if the bible was claimed to have been written by the hand of god, i think more people would buy into it, but it is written by men. men who had less knowledge than you or myself in regards to the universe, genetics, biology, chemistry, etc. - and who had something to gain.
on July 25, 2011, 4:25 pm, in reply to "