exapologist said...
1. Many in Jesus' day already thought Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected, so they clearly did have a concept of a single person dying and rising before the eschaton.
2. There was a lot of historical precedence for the idea from surrounding culture (stories of dying and rising gods that go back many centuries B.C., contrary to what the apologists reiterate ad nauseum).
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2008/07/tablet-ignites-debate-on-messiah-and.html?showComment=1215416220000#c1966624564826471289
Unfortunately, Exbrainer left out the conclusion. So let's complete his argument:
3. Ergo, many in Jesus' day thought that John the Baptist was a god.
Or did they? Hmm...
Let's evaluate ExA's statements:
ReplyDelete1. Many in Jesus' day already thought Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected, so they clearly did have a concept of a single person dying and rising before the eschaton.
---How would this constitute a refutation of the Resurrection? It would constitute evidence of the Messianic Hope. It would also partially constitute grounds upon which the deniers of the Resurrection of the Dead itself and of Christ's in particular could be inculpated.
2. 2. There was a lot of historical precedence for the idea from surrounding culture (stories of dying and rising gods that go back many centuries B.C., contrary to what the apologists reiterate ad nauseum).
--1. How do we get from that, assuming the validity of the statement, to Christianity borrowing that concept for itself?
2. How does this constitute a refutation of Christ's Resurrection?
3. How many of these "dying and rising gods" were actually resurrected from the dead physically and bodily?
What's that, evidence? Hey, there's plenty of it on Wikipedia! Just look at the entry for Osiris and you see the heading "Passion and resurrection." That pretty much proves it, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI mean come on, now. "If it's in Wikipedia, it's so." Yes, Virginia, Osiris did rise from the dead. Along with Santa Claus. And some of those other minor deities in Antartican mystery religions.
John Fraser wrote:
ReplyDelete"Hey, there's plenty of it on Wikipedia!"
Evan isn't the first skeptic who's come here with an inordinate reliance on Wikipedia. I think they rely so much on Wikipedia not only because they're ignorant and haven't read other sources as much as they ought to, but also because some of the relevant Wikipedia articles are written by other online skeptics. The people who write some of the articles have the same sort of mindset these skeptics have. Why post a link to Joe Atheist's unimpressive web site when you can post a link to an online encyclopedia with an article anonymously written by Joe Atheist? It's an encyclopedia, so doesn't that give it credibility?