Perhaps they were more afraid of the consequences of their followers realizing
that they had been deceived. And by the time they had been caught and were
going to be executed for their faith, it was too late.
>Later, and possibly in the first century also,
>followers of Christ were burned -- also a very fearsome, painful method of
>execution.
So it is your contention that Christianity is a valid belief system because
many people were passionate enought about it to die for their beliefs?
Once again, this brings us back to the same question: considering how many
people have died for other religions, do we conclude that pretty much every
religion that has existed has been historically accurate?
>If the stakes were just saving face at the expense of a little
>ridicule or maybe even a prison term, Pim's argument might have some
>plausibility.
However, if the stakes were the risk of being stoned or lynched by an angry
mob who just discovered that they had been deceived, then Pim's argument has
a great deal of plausibility.
>But most people would draw the line far short of being
>crucified or burned, unless they were totally convinced they were standing
>for the truth.
Or unless they thought they could get away with it.
_____________________________________________________________
| Russell Stewart |
| http://www.rt66.com/diamond/ |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Albuquerque, New Mexico | diamond@rt66.com |
|_____________________________|_______________________________|
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.