Re: Historical evidence for Jesus

From: Dr. Blake Nelson (bnelson301@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Nov 04 2002 - 09:54:19 EST

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    There is obviously wide variation among adherents of
    any particular belief be it philosophical,
    epistemological, political, social, economic,
    religious, etc. in the degree to which they look at
    their own preconceptions.

    Often times people have presuppositions about their
    beliefs that they never examine. Just because some
    Christians don't examine their presuppositions doesn't
    mean that Christians per se are not truth seekers.

    Interestingly enough, in my experience in academia,
    where people are supposed to be "truth seekers", I am
    continually shocked by the degree to which people are
    simply dogmatic, in the negative, popular sense of the
    term, about their particular subfield or area of
    specialty. Far from being truth seekers, there are
    substantial biases within disciplines that have no
    good basis other than it is the accepted orthodoxy of
    that subfield.

    I think understanding how humans are like this about
    EVERYTHING is part of growing up and something that is
    underscored throughout scripture. It has nothing at
    all to do with Christianity in particular.

    BTW, as I am sure other more qualified biblical
    scholars will explain, there are more interpretations
    of the verses you cite than the one you apparently
    would like to give them. And those interpretations
    are every bit as much within the context of truth
    seeking as the one you would seem to prefer.

    --- Jim Eisele <jeisele@starpower.net> wrote:
    > Dick writes
    >
    > >Without evidence, I probably would not be a
    > Christian at all. I could
    > >chose between lots of contending religious beliefs
    > that likewise would have
    > >nothing to substantiate them. Who knows what I
    > would pick? Something that
    > >offered rewards with no sacrifice probably.
    >
    > Without evidence it is impossible to be a Christian.
    > If you think the
    > evidence scale is weighted 51-49 against
    > Christianity, you are not a
    > Christian. I would also suggest that if you don't
    > consider anti-Christian
    > evidence, then you're really not a Christian.
    >
    > One major problem with Christianity is that Jesus'
    > return is 2000 years
    > overdue (Mt 24:29-35, Mk 13:24-31, Luke 21:5-36, Rev
    > 1:1-3).
    >
    > It's really all about the truth and trustworthiness.
    > For practical
    > purposes, Christianity takes huge hits every time a
    > YEC opens his or
    > her mouth. I used to equate Christianity with
    > people who were honest
    > truth-seekers. I guess I've grown up.
    >
    > Jim Eisele
    > Genesis in Question
    > http://genesisinquestion.org

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