Religious Cults & False Prophets~ Discussions and DebatesAll prophets are false. Jesus never existed.
Don't delete my post. It's original work from yours truly; a summary of information I gleaned from the sites at the bottom and other places. I didn't say he WAS an Essene. I said he KNEW ABOUT the Essenes who were allegedly some of the first christians. First hand reports concerning the Essenes comes to us from the Jewish philosopher of the Egytian dispersion, Philo of Alexandria, who lived between 30 B.C. and 40 A.D. Philo's writings about the Essenes comes down to us through two works, 'Quod omnis probus Fiber sit' and 'Apologia pro Judais.' The second work has been lost but the information was retained in Eusebius' 'Praeparatio Evangilica.' http://members.aol.com/Wisdomway/deadseascrolls.htm The quote you provided in no way addresses the issue I raised. Once again, if you're going to try to use fallacies, please take the time to educate yourselves on them. The argument from silence is a branch of the argument from ignorance which has an important exception: Thus, a Jew who's in the area at the right time and talking to the right people should be yelling to all the world about the INCARNATE GOD who allegedly showed up. Like the example above says: "any arrival would be listed"
This is what's called a special pleading. It seeks to ignore the double standard theists are claiming. The gospel Jesus is attributed events which are demonstrably impossible. Homer has no such claims associated with him. Thus, the burden of proof for Homer (or Alexander the Great or Caesar, etc) is much less than that for Jesus. We'd dismiss the idea Alexander the Great crushed asia with magical powers... but this skepticism evaporates in Christians where Jesus is concerned; the absurdity becomes rational and rational objection becomes absurdity. I'm sure you will help me demonstrate this. Again with the double standard. We can use internal evidence to date secular documents because they don't make absurdist claims. Documents that make absurdist claims are tossed out. And if you're going to use internal evidence, please be honest with it. We know the other three gospels draw from Mark and we know Mark can't be written any earlier than 70 ce because it mentions the fall of the temple. Red Herring. The existence of Christians isn't in question. We know there were "Jesus cults" as early as 88 bce as evidenced by Josephus' mention of some of the other Jesuses. The debate is the existence of Jesus. Tacitus offers absolutely ZERO extra-biblical evidence of the gospel Jesus' existence. He's simply the first in a long line to see Christians and assume a Christ. Refuted? The lion's share of my argument has gone unrebutted. |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame