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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Solon who wrote (23897)3/30/2012 9:19:25 PM
From: Greg or e1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300
 
"He defends a position so that makes him an apologist."

Of course he is just like you defending abortion makes you a Pro Abortion apologist, so yes let's not quibble. Except... You claimed that "ONLY CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS" believe that the Jesus of the Bible actually existed, but he (Erhman) isn't a Christian. Neither are many accredited Ancient Historical Scholars.


"And so, with Did Jesus Exist?, I do not expect to convince anyone in that boat. What I do hope is to convince genuine seekers who really want to know how we know that Jesus did exist, as virtually every scholar of antiquity, of biblical studies, of classics, and of Christian origins in this country and, in fact, in the Western world agrees. Many of these scholars have no vested interest in the matter. As it turns out, I myself do not either. I am not a Christian, and I have no interest in promoting a Christian cause or a Christian agenda. I am an agnostic with atheist leanings, and my life and views of the world would be approximately the same whether or not Jesus existed. My beliefs would vary little. The answer to the question of Jesus’s historical existence will not make me more or less happy, content, hopeful, likable, rich, famous, or immortal.

But as a historian I think evidence matters. And the past matters. And for anyone to whom both evidence and the past matter, a dispassionate consideration of the case makes it quite plain: Jesus did exist. He may not have been the Jesus that your mother believes in or the Jesus of the stained-glass window or the Jesus of your least favorite televangelist or the Jesus proclaimed by the Vatican, the Southern Baptist Convention, the local megachurch, or the California Gnostic. But he did exist, and we can say a few things, with relative certainty, about him." Bart Ehrman