Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

The point being, the concept of scientific replication is incorrectly used in your claim. My claim was that ' National Geographic says "Every scientific attempt to replicate it in a lab has failed.' " We might go on to deduce from that-- not "Therefore aliens!"--but rather "...

There's nothing about the picture of the guy that suggests he rose from the dead, but quite a bit that suggests that he is dead...Further, the guy looks awfully European for a supposed Palestinian native. 1. From the BBC : According to an international team of scientists and other interested folk c...

If two independent witnesses tell the same story, the veracity of the story is bolstered. What is bolstered if two independent witnesses tell the same story is the likelihood that the independently told stories had a common source. Whether that common source was historical truth is another question...

perseusomega9 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 06, 2017 2:45 pm We can't replicate the construction of the great pyramid either

Actually we probably can.

But even if we couldn't, we might at least have the humility and honesty to admit it is a wonder.

If two independent witnesses tell the same story, the veracity of the story is bolstered. The Shroud of Turin seems to tell the same story as gospel accounts. Thus, if the Shroud is judged authentic, we have external historical corroboration from outside the gospel accounts, original material eviden...

There is no historical evidence of the earliest generations e.g. the twelve apostles, or Mary and Joseph, or Joseph of Arimathea, or Lazarus. There are no connections to them at all - we have no writings from them , there is no contemporary historical evidence for any of them , and not one single C...

Ulan wrote: ↑Thu Nov 02, 2017 7:06 am
It's kind of funny that this happens exactly when the topic is about reliable witnesses.

Yes, reality has ways of keeping us humble.

Sorry. Revising the error of formatting: "in the face of persecution and death" seems to be a qualifier. What does it mean? Tradition (and some texts) point to the persecution of early Christians: Stephen martyred, Paul stoned and later martyred (as were James and Peter), Ignatius slain. A...

the corporate witness of the churches with many historical connections to the earliest generations (--in certain respects they had much more information than we can possibly have), Such as? It seems there was a fair sized body of people following Jesus of Nazareth (12 apostles, another larger group...

Nope. Ah, but the question was "Why so certain?" Certainty involves all kinds of factors (personal, psychological, existential, philosophical, sociological, religious), not just whichever material fragments happen to survive to our day. Unless you look beyond the chemical composition of p...