The Virgin Birth

[smartestnumber5]

I can't remember the name of this thing but I heard it the other day on the radio something like You can either believe in God, Jesus, Mary ... all of it- when you die you'll be rewarded - if your wrong (and there isn't anything beyond) you'll never know - but IF you don't believe and there is somrthing else we ll then your "cooked" so to speak

This is Pascal's Wager. It is a fundamentally flawed argument--in that it assumes that there are only two possibilities for the after life--either nothing or the Christian God.

In reality all of us face the same wager whether we believe in a higher power or not. What if we believe in the *wrong* higher being and the higher being who does in fact exist decides to punish anyone who believed in the "wrong" religion? (But what if Christianity is in fact one of the "wrong" religions?)

 

[Mikelly1221]

I have only the vaguest of recollections of this, but I think I do remember that Josephus may have been in the tank for some special interest or another and writing/skewing his observations accordingly. Wherever I heard that, it still acknowledged that his work was valuable, but it put it in the context of his having conflicts of interests in certain areas. (Not even necessarily Jesus -- as I said, I can't recall the particulars)

I think I heard something like that, too, something about he was attached to the Romans somehow, I don't really know.

I think all ancient writings deserve the same level of scrutiny. But that doesn't mean all passages are equally likely to have come through intact. It's possible - likely even - that small passages can be altered within a larger work. It's not all or nothing.

As long as all the passages are subjected to the same level of scrutiny instead of some getting lesser treatment and others being held to a nearly impossible standard, I say analyze away!