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Originally Posted by Itse
That's just silly. Does the existence of "Abraham Lincoln the Vampire Hunter" make the existence of Abraham Lincoln less likely? Of course not.
All throughout history there have been supernatural stories written about people who actually existed. Alexander the Great for example was the Son of the Sun, and his sister is a mermaid who still at times asks for her brother. Joan of Arc received divine instructions from God. The Catholic Church has over 10,000 saints, and every single one has a supernatural story attached to them, and most of them are historical persons. (Including for example all the previous popes.)
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This straw man argument is not worth responding to.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
Pre-enlightenment history is regurarly intermixed with stories of the supernatural, exaggerations, outright fabrications and recycling of various old stories. This does not mean that none of the people in those stories exist. Just like the existence of supernatural stories about Jesus mean absolutely nothing when judging the likelihood of his actual existence. It just makes it difficult to piece together the likely facts, which is why it's better left for experts. I don't think rational people should just follow their gut feeling on topics like this.
Besides,
If Christianity had died an early death, we probably wouldn't even be debating this. People would just take the experts word on it. Which is kind of backwards when you think about it.
If it does not matter, people are more likely to just believe the experts. If it's of some importance or interest, people will form their opinions in increasingly irrational ways.
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I think your experts may have their own definition of proof, it certainly does not prove anything to me. And I certainly do not think I am the one being irrational. In fact, the so called evidence you provided of Jesus is irrational - you have pointed out the earliest writing of Jesus, and because of the importance of Jesus to many people, the writing becomes evidence of his existence (and to many his godliness).
The religion started somewhere, it still exists today, yet the story may have had other permutations resulting in the story we get today (in fact, we know this to be true). A historian repeating a story he thought to be true could have been the same myth that everyone else was repeating. Just like the Hanging Gardens...