Summations Only

It has been proven scientifically and statistically that there is not advantage to prayer. Any advantages seen are coincidental and attempts to make the prayer related no matter the flimsiest of connection.

You have trouble understanding the word evidence. It has stories but no evidence. In order to be evidence something else must corroborate it. Nothing else corroborates the bible, all other "evidence" is derived from the bible. There is no "evidence" independent of the bible.

They do not corroborate the bible. They are both decades removed from the supposed time of Jesus.See earlier posts on this.
Message 7

quote:

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TACITUS (c.112CE)

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Roughly 80 years after the alleged events Tacitus allegedly wrote a (now) famous passage about "Christ" - this passage has several problems however:
* Tacitus uses the term "procurator", used in his later times, but not correct for the actual period, when "prefect" was used.
* Tacitus names the person as "Christ", when Roman records could not possibly have used this name (it would have been "Jesus, son of Joseph" or similar.)
* Tacitus accepts the recent advent of Christianity, which was against Roman practice (to only allow ancient and accepted cults and religions.)
* (No-one refers to this passage for a millenium, even early Christians who actively sought such passages.)

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Thus, even if the Tacitus passage is not a later interpolation,
it is not evidence of a historical Jesus based on earlier Roman records,
but
merely a few details which Tacitus gathered from Christian stories circulating in his time (c.f. Pliny.)...

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JOSEPHUS (c.96CE)

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The famous Testamonium Flavianum is considered probably the best evidence for Jesus, yet it has some serious problems :
* the T.F. as it stands uses clearly Christian phrases and names Christ as Messiah, it could not possibly have been written by the Jew Josephus (who refused to acknowledge anyone "messiah"),
* The T.F. comes in several versions of various ages,
* The T.F. was not mentioned by Origen when he reviewed Josephus - Origen even says Josephus does NOT call Jesus the Messiah, showing the passage was not present in that earlier era.
* The T.F. first showed up in manuscripts of Eusebius, and was still absent from some manuscripts as late as 8th century.
* (The other tiny passage in Josephus is probably a later interpolation.)

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An analysis of Josephus can be found here:
LIGAUBO - Daftar Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Deposit Pulsa Jackpot Terbesar

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In short - this passage is possibly a total forgery (or at best a corrupt form of a lost original.)

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The do not show any evidence independent of the bible.There are no independent, contemporary sources for the biblical Jesus. Christians claim there are but I am still waiting.

He evidently had no control over that. Some god, eh?

The leaps and contortions christians will go through in order to rationalize is amazing. Don't get me start on catholic transubstantiation.

Those are some pretty impressive logistical and intellectual gymnastics you need to perform in order to get the meaning you want out of the actual lines in the bible.

The links in your links are dead. Try again.ABE
Oh yeah still not evidence. Apologetics is not evidence.Edited by Theodoric, : No reason given.

Do you even know what the term, apologetics means?

One quibble it is Ambrose Bierce not Pierce.

I don't give a rats ass what people think of my beliefs. I think you will find that many agnostics and atheists have similar thoughts. It seems only the religious feel threatened and have a need to constantly have their beliefs validated. I wonder why that is.

Understand the truth through the truth? A bit circular don't you think.

Your god is a person? No wonder you religion is so weak and persecuted. Get a real god like Odin, Zeus or Allah. Now those are real gods. No namby pamby people there.

Of course you do. Your hubris is amazing. If you and your type populated heaven I wouldn't want to be there anyway.By the way where is heaven?Edited by Theodoric, : No reason given.

They deviate from your interpretation of doctrine, which deviates from original christian doctrine.

Bullshit. Fiction can be a lot more engrossing than non-fiction. The skill of the writer is more important than whether the experience was genuine or not.