It’s always interesting to examine some of these claims when they pop up. People believe, I get that, but how can people truly believe in the absence of any really objective independently verifiable evidence?
The answer is that they truly think that they do have evidence, and so we have an example of exactly this line of thinking, so lets take a look. Our example today comes from “Global Dispatches”, and starts as follows …
Evidence Of Jesus Christ’s Life, Resurrection And How Atheists Are Foolish
First, to be an atheist, you are taking the illogical position that the Lord Yeshua (Jesus) did not exist.
That is not a great start, I have no problem with the idea that an individual from Galilee was wandering around 2000 years ago claiming to be the messiah, it fact I can think of a couple such as Judas of Galilee and also Menahem ben Judah. An atheist is somebody who rejects god claims, and so I have no trouble at all rejecting the idea that any of these individuals was a god.
Jesus is on ancient Roman records to have been crucified in 28 AD.
This, as best as I can tell, is not a historical fact, no contemporary records exist, the belief that this is a fact is in reality a complete myth. What is factual is that the Roman historian Tacitus referred to Christus and his execution by Pontius Pilate in his Annals, book 15, chapter 44, but even that reference being a historical fact is challenged by scholars. He wrote that reference in 116 AD, almost one century after the supposed event, and so it is at best simply him writing down a belief that was documented within the various Christian Gospels that were in circulation.
It is credible to think that a messiah claimant was indeed executed by the Romans, but what is rather startling is the complete lack of any contemporary references.
Even Orthodox Jews, who still hate Him, acknowledge His existence and death, but have trouble with his birth and resurrection. As far as they knew, Jesus was born “out of wedlock”. They were unaware that Mary gave birth (her first of five) while still being a virgin…, the first time.
OK, this is not evidence at all of anything except that folks from a different belief rejected the christian claims.
However, the Pharisees (modern Orthodox) knew about His resurrection, but choose to remainin denial.
I suspect what he is getting at here are the bits of the bible that refer to the pharisees. The problem here is that the four gospels were written rather a long time after the events in question, the earliest account is Mark and that was written in AD 65. These are not eyewitness accounts, so apart from the bible, does he have any independent historical references for this claim? Nope.
The tomb of Jesus, which can still be seen today in the Garden Tomb area (not the Catholic traditional site), still has the metal spikes which were sheared off when the angelrolled the stone away.
Yes there are various claimed tombs, but there is no evidence at all that establishes any of those claims as the actual tomb. The tourists that flock love to believe it to be real, and those that assert such claims will quite happily accept their cash for such guided tours.
The ruling class of Jews paid the Roman guards to lie about how the tomb was reopened, and to say that they fell asleep and the disciples of Yeshua carried Him away.
More mythology that has no basis in fact.
But in the Roman court of inquiry which followed, the Jews admitted that they paid the soldiers to fib, otherwise, the guards would have been put to death. This is history.
Nope, that is pure mythology, there are exactly zero credible historical references for such claims.
Do you also deny the existence of angels?
Well let’s see now, the evidence for the existence of such supernatural beings is exactly zero, so that’s a “yes” then.
From there it reverts to some rather silly religious babbling, so I’ll not inflict any more of it on you.
So what have we learned?
There is rather a lot of mythology bubbling away there that is embraced as historical fact, and so what is clear is that the complete absence of any actual references to anything at all to establish the claims being made is simply not a problem for many who desperately need to believe.
People who have invested considerable quantities of their lives to specific beliefs will dismiss the complete lack of evidence for their claims and instead grasp any and all tenuous references as confirmation.
As for the article itself, it is quite frankly so bad that I seriously consider the idea that it just might be a parody, but alas, I sadly suspect the author is actually being quite serious and truly believes what he is asserting.
As for “Global Dispatch”, is this is the sort of stuff they opt to publish, then it is clearly not a credible source of factual information, but then I suspect I never did think it was.
I feel like I have been exposed a lot lately to the sad fact that we limit the scope of our relationship with a “higher power” by basing it on man (and/or woman). I heard a sermon not too long ago about the story of the golden calf. For those who haven’t heard of it, it can be found in Exodus 32. As a synopsis, the story tells of Moses ascending a mountain to receive the infamous Ten Commandments from God and in the meantime, the Israelites lost hope and therefore forced the next in command to construct an idol or another god for them to worship. The lesson taught in the sermon was about how we set ourselves up for failure because we base our faith on another man and when that man leaves, fails, or otherwise disappoints us, our hope and faith follows suit.