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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Why I disbelieve the Bible.
Message-ID: <192@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 01:32:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.192
Posted: Fri Oct 19 01:32:25 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Oct-84 07:54:47 EDT
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> "Perfect[ing] their stories"? Given a choice between 'fessing up and
> being thrown to the lions, how many would take the lions?
> "Nice living"? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!! The job description Paul
> gives in II Corinthians 11 is hardly "nice living."
> 
> Many a man will die for what he believes to be true -
> no man will die for what he knows is a lie.
> -- 
> 		The Ice Floe of Larry Bickford

Come now.  You can do better than this pathetic excuse for an argument.

People thrown to the lions may have "fessed up"-- record keeping in
that era was notoriously poor. {:-)}  And who would believe stories of
confessions?  Or give confessions under duress any credence?  Or add
them to the Bible?

Paul's "job description" could as easily be an exaggeration as any politician's
claims to simple lifestyles.  It could also serve as a "hard luck story",
to encourage donations, sympathy, etc.  Suffering convinces people, even if
it is involuntary or fictional.

People seldom have a choice of whether to die or not for a lie.  However,
they frequently do gamble.  And it takes little knowledge of history to think
of other founders of religious sects who were killed when they finally
were overcome temporally and physically.
-- 

Mike Huybensz				...mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh