Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!cca!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!burl!duke!unc!bch From: bch@unc.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: A burden both ways Message-ID: <5352@unc.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Jun-83 13:24:52 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.5352 Posted: Fri Jun 10 13:24:52 1983 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jun-83 12:24:17 EDT References: qubix.310 Lines: 38 Despite Larry Bickford's extensive apologetic, I am left with the following: (1) The only descriptions of the Crucifixion and Resurrection are in the New Testament. (2) None of these descriptions are actually first hand. All are heresay and, as such, are inadmissable by legal standards. (3) The New Testament is not an unbiased account of historical events, but is a set of documents selected specifically to promote a specific set of beliefs. Much of it was written decades after the events it purports to describe -- not only heresay, but *reconstructed* heresay. (4) There are no other parallel historical documents describing the set of events the New Testament purports to describe. While this may be understandable, this does not alter the fact that they still don't exist. (5) The use of evidence of the same "quality" as that which describes other unprovable historical events does not prove the Resurrection -- it only affords the Resurrection the same degree of unprovability as the other events. In other words I find the fact of the Resurrection to be unsubstantiated. ------ So What! I sincerely hope that the structure of Christianity will not crumble on the basis of whether or not the Resurrection took place. The body of thought, ethic, morality etc. that has come to compose the best of Christian thought will last whether or not a few events took place or not. The teachings that we have exist whether they were taught by Jesus in Galilee or by some writer centuries later. Their validity and importance stand apart from their roots. I have no problem believing what I believe on the basis of faith alone, and no fear of saying that my beliefs are on the basis of faith and not provable. Do you? Byron