Why no straight answers?

[Zzyzx]

.
After eight years debating here I have YET to encounter a defender of fundamentalism / literalism / traditionalism (or the Bible in general) who will openly, accurately, honestly answer fundamental questions about Christian beliefs – including the following (with truthful answers in bold font)

What verifiable evidence exists (beyond Bible tales and claims, opinions, testimonials and speculation) to substantiate that:

Jesus was anything more than human? None

Humans possess a soul? None

An afterlife exists? None

Miracles described in Bible tales actually occurred? None

Any of the claimed events such as floods, earthquakes, darkening sky, star stopping, Earth ceasing rotation, etc occurred as described? None

God intercedes in human affairs or life events? None

Bible writers were actually inspired by God? None



Why no answers? Could it be refusal to admit that in the absence of verifiable information, accepting the basic beliefs of Christianity must be based on "Take my (or his) word for it" and that doing so is not a rational basis for making decisions on matters of importance?

[PghPanther]

.
[Replying to post 503 by shnarkle]

If one is sincerely interested in learning about "the mechanism" they can take university graduate courses in biology and genetics, where they can actually study such things in well equipped laboratories.

I did that fifty years ago (though it was not my major field of study) while many contemporaries were studying their "scriptures" and learning "all the answers" and also perhaps learning to distrust, dismiss, demean "science" (which provides them with modern medicine, transportation, communication, food production and processing, refrigeration, air conditioning, etc).

and it boils down to this..........the scientific method results in consistent and predictable working models within reality.......that you can leverage to build airplanes, bridges, building etc to such a degree that you know they will work before you even build them.........

faith claims have not working models of any kind in any reality we are aware of.......none........zip.......... nada.

That's it........science deals with reality......and faith deals with a proclaimed reality outside of the only one we've been able to validate.

The faith base world view might as well proclaim warner bros cartoon characters as real life beings..........they have just as much ability to demonstrate that as their supernatural Biblical stories.

[JLB32168]

The case here for "verifiable evidence" is "evidence that I will believe and people who say they have witnessed or experienced supernatural phenomenon are most likely lying or deluded."

[Monta]

[Replying to post 510 by PghPanther]


"That's it........science deals with reality......and faith deals with a proclaimed reality outside of the only one we've been able to validate. "

Science is exactly the same.
Just watched ytube on CERN.
They are going into ares and they just don't know how it's
going to end up.
Christian religion has a lot more going for it for we have Jesus the Christ who has been there and has descended to tell us all about it.
I am sure CERN would give their right arm to have that kind of information up their jumper

[marco]

Christian religion has a lot more going for it for we have Jesus the Christ who has been there and has descended to tell us all about it.
I am sure CERN would give their right arm to have that kind of information up their jumper

He has been where and told us what?
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard......" This is hardly telling us. He gave no details about his death experience, whether it was painful, what he saw, how it felt. We are therefore in exactly the same position as if we had NO knowledge and no death pioneer.

The adventurer Muhammad did tell us of his bargaining with a very tough God who wanted humans to pray almost non-stop, but persistent Muhammad beat God down by shrewd bargaining to the rather pleasant praise-God- five- times- a- day. Of course we needn't believe a word of it, but it's there for us to see.

Jesus drew no pictures.

[rikuoamero]

[Replying to post 512 by Monta]

Christian religion has a lot more going for it for we have Jesus the Christ who has been there and has descended to tell us all about it.

Has he been there? How do you know? A bunch of people wrote about it decades after it allegedly happened? Even if Jesus did descend somewhere, why do you believe whatever he allegedly reported back? Can you or I go and verify or falsify what he allegedly said? Oh wait what's that? I have to die first?

[Monta]

[Replying to rikuoamero]

"Has he been there? How do you know? A bunch of people wrote about it decades after it allegedly happened? Even if Jesus did ..."

Socrates did not write anything either.

Shall we wipe him off the pages of history?

[Zzyzx]

.

Socrates did not write anything either.

Shall we wipe him off the pages of history?

If someone told tales about Socrates performing supernatural feats, coming back to life, and levitating into the sky would we build palaces of worship to him and hang on every word others claimed he said?

[marco]

[Replying to rikuoamero]

"Has he been there? How do you know? A bunch of people wrote about it decades after it allegedly happened? Even if Jesus did ..."

Socrates did not write anything either.

Shall we wipe him off the pages of history?

If we did wipe Socrates away, it would make no difference. But his pupils wrote enough about him to give us an account of who he was. It is not hard to piece together information about the passage of a man from year to year. However, the information you want us to assimilate about Christ is his visit to the underworld. We have an account of how Orpheus went there, and Hercules took Cerberus back from Hades. But we don't believe this, and why would we believe similar stuff about Christ?

[Monta]

[Replying to marco]

"If we did wipe Socrates away, it would make no difference. But his pupils wrote enough about him to give us an account of who he was. It is not hard to piece together information about the passage of a man from year to year. However, the information you want us to assimilate about Christ is his visit to the underworld. We have an account of how Orpheus went there, and Hercules took Cerberus back from Hades. But we don't believe this, and why would we believe similar stuff about Christ?"

If we wiped out Socrates we'd have to wipe out anything and everything anyone wrote about him. We are not prepared to that that simply because things he said made sense.

Things Jesus' disciples and all the others who happened to write about Him gives us the credibility by which we can take everything else about Him as genuine. Just because it is beyond our understanding, comprehension, does not mean His experience is not genuine. We also have countless others who have experienced and can vouch for the reality Jesus spoke about.

[rikuoamero]

[Replying to post 518 by Monta]

If it's beyond our experience and comprehension then any judgement you give of it being 'genuine' is without support.