The King Arthur analogy was definitely not perfect, and to be totally clear, I’m willing to grant that Jesus was likely a real person and even his disciples and that he was crucified. I don’t have a problem with those particular claims because they are fairly ordinary and I understand there is at least some evidence of Jesus which is about as good as you can get for a random carpenter that lived at that time (as opposed to an emperor or something who would have a lot more evidence).
My problem is solely with the claim that God exists and Jesus was resurrected. These are quite extraordinary claims I think you will agree, so I need a much higher standard of evidence. What you’ve presented here is not strictly evidence, but an assumption that because the claims weren’t denied by the disciples specifically (as far as we know) that these extraordinary claims are likely true. I disagree, as I don’t think that lack of recorded denials counts as evidence otherwise we might believe all kinds of things. To me it reads as a number of assumptions leading to an extraordinary conclusion.
In terms of the aliens being more plausible, my comment was a bit toungue in cheek and hyperbolic. May main point is they are more likely to exist in my mind because we already have examples of intelligent life. Sure they might not be interested in us but aliens by definition have alien motivations so who knows? It’s at least possible but if someone made that claim I would also likely reject it due to lack of evidence.
I also have to disagree strongly with the idea that there are two unprovable hypothesis and therefore a 50/50 chance. The number of competing hypothesis doesn’t mean they are equally strong and therefore equally likely. I could just as easily claim that, once again, there is an invisible dragon under your bed and given you can’t provide evidence to disprove it and I can’t provide evidence to prove it, we have to conclude it’s a 50/50 chance which is clearly wrong.
You are correct though that I think the possibility of God existing is far far less than the possibility that there is no God. That’s why I’m an atheist after all. Everyone has their own standards of evidence though and reasons for believing or not as I said before. It’s ok for us to keep our respective positions but with more understanding of each other.
Makes sense. I guess I’m not so much demonstrating that the resurrection is true as that, if it’s not true, the accounts surrounding it are still very extraordinary and probably worth looking into.
The King Arthur analogy was definitely not perfect, and to be totally clear, I’m willing to grant that Jesus was likely a real person and even his disciples and that he was crucified. I don’t have a problem with those particular claims because they are fairly ordinary and I understand there is at least some evidence of Jesus which is about as good as you can get for a random carpenter that lived at that time (as opposed to an emperor or something who would have a lot more evidence).
My problem is solely with the claim that God exists and Jesus was resurrected. These are quite extraordinary claims I think you will agree, so I need a much higher standard of evidence. What you’ve presented here is not strictly evidence, but an assumption that because the claims weren’t denied by the disciples specifically (as far as we know) that these extraordinary claims are likely true. I disagree, as I don’t think that lack of recorded denials counts as evidence otherwise we might believe all kinds of things. To me it reads as a number of assumptions leading to an extraordinary conclusion.
In terms of the aliens being more plausible, my comment was a bit toungue in cheek and hyperbolic. May main point is they are more likely to exist in my mind because we already have examples of intelligent life. Sure they might not be interested in us but aliens by definition have alien motivations so who knows? It’s at least possible but if someone made that claim I would also likely reject it due to lack of evidence.
I also have to disagree strongly with the idea that there are two unprovable hypothesis and therefore a 50/50 chance. The number of competing hypothesis doesn’t mean they are equally strong and therefore equally likely. I could just as easily claim that, once again, there is an invisible dragon under your bed and given you can’t provide evidence to disprove it and I can’t provide evidence to prove it, we have to conclude it’s a 50/50 chance which is clearly wrong.
You are correct though that I think the possibility of God existing is far far less than the possibility that there is no God. That’s why I’m an atheist after all. Everyone has their own standards of evidence though and reasons for believing or not as I said before. It’s ok for us to keep our respective positions but with more understanding of each other.
Makes sense. I guess I’m not so much demonstrating that the resurrection is true as that, if it’s not true, the accounts surrounding it are still very extraordinary and probably worth looking into.