Thank God I live in The South. You should have heard the Christmas concert at my son's public high school. It was inspirational! :azn:

Of course science can explain how life occurs. Here, you should read Science Daily and stop reading fairy-tales as the explanation of things. Controversial Findings Help Explain Evolution Of Life

What a silly statement.

BTW, the eye-witness accounts all differ and were delivered decades after the fact, relying completely on hearsay evidence. Any assistant prosecutor fresh out of a piddling law school could poke holes in that story. . . .

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

That's just stupid PC BS. Doesn't change the fact that tomorrow I'm celebrating Easter with my kids. Though my 4-year-old saw the Easter Bunny at the store & was terrified.

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

Because the Gospel record has been inbued with divine authority and having such can only be historically substantiated through outside sources. Therefore I stated that "by 'secular history' I mean documentation outside of the generally accepted New Testament accounts."
I never said that. As well, I never said that God could not resurrect anyone. I did, however, state that God's resurrecting Jesus is accepted as an article of faith. Acceptance, on faith, of the resurrection is a condition of salvation if you are a Christian.

big difference.

Dark chocolate is much better... I gotta agree... mmmmmmm

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Paul
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CLERGYMAN, n.
A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of bettering his temporal ones.
Ambrose Bierce

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It's certainly better FOR you.

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Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. ~Potter Stewart

That's an interesting article but how does your source explain how life occurs?

The Southern Man considers your use of the term "silly" with respect his intellectual argument as condescending and therefore insulting, and hereby requests that you refrain from its further use, unless you wish to work your way out of an intelligent conversation.

Eye witness accounts frequently differ in details. If they were exactly the same then that would be evidence of conspiracy.

You have a valid point about the timeline in contemporary terms but when you delve further into the contextual history the delay in the written record makes perfect sense. The traditions of the Aramaic language dictate that the testimonies be accurately circulated orally. The Old Testament, including such mundane facts as census data, survived intact for generations in this way. It wasn’t until Greek scholars learned of Christ, sought out the apostles, became students of them and wrote down the testimony did the written Gospels come to be.

I don’t really see your point, but no matter. There are other non-canonized gospels which offer the same testimony. The gospel of Mary comes to mind.

As a scientist I look at my Christianity differently. I have no problem analyzing the substantiated facts and coming up with, to me anyway, the obvious conclusion that Christ was an historical figure, and important philosopher, as well as the Son of God.

Chocolate, beer and women are all best when dark, complex and a wee bit bitter.

For them to be valuable as testimony to an historical event they would have to be eyewitness records of events and would have to be subjected to examination as such.

If they were the written records of oral recounting of events that happened several generations before they would lose a great deal of value as testimony.

But then this is a matter of faith and it doesn't matter to Christians about the evidence value of the Gospels, I would think it's the spirit of the Gospels that matter to believers.

Absolutely correct. Nothing is so suspicious as two witnesses with the same story.

Nope, it's actually more than that. It is the reality in my son's school, and since the school is public then it is difficult to comlpain much about it. The traditional Easter celebration is still strong in this country. Here is how America feels about the importance of Easter:

America's churches will be much fuller than usual this weekend as Christians celebrate Easter, one of the two times a year when church attendance in the United States is traditionally at its highest.

Easter Season Finds a Religious, Largely Christian, Nation