Sunday, March 04, 2012

Dinesh D'Souza on the Existence of Jesus

“Do you believe in the existence of Socrates? Alexander the Great? Julius Caesar? If historicity is established by written records in multiple copies that date originally from near contemporaneous sources, there is far more proof for Christ’s existence than for any of theirs.”

- Dinesh D’Souza
What’s So Great About Christianity, p. 296.
Posted by Brian at 7:30 AM
Topics: , , ,

5 comments :

NFQ said...

This is called "moving the goalposts." The burden is not to prove that someone named Yeshua once lived in Jerusalem ~2000 years ago (undoubtedly, lots of people named Yeshua lived in and around Jerusalem at that time) but that someone named Yeshua in Jerusalem ~2000 years ago was able to heal sick people by his touch, was able to walk on water, was the son of God and simultaneously God himself, was killed and then came back to life and then ascended into heaven ...

Does anyone believe that Alexander the Great was able to turn himself invisible? Does anyone believe that Socrates' tears were sapphires and diamonds? If we found an ancient text saying that either of these were the case, would we be convinced by them? ... I sure hope not.

Monday, March 5, 2012 at 5:36:00 AM GMT
Brian said...

NFQ,

Thanks for your comment.

When someone denies that Jesus of Nazareth existed, this seems to me a fair enough response—when someone is asking whether or not someone existed.

This is a separate issue than the deity of Christ.

Monday, March 5, 2012 at 9:34:00 AM GMT
Anonymous said...

NFQ I think Dinesh is speaking to the few out on the nutty fringe that suggest the man Jesus didn't exist. Never once did dinesh say '...and so, since the evidence suggests Jesus existed, then we can also say he was God in flesh and did all kinds of sweet miracles'. He's simply saying this man existed now you must decide what you believe he was, God or a normal dude who didn't take his meds. He's not moving any goalposts, your just on the wrong field brother

Monday, March 5, 2012 at 8:43:00 PM GMT
Anonymous said...

NFQ,

Typical for an atheist to avoid the point of the quote completely. How about you try paying closer attention to the issue at hand next time?

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 1:47:00 AM GMT
Robert said...

We don't have to believe in Alexander, Socrates, et. al. to gain from their influence. Conquests and teachings attributed to them continue to motivate us whether or not they actually existed.

There are myths and legends even about people born fairly recently. Is it so hard to imagine that the historicity of Jesus could have been aggrandized, idealized or even man-made, not to mention distorted through time, translations, mistakes and political convenience?

(yes, I know I'm late to the conversation. good question though.)

Saturday, June 14, 2014 at 5:50:00 PM GMT+1

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