Theism vs. Atheism ... will it ever be settled?

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 Mr ProgFreak wrote:

He explains why it does matter whether Jesus got crucified on the day before passover, or on the day of passover.  You may shrug these things off by calling them minor, but they all form a consistent picture 

Ehrman also explains that different Jews celebrate Passover in different days of the week (Page 27), because some groups believed that the Temple Jews had an incorrect calendar. 
Then he GUESSES that this is impossible because all this issues happened inside Jerusalem and all the Jews there followed the Temple Calendar.....BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW IF THE SCRIBE THAT COPIED OR TRANSLATED MARK AND/OR JOHN'S NARRATIONS OF THE EVENTS WAS PART OF ONE OF THIS SECTARIAN GROUPS THAT REFUSED THE TEMPLE'S CALENDAR, AND FOR THAT REASON ADJUSTED THE DATE TO FIT THEIR BELIEFS. 
Everything as two sides and several possibilities. 
I'll give you an example, read a HISTORY book about Perú, Bolivia and Chile war written by a Peruvian and another wrote by a Chilean, you will find heroic acts where we find treason and abuse, this books seem written about two different wars....And we are talking about historical events that happened in the late 1800's, not 2,000 years ago. 
But the mean point is that the Combat of Angamos happened and Miguel Grau died on it, in the same way, the important issue is that Jesus died in the previous or even next day of Passover depending on the beliefs of the writer. 

 Mr ProgFreak wrote:

There's nothing special about Christianity. It started small, the central stories and concepts got beefed up over the decades, and centuries later it happened to be endorsed by the Roman empire. . .

Of course Mike, Jesus was the Messiah rejected and outlawed by his own people, few followed him, in a land where it was a risk to follow him, and this few spread the good news, 

It's also important to know Jesus didn't even wanted to create Christianity, he was a Jew and he wanted to changed some bases of traditional Judaism, but despite all the problems he had to face;, his acts and words transcended this hostile environment and grew to be the largest(or one of the largest) religion in the world. 

That's how religions, theories and knowledge start, at the beginning, only a few know the truth, remember, Darwin's theory started in Darwin's mind, and then spread to the rest of the world, the inverse process is very rare.

Yes, some data has been lost and other data has been added through bad copies and inaccurate translations, we all know that, but the essence of his message survived. 
But this is only so contradictory for those who want to see each Gospel as a History text,....No, Christianity is the final product of all the Gospels and the events of the first centuries after Jesus death and resurrection.
At the end, who cares if Peter denied one, three or six times, that's only important for Peter, the fact is that Jesus announced that Peter would deny him and this happened, the rest is secondary.

 Mr P¨rogFreak wrote:

Look at it this way: When seen from this perspective, all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. When seen from your perspective though, you'll have to construct a plethora of excuses and far-fetched explanations in order to make it all work - sort of. And you haven't even yet reached the really far out there ideas of Catholicism - or the principle of the holy trinity which was established centuries after the new testament had been written

Mike: The Holy Trinity is not a concept created centuries later, it's in the Bible:

The Farther: Luke 23: 46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." Having said this, He breathed His last.

The Son: Luke 2: 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you." 

49"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" 50But they did not understand what he was saying to them. 
The Holy Spirit: John 20: 21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
The three persons of the Holy Trinity are present in the Gospels, the Church later gave form to this mystery, but the concept is in the Bible.

 Mr ProgFreak wrote:

And finally, the best evidence for the inconsistencies and their irreconcilable nature is the fact that even two millennia later the factions of Christianity remain - irreconcilable on major issues

Mike, that's a very complex problem that ivolves interpretation, schisms, politics and many different issues, this proves nothing except that The Bible is not a literal text that will be understood in the same way by everybody.

But at the end, if you read the different Bibles (King James, Catholic, etc) the central issues of our faiths are there.

And even if what you say what's true, the disagreements only prove that humans will hardly agree on anything.

But don't worry, soon Catholics, Orthodox, some Luterans and some groups of Anglicans will be closer than ever.

Iván

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - August 11 2010 at 18:23