Christopher A.Lee <calee@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> said :
> Feel free to provide as much evidence as there is for Elvis, Diana
> etc.
I suspect you'll find considerably greater capacity for information
recording, storage and retrieval in the lifetimes of Elvis and Diana than
existed in first-century Galilee, so I would not be surprised at the
disparity.
Even so:
> Until you do it is just a rationalisation because there isn't any.
It is a rationalisation in the sense that I am appealing for rationality.
As I said, there is little reason to deny the possibility of his
existence as a man - that a man might have existed is, as I said, nothing
out of the ordinary and does not in itself stretch the bounds of physical
possibility or imply the existence of God.
The question of whether such a man could have been God is of course
another matter, and for myself I see no reason to assume that he was, if
he existed. And I don't say that he existed: I say only that I see no
reason to assume that he must not have existed. There are sources dating
from closer to his lifetime than I am, and although those sources may
well have been created as stories with no factual basis at all, it's
equally likely that they grew up - or were built - around an actual
person, whose true nature, personality and beliefs are probably now
entirely lost to us.
In short, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a source having some
element of historical validity simply because I didn't like the religion
built on that source. Nor would I take the source as gospel (pardon me)
truth when I know that it has undergone enormous changes throughout its
history.
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