mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate) (10/16/84)
The Bible, while it contains some historical information, is not a work of history as we see it today, any more than the gospels are biography. The book of Job, for instance, begins with what is obviously the equivalent of "Once Upon a Time." Christianity is based entirely upon the historical fact of the ressurection. Without this, nothing else is of any use. Now, from our perspective, it is simply impossible to make any statement concerning the reality of the ressurection on "historical" grounds; there is no circumstantial material evidence, there are few eyewitnesses (whom many consider to be untrustworthy) and to flatly state its impossibility is to prejudge the question. Therefore, I have no use for historical arguments about the origin of christianity. Charley Wingate