Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-9801519-20130614044126/@comment-9801519-20130616033958

HiddenSpirit: I understand you are not arguing in favor of Christianity/Judaism/Islam, but classifying them as religions and not mythology simply because they're widely practiced is a form of Appeal to Popularity. I say "a form of" because you're not trying to argue they're true, but you're not categorizing them correctly based on this fallacy.

There are multiple definitions of the word "myth." Here are just a few:

1) A traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.

2) A popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone, especially one embodying the ideals and institutions of a society or segment of society.

3) A person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence.

You're using the first definition, but the second and third apply to modern day religions fall under the second two definitions.

The Walshinator: I've read bits of those, and many books by C.S Lewis, the best being "Mere Christianity." I have also read a sizable portion of ETDAV. The problem with these books is that they either provide philosophical arguments that are no stronger than the opposition, or attempt to use the "fulfilled" Biblical prophesies as evidence that Christianity is true. However, if you try to qualify these occurrences (which, by the way, are not documented by external sources) as evidence, you might as well take foreshadowing techniques used in books like The Magic Treehouse as evidence that the events in the book actually happened.

Furthermore, there is very little evidence that Jesus Christ even existed. Perhaps a person matching his description existed, or even had the name, but his divinity cannot be known. Moreover, the supposed testimonial evidence that Jesus performed miracles is provided by "the 500," who are briefly referred to by Paul. Not a single of these five hundred people are named, and even if they were, there are no primary sources (that is, journals written by the people who are said to have been witnesses) that can be ascribed to any member of this group.

Also, according to the Hadith and one verse in the Quran, Muhammad ascended into heaven at the Dome of the Rock which stands on the site of the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus was dead for three days, but Muhammad, who wasn't even divine, was transported directly to heaven. I'd say that's significantly more impressive, wouldn't you?

Note: I am aware that, according to the Bible, Enoch and Elijah were taken into heaven. I'm just saying that the Son of God's departure was not as spectacular as that of Allah's prophet.