I'm sorry, but who referred to the Council of Nicaea? :) And quite right, we have different gospels that existed to support different branches of early Christianity, and most were quite obviously not used (As is the gospel of Thomas, for example). Also, the fact that you're arguing that the manuscripts are found in the desert only reveals how much knowledge of history you have. In the days of early Christianity, those manuscripts which disapeared through the uniformization of the Church and through the Muslim invasions were logically much more common than a single partial manuscript found in the deserts. The fact that some branches of Early Christianity were using a different amount and types of gospels, only reveals the fact that the "bible" is a construct of normal priests to harmonize the Church. Simple and logical.
Here you have quite a good many examples of inconsistencies.
Your links lead nowhere. There's also plenty of evidence of rabid conflict and discussion in Early Christianity over what actually was "the bible" and what wasn't. The councils were created to address those.
You appear to consider the bible as a monolithic bloc, ever since the creation or death of Jesus. In early days, noone quoted the bible because it did not exist. Also, gospels that should be in the bible? You want me to actually make that decision? xD Just read about other gospels that were not included in the bible.
Haha. I am done with this debate. I had great moments of lulz reading your replies and cajole attempts, so I'm going to make my final remarks.
You honestly think that I'm going to argue with you, a person who claims a religion as more true than other, over what is irrational and what is not? As I said it is utterly comical. I would be as successful as your own attempts to demonstrate that one religion is more true than others. No amount of evidence will even slightly sway you to consider a different opinion. Hence why I said that religion is something very personal and irrational. Your silly attempts to cajole me into an argument of invisible things that exist is a really sad way of trying to debate. Gravity and a whole other things that are invisible exist, and are provable and can be experimented upon.
Yawheh, Allah, Zeus and Odin cannot. As they are not provable or their existance can be evidenced in any possible way, it is logical to assume that they do not exist. Faith (As a subset of motivation) in something does exist. And faith in something, whether existent or not, does drive people to do things that otherwise they would not be able to achieve. That in no way even slightly proves the existance of a God. Since God is unprovable, believing in one or many is irrational.
If you want a provable higher force that exists, is provable and experimented upon, you can stick with Nature, or the Cosmos. It is something so great and complex that we will never be able to fully comprehend it, yet it is scientifically provable and aknowledgable every day of our lives. Humans have aknowledged its imense complexity since the dawn of man. Many worshipped it. Religious people may say that it is a part of whatever God(s) they believe in, but that allegation ceases to be provable.
With the complexification of societies, rulers needed to control populations and legitimize their rule through latent means and that is how the rational Gods were created. And that is why in each separate early civilization there were different Gods or different cults, to which the populations worshipped and that is why your Christian God or the Islamic God or the Jewish God did not appear to all men throughout the world as would be obvious that he should do, if it was an actual existent entity that had created men, and that is why there is no Christianity and no Bible since the existence of the Homo Sapiens. Normal religions only exist through the forced teachings of its preaches to people.
I'm apparently a
Metaphysical Naturalist. I arrived at the conclusion that Nature is the only provable complex higher force that we know of, through my own meditation and experience. I wasn't even aware there was an actual philosophy that agreed with me until several years after I arrived at my conclusion. This was a self-conducted process.
On the opposite side, if you live with absolutely no connection with Christianity, it is utterly impossible that through meditation and self-thinking, you will arrive at the very same dogmas and conclusions and God as the Christian religion does. Or the Hindu relgion. Or the Hellenic religion. And so on and so forth. They are all artificial creation by a group of powerful people as a means of controling and fidelizing segments of the population towards their own agenda, be it good or bad.
The ultimate argument I have is, if you lived before spread of Christianity, you would not be Christian.
I'm out. Cheers.
Bookmarks