Epistemological Rights and Jesus Mythicism
In what has turned into a full fledged internet snit, I have been attempting to have a constructive dialog with John W Loftus. I have not been having much luck, I'm afraid to say. The gist of my criticism has been that John is not prepared to make substantive claims about Jesus' historicity or lack thereof. He has a very popular blog, and has been very cavalier about making pronouncements that in his professional opinion, Jesus most likely existed as a Doomsday Prophet, or something like that.
I submit that the question of Jesus' historicity is one for people who have devoted their lives to studying minutia, not for a former preacher who's read several books that sounded convincing to him. I am not a mythicist, but I find merit in many mythicist arguments. Nevertheless, I know my epistemological rights, so I simply comment on the logical validity of arguments. I don't presume to declare one side or the other the victor. The fact is, there is no clear winner, and it's an affront to good history to go about declaring that there is.
If you want to see the whole thing play out in its gory detail, here's the link:
Full Recap on my other blog: http://allthingsstupidandreligious.blogspot.com/2009/01/alls-well-that-ends-angrily-mr-loftus.html
I submit that the question of Jesus' historicity is one for people who have devoted their lives to studying minutia, not for a former preacher who's read several books that sounded convincing to him. I am not a mythicist, but I find merit in many mythicist arguments. Nevertheless, I know my epistemological rights, so I simply comment on the logical validity of arguments. I don't presume to declare one side or the other the victor. The fact is, there is no clear winner, and it's an affront to good history to go about declaring that there is.
If you want to see the whole thing play out in its gory detail, here's the link:
Full Recap on my other blog: http://allthingsstupidandreligious.blogspot.com/2009/01/alls-well-that-ends-angrily-mr-loftus.html