Evolution is hobbit forming.

There will come a day, when the pages of the bible will be found in comedy sections in any poor quality book shop, but the book of evolution will explain how man developed this fear of a big spooky in the sky, because basically, early man was a dumb sh$t! and not much has changed:)

Do you know what is my favourite bible story is! none of them! but i liked the one about the ark! That one is a ripper!lol.

I would say with confidence, that evolution is the new bible for the modern man and the other religions will become nothing more than a novelty to scar little children into submission.

from the simpsons dialogue, when homer spoke to god, gods face appeared in the clouds.

I think that would do it!

But fat chance of that happening!

EVO

Hi Sancho... you said:

"observations about the Koran being invented for the convenience of Mohammed apply equally to the bible"

Well.. I'm happy for you to provide a similar example from JESUS life which shows how he used 'revelation' to bolster a hunger for a procession of women :) after all...that was my allegation about the Koran... *waits*...tap tap tap....

Pericles.

Lukes reliance on Mark is not important. He also relied on either his own observations or another source.
You miss that Peter was an eye-witness and he declares so in his own "statutory declaration"

<<16We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."[a] 18We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. (II Peter 1:16ff)>>

John, another of Jesus inner circle and an eyewitness says:

<<1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched>> (1John1:1)

Paul absolutely met Jesus (the risen Christ) but you will need to read all his letters to see the numerous references to that fact as he describes them. He received a large number of revelations from the risen Lord.

Sorry Pericles.. :) you lose.. "fact" wins.

pelican: "I guess if a God, a Genie or an elf appeared to me and threw in a couple of miracles I might rethink my position on a few things"

Now I would still be tending to fall back to advanced aliens before resorting to deities, with the acknowledgement that advanced technology beyond ours would appear miraculous, in the same way that our TVs would to people not that long ago. With the currently exponential growth of tech advancement, they might only need to be a few decades ahead.

mjpb,
>> If belief is so darn obviously one sided why are we having this discussion?<<

That is a good question. Some - I would like to hope that most - people participate in these discussions because they want to broaden their perspective, enrich their world-view by trying to understand the other side‘s arguments and motivations.

Nobody expects to be converted or to convert other participants (well, almost nobody: I know there are a couple of zealots on both sides of the argument who think they can convince/convert others).

And, I suspect, some of our atheist friends just need to re-convince themselves of the exclusive rationality (some call it even logic) of their position, even if it means essentially just preaching to the converted on this forum. Those of us who profess some religion can satisfy such needs - if we happen to have them - within our own religious communities.

Two pieces of evidence that would tip the scales for me:
1.If godliness bestowed primacy
Our daily experience is that -all other things being equal- a godly person is no more likely to prevail in any enterprise than an ungodly, and no less likely to succumb to disease or accident.

Granted, some studies show that people of religious persuasion live marginally longer healthier lives, but that is likely to be true of any belief system – not specifically God based :a baby monkey which has a rag doll mum to cling to is less traumatised than one left to its own devices!

2.If God was responsive
When barbarians are battering the gates and the godly beseech divine interventions I’d expect the barbarians to be vanquished or at least dispersed , but how many times does God answer the call 1/100, 2/100 !

I’m inclined to think the only superior intelligence we’ll encounter is likely to be one of Big Blues descendants