That reply was for Igilug/DDZX/WHoever? But whatever.
"D12, those three points are al circular arguments.
The first is based on the bible being true. Therefore all the prophecies work out. He doesn't make the point how much effort Joseph and Mary had to go through to fulfil all those prophecies, from a mythical census forcing them to Bethlehem, then move to Nazareth (so he could fulfil the "Jesus of Nazareth" bit) and then going to Egypt so that the messiah could "come out of Egypt".
Ah, so it was another Jewish conspiracy then?
"The gospels were all written well after Jesus' death. What would be more natural for the writers to, in all faith, include things from the prophecies that they couldn't be sure of simply because they must have happened that way?"
And what are you claiming here? How long after his death were they written? Do you think that if the writers made those claims then other witnesses to the events wouldn't call BS on them? Sure, some people memories might fade over time but not everyones and academics tells us that it takes at least 2 generations for the events of a story to begin to be mythologised. So there's not much substance to your objection on this point either.
"Secondly, the bible's unity? Sorry, that kills me laughing! Profound unity!! Kill homosexuals, adulterers, murderers, gatherers of firewood ..... and none of THAT is taken out of context."
Sure it is, as you have amply demonstrated time and time again. That you ridicule the idea of unity is further proof that a)you haven't read the whole Bible or b) you didn't understand much of it.
"Thirdly, many other religious, and non-religious, books have the same impact on individual lives. Fortunately it hasn't had quite the impact that author claims on our legal and economic systems, as I can still manage to gather firewood on the sabbath without being stoned (at least, not being stoned in the rocks thrown at me category)."
And wrong again! At least you're good at one thing. :)
