re is it good that jesus died brian ceccarelli presents us with the fallacy of false dichotomy in stating that we must accept every thing in the books attributed to peter or we must discount every other book of antiquity peter died two millenia ago the original letters he wrote have long since decayed into dust if he were alive today and i could do you question the existence of alexander the great tilgrath pilisar iii nero caligula josephus cyrus the great artexerxes their documents have decayed to dust too brian why another excuse mr ceccarelli you seem to be stating that we must accept accept everything written in every historical document somehow i doubt do that yourself that thus since i doubt you accept everything written in every historical document i would ask how you can thereby objectively justify complete faith in the words of the books attributed to peter i shall now give an example of a document from antiquity which i am sure you reject it dates from the time of ramses ii this was first presented here by matthew wiener these inscriptions were carved soon after a battle and were carved with the pharoah s specific approval so we have true originals rather than mere copies this account records the the battle of kadesh circa bc which occurred on the river orontes about miles south of aleppo the egyptians won this battle with the hittites and ramses had his victory inscribed all over the place a few of of these inscriptions have survived in near perfect form it is a record of how the pharoah pretty much single handedly defeated the hittites after being separated from his troops note that the egyptian wavers back and forth between first and third person the following is from miriam lichtheim s ancient egyptian literature volume ii my majesty caused the forces of the foes from hitti to fall on their faces one upon the other as crocodiles fall into the water of the orontes i was after them like a griffin i attacked all the countries i alone for my infantry and my chariotry had deserted me not one of them stood looking back as i live as ra loves me as my father atum favors me everything that my majesty has told i did it in truth in the presence of my infantry and my chariotry note this paragraph records not only ramses divine word but also that there were thousands of witnesses to the event now from the heart of battle then his majesty drove at a gallop and charged the forces of the foe from hitti being alone by himself none other with him his majesty proceeded to look about him and found chariots ringing him on his way out no officer was with me no charioteer no soldier of the army no shield bearer my infantry my chariotry yielded before them not one of them stood firm to fight with them his majesty spoke what is this father amun is it right for a father to ignore his son are my deeds a matter for you to ignore do i not walk and stand at your word i have not neglected an order you gave too great is he the great lord of egypt to allow aliens to step on his path what are these asiatics to you o amun the wretches ignorant of god have i not made for you many great monuments i call to you my father amun i am among a host of strangers all countries are arrayed against me i am alone there s none with me the labors of many people are nothing amun is more helpful than they i came here by the command of your mouth o amun i have not transgressed your command now though i prayed in a distant land my voice resounded in southern thebes i found amun came when i called to him he gave me his hand and i rejoiced he called from behind as if near by forward i am with you i your father my hand is with you i prevail over a hundred thousand men i am lord of victory lover of valor i found my heart stout my breast in joy all i did succeeded i was like mont i slaughtered among them at my will not one looked behind him not one turned around whoever fell down did not rise one called out to the other saying no man is he who is among us it is seth great of strength baal in person not deeds of man are these his doings they are of one who is unique who fights a hundred thousand without soldiers and chariots come quick flee before him to seek life and breathe air for he who attempts to get close to him his hands all his limbs grow limp one cannot hold either bow or spears when one sees him come racing along my majesty hunted them like a griffin i slaughtered among them unceasingly so you see brian we have a few original manuscripts recording the miraculous battle between the ramses and the hittites do you reject them as being completely true i suspect you do and if so then do you also in your own words question the existence of alexander the great tilgrath pilisar iii nero caligula josephus cyrus the great artexerxes do you also thereby question all their documents that s the problem with your all or nothing approach many ancient people used to mix a bit of fancy with their facts so for you to say that we must either accept all of peter and the rest of the new testament or accept no records of antiquity at all forces you thereby to accept the verity of documents you probably do not find completely credible as to your other argument that so many people have testified to jesus that he must be true are you going to just pass off all this testimony as fictiousness are you going to call three thousand years worth of testimony from shepherds to irs agents to royal officials to kings to computer programmers fiction with a scoff of your keyboard with near complete ignorance of the testimonies are you going to say that that is all complete hooey would that not be the most audacious display of arrogance do you actually think you know better than king solomon king david or even abraham lincoln i have three points first this is argumentum ad populum ie appeal to popular opinion you cannot vote on truth for instance do the millions of hindu s past and present who testify to the reality of brahma constitute actual evidence for the existence of brahma how would you answer your own question in regards to the testimony of hindus with a scoff of your keyboard with near complete ignorance of the testimonies are you going to say that that is all complete hooey if you do so scoff then how do you objectively justify your own special pleading second it is not at all clear that king solomon or king david testified to jesus you can claim it to be clear but that does not make it true third it is quite arguable that abraham lincoln was not christian and that he had both a public and a private view of christianity in fact there was much discussion about it in his day yes he was publically accused of being a deist oh my i am presently collecting a faq for lincoln as i ve previously done for tyre jefferson and etc later dave butler my earlier views of the unsoundness of the christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and i see no reason for thinking i shall ever change them abraham lincoln to judge j s wakefield after the death of willie lincoln
