No, my friend, I take it on historical evidence. We have much better evidence for the life of Jesus - and I speak as a historian who specializes in the interpretation of ancient documents - than for almost any famous event before about 1300 (in Europe, I mean). It is now beyond argument that the whole New Testament, with the possible exception of IIPeter, was written before 90-100AD, that is within living memory of Christ. So was Josephus' History of the Jewish War. Tacitus' Annals are barely later. Suetonius' mention of Christ ("Chrestus") comes from archival sources from the reign of Claudius (41-54AD). In front of this array of evidence, the atheist gentleman's faith must clearly be of the kind described by the old joke: the capacity to believe what we know to be false. Whether Jesus rose again from the dead and whether he was God Incarnate are matters of faith; whether he existed in the times and places described is a matter of history, and very firmly established history too. It is not as a Christian, but as a historian that I find this sort of thing contemptible.
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