birdsong;:
first of all, how can Christianity ever be proven false?
a] i) Provide an objective demonstration that Jesus was not on the Cross;
This one is going to be very hard to prove, because both Christian and Jewish sources claim that he was crucified on the Cross. (IIRC, It wasn’t until
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ that there is a non-Indian source that makes that claim.)
a] ii) Provide an objective demonstration that Jesus did not die on the Cross.
I’m not sure how to do this one. Whilst there is theoretical support for such a claim, the hard part is finding evidence for either, if not both of the following propositions:
- people routinely survived crucifixion;
- Jesus survived Crucifixion;
This is going to be extremely hard, because even after one tosses out the Gospels, and the data provided by Christian sympathizers of the time, the remaining evidence indicates that he died on the Cross.
I’ve seen references to a Sanskrit manuscript that makes the claim that he survived crucification. I don’t remember the name of that manuscript though.
One major issue with the Indian sources is that claim he either survived, or was not crucified, is that the furtherest back they can be traced is roughly one millennium. The Mar Thomist Church can point to a documented history that goes back to roughly the middle of the First Century.
b)Provide an objective demonstration that Jesus was never born;
The only group that might be capable of doing so, are the mythists. Their position requires that one reject all evidence that does not support their theory, on the grounds that it contradicts their theory, and hence there is no possible way for that evidence to be either accurate, and genuine.
The real irony here is if the Shroud of Turin, Longinuis’ Spear, Veronica’s handkerchief, and a couple of other, similar artifacts have DNA on them, that can be tested, and it all turns out to be identical. Going one step further, DNA can be profiled for both ethnicity, and when in time the individual lived. If there is enough DNA for those tests to be run, and the results match the expected “First century Jewish male”, then we have very strong circumstantial evidence that the artifacts are of Jesus.
c) Demonstrate that Paul never existed;
This position is asserted by mythists, based on the fact that there is no documentation of Paul, outside of the writings of the Early Church Fathers. IOW, they “prove” it by using an absence of data to affirm non-existence.
Unfortunately for the mythists, we do have a first century handwriting sample of at least one of his scribes. Whilst in and of itself that doesn’t mean much, it does tend to discredit the “the epistles were second century forgeries” theory.
d) Demonstrate that Mary of Magdala never existed;
This position is asserted by mythists, based on the fact that there is no documentation of Mary Magdala, outside of the writings of the Early Church Fathers. IOW, they “prove” it by using an absence of data to affirm non-existence.
e) Demonstrate that Peter never existed;
This position is asserted by mythists, based on the fact that there is no documentation of Peter, outside of the writings of the Early Church Fathers. IOW, they “prove” it by using an absence of data to affirm non-existence.
There is this not-so-insignificant building in Rome that tends to discredit this proposition. There is a matter of roughly a 300 year gap for which there is nothing preserving the integrity of the chain of evidence.
how to undoubtedly and unmistakeably prove Christianity false!
One approach is to demonstrate that none of the characters mentioned in the Bible existed.
A second approach is to demonstrate that the Bible was written long after Christians claim it was written;
A third approach is to demonstrate that whilst the characters did physically exist, their teachings and practices are not in accordance with what is in the Bible;
xan
jonathon