You are right when history claims magic it's usually discarded outright, but lets make an exception for your very specific magic story.
I treat the bible same way I treat Kitab’i-Aqdas or the Avesta or the Egyptian book of the dead. All magical claims are treated equally as absurd and unreliable. Much like you treat any other religious claims. You make exceptions for christianity while dismissing everything the competition claims.
The culminative evidence is lacking greatly when it comes to the bible.
There are no reliable firsthand eye witnesses, no independent contemporary testimonies, no records of all the major events that the bible purports outside the biblical text by any civilization, no archeological evidence for global flood, no evidence for most of the figures within the bible themselves, no evidence for any magical creatures that are described in the bible, no heaven, no hell to see, and most of all there is no sign of god anywhere its like he only existed some 2000 years in the bible and then never showed up ever again. As if he never existed in the first place.
Bible makes a number falsifiable claims yet no one has been able to prove them. Some claims are unknowable unless you have a time machine but the claims we can verify don't produce evidence required.
When you say you accept resurrection because "the cumulative historical case is stronger than competing explanations"
What do you mean by that? Do you accept that Liu Kang is real because he has the more credible fireball technique than Ryu?
The Liu Kang analogy doesn't fit because we already know Mortal Kombat is a fictional work created by identifiable authors who intended it to be fiction.
The question with Christianity is different. It's whether the historical evidence is sufficient to conclude that something extraordinary happened.
When I say "the cumulative historical case," I don't mean one piece of evidence proves the resurrection.
I mean several facts that most historians, including many who are not Christians, generally accept:
* Jesus was a real historical person.
* He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
* His followers very early proclaimed that He had risen.
* The Christian movement began and spread rapidly despite persecution.
* The earliest Christian sources, such as Paul's letters, are much closer to the events than is true for many ancient figures.
None of those facts, individually, prove the resurrection.
The question is: what explanation best accounts for all of them together?
You conclude the best explanation is that the resurrection didn't happen and the sources are mistaken or legendary.
I conclude the resurrection is the better explanation.
We disagree on the conclusion, but that's different from saying there is no evidence at all.
Also, I don't give Christianity a free pass. If the historical evidence for Christianity were no stronger than the evidence for Mortal Kombat or Spider-Man, I wouldn't believe it either.
The reason I don't accept every religion is because I evaluate each one on its own historical, philosophical, and evidential merits rather than assuming they're all equally supported or equally unsupported.
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Just take one aspect in this entire story which doesn't make sense the Tabernacle which the bible constructed used 29 gold talents and 730 shekels, which converts to approximately 2,175 to 2,200 pounds of gold. Thats roughly 1 metric tonne of solid gold they would need a dump truck to carry that much
Where did the jewish slaves get their hands on that much gold lol? Not only that they had more gold as they also supposedly built a golden calf statue made out of gold. And thats not counting all the jewlery they had which the bible mentions
That doesn't sound like they were slaves at all sounds like they were very wealthy OR a made up nonsense story
Exodus 12:31-36 ESV
31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.”
33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. “For otherwise,” they said, “we will all die!” 34 So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. 36
The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.