Reasonable Doubt

Dear Christian, 

I think that you and I will agree that people are not born from a mother who is a virgin.  Granted, medical science has developed methods for artificial insemination, so technically a woman can be impregnated by a doctor using these artificial means and still be a virgin.  But before these methods were developed (late 1700's is the first recorded case, I believe) the only way a human female could get pregnant was by sexual intercourse with a human male.  I think that you and I will agree.

~ and ~

I think that you and I will agree that people who are dead, actually dead, people who have died, either from natural causes, disease, accident, or violence - once a person is dead, they do not come back to life, minutes later, hours later, or days later.  Once people die, they stay dead.

~   ~   ~

Christian, if I told you that I doubt the claims that Jesus was born of a virgin, and that I doubt the claims that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, would you consider my doubts to be REASONABLE?

reasonable
having sound judgment; fair and sensible.

doubt
a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction.

I guess what I am asking is this:  

Can you understand - perhaps even relate to the idea that - a rational thinking person might find unproven claims of ancient miraculous events to be unbelievable?  

Can you relate to the idea of a person being doubtful, unconvinced, or skeptical of the claim that Jesus was born of a virgin, and the claim that he was brought back to life after being dead for three days?  

Ask yourself - is it reasonable for a person to be doubtful of these claims even after reading them in the bible, even after being brought up in a church where this is taught as truth?  

Should the mere fact that these claims are found in the bible and many people that you know believe these claims, should that erase all doubt from the mind of a REASONABLE person?

If you do understand, and if you do consider my doubts concerning these miraculous claims to be REASONABLE, can you offer any investigative processes that I should employ that might change me from a doubter to a believer?

~ and / or ~

Can you offer any convincing evidence that YOU discovered that changed YOU from a doubter to a believer?  You were not born a believer.  You, at some point in your life, had to be convinced that Jesus was born of a virgin, and that he came back to life after being dead for three days.  Something convinced you that these two claimed miraculous events that are found in the bible, actually occurred.  I want to know what it was that convinced you that these two claims are true.

Bear with me for one more moment and ponder this line of questioning:

Can you think of any claim of a dead person being supernaturally brought back to life - that you are convinced is true - in the past 10 years?

The past 50 years?

The past 100 years?

The past 500 years?

The past 1000 years?

The past 1500 years?

Or, are the claims of the dead being supernaturally brought back to life - that you are convinced are true - found only in the bible?

What is far more important to me than WHAT a person believes is WHY they believe it.

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com