In response to Jess Gamari's post "Revolution Through the Filter" (February 23, 2012):
In regards to wanting to know the truth, I think that the Crossan book can be very helpful as far as Jesus is concerned. Of course, there are still significant parts of Jesus' life which are unchronicled, and which we can only guess at, but on a whole it seems that we can reconstruct a relatively clear picture of who he was and what he did.
God, though, is a different matter. As God's actions are a matter of theology rather than history, we cannot simply find evidence of them through archeology or careful reading of historical texts. This unverifiability of God is, I think, one of the most significant issues dividing theists and atheists; as the reality of God has to be taken on faith rather than historical evidence, some people reject the idea, and others support it. Honestly, though, I think that the way this requires faith is a good thing; if God was a matter of fact rather than conjecture, religion would basically be another science, rather than a matter of belief - which is what makes it interesting to me.
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