Why religion isn't under the same amount of scrutiny?

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by qqwref

The site he linked to makes a distinction between hearsay and an eyewitness account, which is a pretty important one: an eyewitness account comes from someone who's actually seen something, whereas a hearsay account comes from someone who was told about it by someone else. So, if someone says they have been to New York, it's an eyewitness account - if you trust the person not to lie to you, you will believe New York exists. According to the website, none of the texts from the period which mention Jesus were written by people who actually saw him in action. The site claims that even the Gospels were written by people who not only never saw Jesus, but don't even know anyone who saw Jesus! When the author has that much remove from the person he's writing about, the work just isn't evidence anymore - even if the author always tells what he thinks is the truth, anyone down the line could have fabricated parts of the story (or all of it!).

Many parts of the New Testament are said to have been written by some of Jesus's disciples. What makes this "hearsay" rather than "eyewitness"?

And what of the other claimed official records that devonin has mentioned and that I myself have heard of before? I know that many elements of his story are unbelievable, but is it that hard to believe that a man named Jesus, despite being the son of a carpenter, traveled the countryside preaching a new take on moral ideals?

nothing can ever prove we exist

Never heard the phrase "cogito ergo sum"?

"I think therefore I am."

Your subjective reality is defined by your own existence. Existence is defined by your subjective perspective. "To exist" is what your own self is. Actually, I'm not very good at describing this. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum

Originally Posted by dore

You are real because you are conscious. Because you can see, think, and feel, you are real. It doesn't matter if you are someone's dream or not because regardless, you are conscious.

Moreover, if everything was a "dream", that would be a foundational component of reality. If Reality is a Dream, that doesn't mean that the real of this "dream" is no longer real, because reality itself would be the dream.

ps this thread is not about questioning the "realness" of reality. This thread is for questioning why religion is not held to the reasonable standard that science is. Get back to the pointing out how illogical religion is plz