And here come the red herrings. No thanks. I'm out.

Pascal's wager is one of the worst arguments for believing in a deity ever devised. Here are a few things wrong with it:

1) It assume there is only one god to chose from.
2) It assumes this god cannot tell the difference between fake believe and real belief.
3) It assume this god will reward fake belief over genuine disbelief.
4) It assume there is no cost to belief, when there is (wasting your life believing in nonsense, praying to non-existant spooks, tithing 10% of your income, etc)

Pathetic attempt. I would ask you to try again, but you have already shown yourself to be a simpleton.

Sure, it's possible Jesus rose from the dead. From what I can tell, all the evidence that this actually occurred is contained in a handful of book within the new testament. I do not consider this anywhere near sufficient to demonstrate such a claim, regardless of what "preminent historians" conclude. One might wonder what "preminent historians" might conclude if we had a handful of books proclaiming Perseus killed Medusa.

I find the idea of talking snakes and donkeys more believable than resurrection - we know snakes and donkeys actually exist. IF God can speak the universe into existence, then he certainly can make a donkey talk or raise someone from the dead- but that is a massive "if" and seem to be begging the question:

"Jesus rose from the dead!"

"Really? How?"

"My god can do anything."

"Oh, and how do you know that?"

"It says in my bog book of mystery that god raised Jesus from the dead."

"Err...."

Whose talking about evolution? Even if evolutionary theory were completely destroyed tomorrow it would still do nothing to demonstrate the claims a deity exists.

The Bible says snakes and donkeys talk. No amount of name calling or literary gymnastics will change that.

No, I entertain the idea that Jesus never rose from the dead, and possibly never exists as described within the Bible. You seem to refuse these idea, for if they were true your faith would be destroyed, and we can't have that can we?

I am happy to entertain the idea snakes and donkeys can talk, holy spit can cure blindness, men can live in big fish for days, and executed preachers can resurrect and float into Heaven, but I will need more evidence for such things than a collection of accounts written decades after the supposed events. Frankly, I am stunned anyone intelligent as yourself could accept such incredible claims on such flimsy grounds.

Does @askegg have issue with my post that "Science doesn't make claims about truth or reality"?

Yes.

Science ignores reality which is why it works so well.

Oh dear me.

Science deals with phenomena - how these phenomena are related to reality is not something that science can investigate.

Science proposes models of reality (hypothesis) then sets about proving them wrong. Those which stand are provisionally considered correct. In a way you might be right - science deals with how "phenomena" occur, but these phenomena describe how reality behaves, not separate to reality itself.

Science doesn't deal in truth.

In your opinion, what does?

Im advocating NOMA here.

So how do you know anything about the "other realm"?

Minchin is basically making a category error (or, at least, you are, in using his words to try and rebut what I'm actually saying).

Minchin is only making a category error if the categories exist.

The claim that God raised Jesus from the dead is not a normal, natural claim...

I agree. It's an outlandish claim.

I agree, that people don't come back from the dead naturally, so talk of natural mechanisms is worthless.

Back up a step. I think even entertaining the idea is worthless. However, you are unable to consider this since it would destroy your faith, yet you accuse me of being close minded by considering this possibility.

The question begging starts when you assume that only what is natural is real, and therefore nothing supernatural could happen. Reason does not presuppose naturalism as you appear to do.

Is Heaven "real"? Is Jesus/God "real"? Surely if these things are "real" then there would be someway of verifying their existence? If this is not possible, then how is Jesus any more real than Perseus? I am guessing because you feel miraculous claims are validated by generally accepted historical methods.

Strange. I am thinking of giving up on people who believe a book with talking donkeys.

What?!!!