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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To the poster who keeps trying to cite scholarly consensus.  You continue the logical fallacy of appeal to authority.

Think of the appeal to authority as the "Because I said so!" of logical arguments. It happens when someone claims something is true because an expert or a famous person says it is, instead of using actual evidence. While it's usually smart to listen to experts, it becomes a fallacy when we treat their word as proof.

History is full of such errors such as earth as center of universe (backed by the Church and interpretations of scripture) or man being separate and distinct from other animals (also based on biblical interpretation).
[/quote]

I’m not claiming it’s true because scholars say so; I’m claiming scholars say so because of converging evidence. You’re dismissing a claim based on its source rather than its merits. Those errors were corrected by better evidence, not by rejecting consensus as such.

Fallibility doesn’t eliminate probabilistic value.

You haven’t shown the evidence is bad—only that citing consensus alone is insufficient. In other words, your argument is procedural, not substantive.

That’s fine philosophically—but rhetorically, it’s a gap.

Most mainstream positions about Jesus are minimal:
1. A Jewish preacher existed
2. He was crucified
3. Followers believed something happened

You don’t need to accept those—but rejecting them requires stronger argumentation than rejecting theological claims.

You (and others who reject scholarship) exhibit contrarianism, rather than legitimate skepticism/critique.

You’re treating any reference to scholarly consensus as a fallacy, but that’s not how the appeal to authority works. It’s only fallacious when authority replaces evidence. In history, consensus reflects accumulated evaluation of primary sources, not personal prestige.

No historian claims consensus is proof. It’s Bayesian weight. When thousands of trained specialists independently converge on the same minimal conclusion, that convergence itself is evidence—especially in low-data fields.

Geocentrism was overturned by new predictive models and instrumentation. The historical Jesus question doesn’t work like physics. We won’t get new telescopes for antiquity, so rejecting consensus here is not analogous.

You’ve objected to how conclusions are justified, but you haven’t addressed the evidence scholars cite: multiple attestation, embarrassment, hostile sources, early creeds, and Roman execution practices.

You’re dismissing conclusions because they come from institutions that have been wrong before. That’s judging claims by origin, not by content. 
If we apply your standard consistently, we lose Alexander, Socrates, Hannibal, and most of ancient history. At some point, inference from limited sources is unavoidable.

No serious scholar claims Christianity’s theology proves Jesus existed. The consensus is minimal and secular: an apocalyptic preacher was executed and inspired a movement.

If you think the consensus is wrong, the burden is on you to show that the standard historical explanations fail and that an alternative explains the data better.

Not an anonymous poster on a mommy website type alternative explanation: think 5,000-10,000 scholars/academics/profs/historians vs >20 fringe skeptics who have 0 academic/scholarly/professional historian explanation. You aren’t going to “prove” anything on dcum that moves the needle. You need to move the needle in the world of academia and scholarship.

If you are bored and feel compelled to argue the historicity of Jesus on an anonymous forum, that’s your choice. For all the time you spend here posting, get a degree in a relative field and start going toe to toe with the professionals and show them your work. If you are so confident they are all wrong, you would be hailed as an amazing academic and thinker once you prove they are all wrong. [/quote]

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