Chapter Two Evidence

Chapter two unfortunately doesn't add a lot of evidence beyond chapter one. Mostly evidence is in the form of things for which there is no evidence, which is hardly helpful. Other evidence is circumstantial at best.

1. There is no evidence that the author's of the Gospels had bad intentions.
2. In the time of Jesus Jewish scholars were known for their memorization abilities.
3. Many disciples of Christ were willing to die for what they believed.
4. We have no evidence that the writers of the Gospels were dishonest.
5. There are discrepancies between the Gospels.
6. The Gospels contain stories of Jesus that show great admiration and love of Jesus.
7. There is "difficult" material included in the Gospels.
8. There is some outside corroboration for some Bible events.
9. There is no evidence of people saying that Jesus didn't perform miracles.

I'm surprised. I found my atheism in reverse. I was raised reading the bible and believing in Christ. Only later after much soul searching did I come to the conclusion that the foundation of my belief was shaky, and that I had to acknowledge the possibility that there is no God. Years later this changed to: there is no evidence of God. The whole reason I am reading Lee Strobel's book is because I had to admit that I unfairly discredited the bible as evidence for God, whithout really thinking much about it. But it is very surprising that what has been presented so far is THIS shaky. Lee Strobel's challenge was for me to draw my conclusions "based on the weight of the facts". Yet several things in the above list that he is presenting in chapter two is the absence of fact ... I'm curious to see how Lee Strobel in the end will shovel away this mountain of unkowns.