Originally Posted by Starman
Originally Posted by Thunderstick
... Ascribing it to magic is acknowledging
the evidence of supernatural works being performed by Christ.


Some people form or adopt that belief and some are far more susceptible to doing so than others
...but belief alone is not necessarily truth. nor is what ones perceives
[when they claim to have witnessed something], necessarily the truth of the matter.

People with preconceived beliefs or just easily influenced minds are known to go calling some things miracles,
when in fact they are not.

People who watch magicians can actually start to 'believe' something appeared or disappeared or changed etc,
right before their very eyes!
easily forgetting the whole game of magic is based on ILLUSION [ an erroneous or misinterpreted perception of a sensory experience.]
then that is compounded by DELUSION [an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality]

Magicians create the illusion and then they let those in the audience create their own delusion.

A persons CREDULITY is the most powerful weapon magicians, illusionists, mentalists and preachers use.

MAGIC (otherwise known as trickery) is a powerful weapon that instead of developing critical and rational thinking in people,
screws deeply in them credulity/amazement and establishes wonder and the inexplicable into
a society already ill and rotten by subjective beliefs and other irrational and ridiculous superstitions.


I think you are missing the point I was making. The critics of Christianity in the days of the early Church did not deny that Jesus performed miracles, because there were too many witnesses. Because they rejected His deity, they ascribed his miracles to magic. The critics were essentially admitting that they had no way to dismiss those miracles as non-existent but they did not want to recognize them as proof of His deity--so they said He practiced magic.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the ultimate proof that His deeds were not sleight of hand, illusory, or occultic. Jesus was clearly a man of history as even the contemporary critics of the time admitted. They would not admit His deity so they called His works magic. However His resurrection was not so easy to dismiss so they came up with theories regarding that also. The contemporary historians record the crucifixion of Jesus but they cannot explain how the Romans lost His body. The only thing the enemies and critics needed to do was provide evidence that they had the body and that Jesus never arose.

The apostles all gave their lives for their story of the resurrection. They staked their whole message on the death and resurrection of Christ. The gospel accounts provided all the details so that it could be investigated. It was a public event that became known throughout the world.

A person can be deceived and be sincerely wrong, however it is very unlikely for people to give their lives for what they know to be a sham, because a deliberate deceiver is always governed by self interest. A deliberate deceiver will not propagate a sham when they have nothing to gain by it and everything to lose for promoting a lie. The apostles and the early Christians gave their lives for what they knew to be true and what they knew could not be credibly denied.

Last edited by Thunderstick; 06/29/19.