‘There Is Enough Evidence To Claim Jesus Was God Incarnate’

Question 1

Intro DC

Answer 1

D - god incarnate = god in human form
C - this essay will argue that there isn’t enough evidence to claim j was god incarnate as Bible is the only source of evidence we have and even J himself didn’t outright claim to be god incarnate

Question 2

PE 1

Answer 2

The first reason to support argument that there isn’t enough evidence to claim j was god incarnate is Bible is the only evidence we have of miracles, incarnation which are used as evidence for Js divinity and is not reliable evidence.
Unreliable source for many reasons: was written a long long time ago and has been translated lots of times so original words/ messages may have been lost over time, is not an eye witness testimony so can’t be used as a primary source -which it often is, throughout Bible are many contradictions (e.g inconsistent creation stories - in genesis 1 animals than man + woman together, in gen 2 says man animals then women ) which means some of the statements in the Bible must be false so is not infallible. Therefore can’t be used as evidence for j being God incarnate

Question 3

A 1

Answer 3

This is convincing as can’t claim there is evidence for j being god incarnate from miracles etc when the evidence you are using is not reliable and most likely false. When compared to scientific evidence Bible doesn’t hold up and so shouldn’t be used as only source of evidence for js divinity

Question 4

C 1

Answer 4

This argument could be refuted by the argument that the Bible comes directly from god (verbally inspired) and so is inerrant meaning miracles are evidence Jesus was god incarnate. E.g J walks on water - “he came to them walking on water” not something humanity can do, so proves he is different and has power to alter things in the universe so must be god incarnate. E.g the bleeding woman - suffered from severe bleeding, touched j and was cured “ she touched her cloak and her pain stopped at once” - he has healing powers, humanity doesn’t posses, further evidence he is god incarnate. Throughout life completed multiple miracles each one acts as evidence for him being god incarnate

Question 5

E 1

Answer 5

This counter argument fails as the Bible is not inerrant (due to reasons stated earlier) thus causing argument to fail as can’t use miracles as evidence as only accounts are in the Bible and so may be completely incorrect or bias. Hume would agree with this as he believed that evidence for a miracle is never sufficient for rational belief as it is more likely to be deception or misperception, suggesting that miracles themselves can’t be used as evidence for anything either.

Question 6

PE 2

Answer 6

Second reason that there isn’t enough evidence to claim j was god incarnate is even j himself didn’t outright claim to be god incarnate so we only have stories from his followers who may have had an agenda or bias.
When directly asked if is the son of god “you say that I am” - doesn’t explicitly say he is others already assumed he is. Even when he says “I and the father are one” people assume means god incarnate but is ambiguous and only explicitly says they are in unity not the same being. Any accounts from followers are likely to be bias as if they believe he is god incarnate they are more likely to push their opinions into they’re accounts regardless of truth.

Question 7

A 2

Answer 7

This is convincing as it changes the reliability of these accounts and therefore changes there status of evidential quality, can’t be used as source of evidence if is biased. Also the fact that even j didn’t claim he was god incarnate and left it ambiguous suggests that there is a lack of evidence especially as there is a lack of clarity from Jesus himself

Question 8

C 2

Answer 8

This argument could be refuted by the argument that even if Jesus didn’t explicitly say he was god incarnate, he had knowledge a human couldn’t have had, so must’ve been god incarnate
E.g - knew how to reach heaven “I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink…”, knew who was going to heaven “these, then, will be sent off to eternal punishment, but the righteous will go to eternal life” - these are not things humans are generally aware of so is evidence that j was not just a human was instead divine/god incarnate

Question 9

E 2

Answer 9

This counter argument fails however as in theory there is no limit to the knowledge a human could attain, doesn’t have to necessarily be true but are able to convince ourselves of things and believe they are true - e.g the belief that the earth was flat was common knowledge and anyone who said otherwise was viewed as someone who had the wrong idea/knowledge this could be compared the knowledge Jesus had (was just different)