Pagan Origins of the Christian Faith (Phil. Daily Inquirer)

[regnauld]

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When the Church mythologists established their system, they collected all the writings they could find and managed them as they pleased. It is a matter altogether of uncertainty to us whether such of the writings as now appear under the name of the Old and New Testaments are in the same state in which those collectors say they found them, or whether they added, altered, abridged or dressed them up.

-Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)

[regnauld]

The world has been for a long time engaged in writing lives of Jesus... The library of such books has grown since then. But when we come to examine them, one startling fact confronts us: all of these books relate to a personage concerning whom there does not exist a single scrap of contemporary information -- not one! By accepted tradition he was born in the reign of Augustus, the great literary age of the nation of which he was a subject. In the Augustan age historians flourished; poets, orators, critics and travelers abounded. Yet not one mentions the name of Jesus Christ, much less any incident in his life.

-Moncure D. Conway [1832 - 1907] (Modern Thought)

[regnauld]

What makes it not objective about the original article?

[josephdc]

Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman belong to a minority of NT scholars who don't believe that Jesus is divine.

According to William Lane Craig, majority of NT historians consider these three as established facts: Jesus' empty tomb, his post-mortem appearances, and the change in the belief of his early followers. The thesis that best explains these facts is Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

[josephdc]

What makes it not objective about the original article?

For one thing, Licauco only mentioned in his piece that book by Freke and Gandy. Some scholars have pointed out that that book is very problematic.