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(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen
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I was recently listening to a podcast of a lecture by Slavoj Zizek. He said that Sam Harris presents an argument justifying torture in one of his books.
I'll defend anyone's right to argue for things I don't agree with. But if Harris is really in favour of torturing people, I'm amazed other liberal atheists haven't pulled him up on this.
Do you know anything about this?
Then you can apply that to a case where someone knows where the terrorist bombs are planted, and torture is the only way of getting that information.
His argument turns on torture not being valued as an absolute wrong, and hence being capable of being surpassed in its importance by other considerations (like the preservation of the world).
/at least, that's what I recall his argument as having been...