I posted and introduction to build up to this post in response to what I preceive as an invitation from @gavvet for civil discussion and debate.

I do not feel I really answered the ultimate question he seemed to be implying in his post:
Is there a scientific basis for Jesus Christ?

I began my response with Civil response inspired by @gavvet post concerning science and Jesus Christ where I did not really answer that question. I more established who I am. I consider myself an Atheist / Deist. :) (no one has taken the bait there yet)

So let's get down to it... My responses here will be directed specifically as the things @gavvet wrote in his interesting post.

Is there a scientific basis for Jesus Christ?

In a strictly scientific point of reference I say NO strongly. I will explain why.

Science follows a very specific set of steps known as the Scientific Method. If you follow those steps you are practicing science. If you do not then it is not science.

The steps were designed to remove bias and opinion from the process. (I believe a lot of so-called scientists in this day and age are unworthy of the label due to failure to adhere to the scientific method)

• You can be a scientist with NO formal education if you follow the scientific method.
• You can have the most amazing education in the world and all kinds of plaques, medals, and certificate showing your accomplishments and if you fail to follow the scientific method, you are not practicing science. It's pretty simple.

Now does this make science predisposed to be anti-religion? Science is not anti- anything. It simply is a tool for studying things without bias. If a religion requires bias to exist then it likely will not withstand the steps within the scientific method. If it does not require bias and has measurable, testable data then it may not fail at all.

Here are the steps of the scientific method:

1. Ask a question
2. Do background research
3. Construct a hypothesis (i.e. speculate)
4. Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment
5. Analyze your Data and Draw a conclusion
6. Communicate your results

Jesus Christ and the events in the bible as far as I have been able to see cannot make it past the "Construct a Hypothesis" phase. Science therefore cannot prove the existence of Christ. It also cannot disprove it.

Yet one thing that a scientist that is open minded and truly thinks for awhile will realize is you cannot prove a negative.

With current information available there is no way to prove that Christ existed, or that he did not exist.

This also applies to God.

Largely religion survives by a couple of things alone:

• Appeal to Authority
• Fear of the unknown
• Control
• And the appeal of being part of a group
• Speculating at either we ourselves decide our speculation is fact or someone else does because they think we are smarter.

That does not mean there is no value in religion. That does not mean there is no value in the things attributed to Christ. There is value in history, there is value in moral teachings. Though history is often very different from what we were taught. It'd be very nice if we could all LOOK BACK in time whenever we wanted to. I think we'd be surprised how much we take for granted as being history is not actually even close to the complete story.

PLEASE NOTE: I respect your right to your religion. I will try to not debate people on religious topics unless invited to in some way. I do not expect you to agree with me. You are your own person. If you think for yourself and take those things that make sense into your life then that is the most important thing to me. What I would like to see stop is people judging others for disagreeing with their beliefs. I do not need a human to save me. Some people believe that if a human tells me to embrace Jesus and I refuse I am damned. Yet these same people often believe that if a person was never asked by a human they will be asked by God himself after death. So if this is true do you not think by trying to put the question to your fellow humans and them refusing that you may actually be damning people? I can assure you if I were to be posed the question by God himself that would have a lot more weight than YOU asking me. So if you leave people alone, maybe less of them will be damned. Laugh a friend of mine that grew up around a lot of Mormons once told me this. I find it is amusing and wanted to share it. Also, if you do believe these things take it to heart. You may be doing more harm than good even though that is not your intention.