Then Hinduism and Zoroastrianism beat us hands down, Alex.
Hinduism and Zoroastrianism beat us hands down
I am not aware of any historical evidence in Hinduism and the rest. They have legends told as legends, and they have moral and philosophical teachings told as such. We have a human chain. Besides, indeed I am not a Christian merely because I believe certain miracles took place, but also because the Christian religion makes logical and moral sense, and the miracles fit in the Christian worldview. It is a productive system of thought. It is possible for other people to think something similar about other religions and derive some benefit from that; that doesn't make me wrong.
that [Christ makes a reference to Jonah's story] doesn't prove that Jonah story actually happened
Sure it does. The alternative is that Jesus implied that his death and resurrection is likewise a legend that did not happen, or that Jesus while being God believed a falsehood.
If in your imagination you believe that you can actually fly who am I to say you can't fly in your imagination?
Yes, if I have a private revelation, for example, of Mary, as some people get, you don't have to share im my belief. The revelation of Christ, however, was public: His teaching, miracles, trial, death, and resurrection were all public events. It is true that some miracles of the Bible are possibly literary devices of some kind or are legendary, and it is possible to retain one's Christian faith while disputing the factual nature of those. As far as I know, the Church does not teach that every miraculous event in the Bible is a historical fact. However, we have enough miracles a disbelief in which excommunicates: the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection and ascention, the Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and some others. It becomes a strange, quite a bit schizophrenic personal theology to separate the minor miracles from these and proclaim them all fiction.
Who actually saw Christ resurrect?
They saw Christ die, and then they saw him walk, talk, fish, eat, touched His wounds, etc. Again, theories exist that explain it away, but direct evidence is that the death and resurrection did happen.