From: Brian Holtz [brian@holtz.org]
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 6:31 AM
To: Skeptic11@aol.com
Subject: RE: A question re: Turkel response

> While it does appear to be conceivable that pagan, non-Jews might
> come to believe that a man could somehow also be God, this
> concept would seem to be utterly blasphemous to a devout Jew.  On
> what basis do you assert that it is “eminently conceivable” that
> a devout Jew like Paul would readily attribute divinity and
> cosmic significance to a man?

No basis whatsoever -- because I didn't say "readily". "Readily" implies that a large fraction of Jews would have been right on the cusp of becoming Christians, which was clearly not the case. "Conceivably" merely implies that it's not the case that we two thousand years later can guarantee that no tiny fraction of Jews could have believed in this particular self-proclaimed Messiah. In the absence of evidence establishing such a guarantee, such belief remains prima facie conceivable. Anything that has not been rigorously proven impossible is by definition conceivable.