Plagiarism isn't just annoying.  It is also illegal.  There is an explicit copyright on that website.

With reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only. There are some things money can't buy. For everything else...

Actually the source of my confusion was that Matthew 28:16 says they met on a mountain in Galilee.

Yes. That was a later appearance than the Jerusalem one. Specifically after Christ's ressurection He appeared about 11 times. But you asked about the very first one to the disciples as a group. And they weren't even the first ones He appeared to. Galilee is noted as the place Christ appeared after they got over their initial doubt of the women's testimony, with 500 people following along as stated in 1 Cor. 15:6.

Matthew (1:16) says "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.".  So Jacob was Joseph's mother, according to you?

Whoops. Seems I mixed up who listed what. My mistake for not having my Bible with me when I posted. All I can initially remember is that Matthew listed women and was fairly unorthadox with how he recorded Christ's genealogy.

I found a more thorough explanation that might clear up any confusion for you and actually addresses more than just the "Joseph's father" issue: http://www.triumphpro.com/genealogy_of_christ.htm

i did not imply forceful censorship in the case of Acts 19:19 (that came later).  What i said was "Thinking for yourself and educating yourself about other points of view is of course heavily frowned on by Christianity.  Paul's approval of the book burning in Acts 19:19 would be a case in point.".  Convert to Christianity and destroy any references to opposing points of view - that would be my reading of that passage.  Care to offer an alternative interpretation?

Not just any references as it clearly stated it was those who were converted who destroyed their own books and thus the act was limited to those who were converted.  Basicly it's people doing what they wanted with their own property as that property encouraged acts and behavior that they chose to reject. The verse says "And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all." The very fact that it says a 'number of those' rather than 'everyone' shows your generalization to be outright pathetic.

I don't even know where you get 'Paul's approval' from, as the context puts that verse as simply reporting events, rather than any pat on the head or encouragement from Paul.

Like I said earlier, your grossly exagerated misinterpretation of this, while ignoring the plethora of verses where Paul encourages to test Scripture, and his free admittance that if Christianity is wrong then Christians are the most pathetic people on Earth (showing that self-criticism was in fact encouraged rather than discouraged), shows that objectivity is truly lacking in your arguements.

Nor will i be the last, but if any of them quote my elegant and well-constructed version of the argument without giving me the due credit for writing it i'll slap them purple.

Imitation is the best form of flattery. But as I've included links into the threads (the only issue brought up that concerns me is getting sntjohnny into any kind of trouble over my actions) this issue is null and void.

Now, let's try not to get too bogged down with assumptions - what i hope we can agree on is that the gospels say different things about who saw Jesus resurrected.  You assume that these are different elements of a seamless dialogue, and i assume that these are contradictions.  Whatever, the fact of the matter is that the gospels say different things.

Obviously they say different things. They were written by 4 different people who worked on each work seperately. In a courtroom, time is spent reconstructiong events by taking different eyewitness accounts. If all witnesses stories were virtually identical any lawyer with half a brain would point out such an act as that of collusion or conspiracy. Such passages are actually beneficial to the Bible's validity.

This sets the tone for the rest of the article.  Essentially this is a classic piece of ad hoc reasoning - it offers three contradictory explanations for the different genealogies of Jesus in the NT, making it quite clear that the only reason for believing any of them to be true is that they resolve the apparent contradiction!  If there was any independently compelling reason to believe that Heli was in fact the father of Mary, not Joseph, or that Heli was the half-brother of Jacob who died childless, then that would be advanced as the single convincing explanation of this problem.

It offers 4 reasonable alternative explanations for what is only appears to be a contradiction. SHowing that such people who try to point it out to descredit the Bible are truly graspping. Heaven forbid there can be multiple solutions to a problem.

This is very unconvincing to someone who doesn't already believe in the inerrancy of the bible.

Cart before the horse. But anyway it only demostrates that the appearance of contradictions is just that: appearance. I know, it's a very Dawkin-esque arguement, but hey, if he can use it to justify his arguements....

The following verse - "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed" gives me the clue.

Yes. And that still falls within a "reporting events" context, though any Christian would obviously approve of the word of God prevailing as any atheist would approve of his message being widely accepted.

Hmm, i think that "And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" [2 Corinthians] would contradict that suggestion.

You are really reaching as that is in the same context of "in the world, but not of it". Basicly outlining that Christians have no buisness living like infedals, and participating in the same sinful activites they do as a form of pagan worship.

And I am doing those things to you DB. I've been doing those things to you and your arguements in this entire thread.