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Originally Posted by boxcar

So...where is the first century proof that Paul didn't exist?

Onus probandi.

Where is the proof, first century or otherwise, that he did?

Where is the proof that Santa Claus does not exist? Or the Easter Bunny? Or the Tooth Fairy?

Where is the proof that Russell's Teapot does not exist? Or do you believe in Russell's Teapot? How about Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy? Maybe you believe Superman exists.

The burden of proof of any extraordinary claim lies with the one making the claim, otherwise one can make any outlandish claim and declare it to be true simply because it cannot be disproven. If you cannot see how ridiculous of such a position is then that is your problem, not mine.

Originally Posted by Bertrand Russell

Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of skeptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

Originally Posted by Christopher Hitchens

That which can be claimed without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.