The "Magical Thinking" criticism continues to both befuddle and amuse me. It befuddles me because it won't go away. It amuses me because of its incongruity with facts. There is a Bible story which directly confronts 'magical thinking'. In fact it pits Christianity against it:
I don't see how anyone could seriously say something like this. You're
incredibly deluded. Your religion epitomizes magical thinking, in almost every single way.
You don't mean that the Jews who wrote the Talmud; The Jews who included vile rumors of the parentage of Jesus in the Talmud to discredit Jesus; would incorporate something which would tend to prove that Jesus was who He claimed to be? Did your argument just crash and burn?
No, I'm speaking of the Jews who plagiarized the concept, for whatever reason their motive eludes you. I understand your rationalization as to why they wouldn't have plagiarized the concept(event), but your rationalization is just that. All it would take is a single Jewish author who didn't have such prejudices, or who was writing what he thought actually happened(but which was a story passed mouth to mouth which originated from a Christian source.) There are a million other reasons such cross-story residue would originate, and no amount of rationalization suffices to quell that probability. Your rationalizations cannot account for the complexities of reality. A strange parallel appears between the two books claiming an extraordinary event happened. The answer is clear.
It does support that the Bible accurately included a description of a rare medical condition.
I'm sure it does.
As Mr. Spock once said to Dr. McCoy, "You should be taught the difference between empiricism and stubborness."
I thought as much. I'm done with this subject, as I was a long time ago. None of these things are evidence, and you're aware of the reasons even if you pretend they don't apply. At least appeal to true evidence, which you've given examples of once.