What is Reddit's opinion of Hidden In Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts?

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Sorry for the delay in replying. Can you provide sources for the claims that you mentioned?
The thing is, Jesus specifically claimed that He would rise again, before His crucifiction. The Pharisees and the Romans would basically try to do anything to make sure that there would not be an empty tomb. Especially since Jesus had been speaking to the people and people were familiar with the OT prophesies of the Messiah. So it doesn't make sense that the Romans or Pharisees colluded to get rid of the body or anything. The easiest way to stop Christianity from spreading would have simply been to produce the body.
Regarding his followers/disciples/Apostles- the Gospel accounts state that the Apostles scattered after Jesus was crucified and entombed. The women stayed closely, and on the third day, when Mary Magdalene went into the tomb, she was surprised and stunned to see the body gone. In fact, Mary even thought that someone had taken Jesus's body. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2020%3A11-18&version=NKJV
The Gospels don't seem made up at all to me. Why include the embarrassing accounts of Jesus's disciples scattering and in disbelief when the women told them about Jesus's resurrection? They could've left out so many details to make it look "neat". In fact, some of the details that are included seem very organic, almost like a stream of consciousness recounting of an event. And different authors will have different priorities of details, as in any multiple recounting of an event (J Warner Wallace: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zimP8m3_hCk ) -- if a group of people tell you the exact same details, it was most likely rehearsed and prepared as a cover-up. There's also a book on details in the Gospels that don't seem to be related, but actually make sense when connected. https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Plain-View-Undesigned-Coincidences-ebook/dp/B073GDF3VZ
Regarding supernatural explanations, why do they have to be incredibly improbable? Our existence itself is incredibly improbable. The planet we live on is incredibly improbable. So many things that happen every second and so many things that we depend on, are incredibly improbable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eefw0Dnv_Ic
Regarding anonymity, I'm not sure how this claim emerged. The manuscripts that we have (that are titled, i.e. the title section is intact) all have the same titles that our Bibles have today.
https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/56974/are-there-any-ancient-manuscripts-of-books-without-titles#:~:text=The%20existing%20early%20titles%20of%20Gospel%20manuscripts%20are,%22According%20to%20Matthew%22%202%20%22Gospel%20according%20to%20Matthew%22

There seems to be a trend of scholars weighing less the value of tradition, but, still, as mentioned in the link above, I don't see how this affects the authorship of the Gospels if the manuscript titles are consistent.
https://ryanleasure.com/were-the-gospels-originally-anonymous/#:~:text=At%20this%20early%20stage%20when%20the%20New%20Testament,church%20blindly%20accepted%20anonymous%20Gospels.%20Think%20about%20it.

Even if someone claims that the Gospels' authors are anonymous, this does not necessarily affect the reliability of the Gospels. The spreading of Christianity and sharing of the good news was organic; it wasn't decreed through official government documents or through the scribes of the Pharisees. In addition, there are legitimate reasons for not signing your name into the narrative/body content. One possibile reason is as an act of humility, to cut off any source of pride one might have after authoring a work that is meant to focus on and share an account of God's work of saving humanity. Both Christians and non-Christians have written important documents anonymously, for various reasons.

Also, if a Gospel was counterfeit or inaccurate, the church would know. This is why there are counterfeit gospels that the church did not recognize as legitimate nor include it into the New Testament (ex. the Gnostic gospels). In contrast, the early church accepted the Gospel according to Luke as accurate, and accepted that Luke had received the account from eyewitnesses (as Luke wrote in Luke 1:1-4).
Regarding mentions of Jesus appearing after death in contemporary non Christian sources or later sources, I would suggest that the Pauline Epistles are to be examined for this criteria. Paul/Saul had no reason to convert to Christianity, except that He had actually seen the risen Jesus (as he details in his writings; ex. 1 Corinthians 15:8; Philippians 3:4-8). Paul had a lot of zeal for God, but his zeal was misplaced into persecuting Christians. By appearing to Paul, God turned Paul's violent fervor into a Christly one. Also, some of the Pauline Epistles were written directly by his hand, as he signed his name in the following:
1 Corinthians 16:21: “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.”
Galatians 6:11: “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!”
Colossians 4:18: “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.”
2 Thessalonians 3:17: “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.”
Philemon 19: “I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand.”
This link that I shared before also responds to some of your numbered points: https://creation.com/darkness-at-the-crucifixion-metaphor-or-real-history

 

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There are multiple reasons to trust the gospels. But firstly, instead of claiming that there are contradictions and embellishments, would you mind pointing at which ones you think exist? I highly doubt you will raise a contradiction that hasn't been answered numerous times that a simple google search couldn't solve. There are often differences between the gospels, but that is to be expected when different people are consulted about the same event. Additionally, the Gospels were 40-90 years after the events by the *latest* estimates. There is very strong evidence to suggest that some of the gospels were written as early as 20 years after the death of Christ, and even some creeds about the resurrection of Christ written within 3 years after his death. This stuff isn't separated by all that much time, and the specific witnesses mentioned in the epistles and Gospels were all very much alive at the time of the writings.

The Gospels are situated in a time and place that can be verified and confirmed. They are some fantasy that was written out of someone's imagination. Time after time a detail in the gospel is confirmed, and yet skeptics will ignore the constant confirmations while only pointing to the harder to reconcile details. An open mind will consider both the verified and the unverified details as a whole before determining that the Bible should not be trusted.

Additionally, the witness of the individuals mentioned helps to confirm the story. The people named as having seen these miracles, and been with Jesus could have very easily spoken up and rejected the stories. Additionally, there are often confirmations by hostile witnesses of the broader details of Jesus' ministry. For instance, the rabbi's acknowledge a sorcerer named Jesus who walked Judea at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. There are numerous embarrassing details and stories that would only be shared if the information were true. Finally, these witnesses lived a life of conflict, persecution and even death with the claim that these stories are true. I am not talking about the people who believed the witnesses, I am talking about the witnesses themselves. Those who saw Christ proclaim his message and saw him risen, took their claims, in the face of poverty and persecution, to their deaths.

There are also "undesigned coincidences". Lydia McGrew has written a whole book about these adding strength to the reliability of the Gospels. For instance, the book of John speaks of Jesus feeding the 5 Thousand and he asks Phillip if there is food near by that they can buy. Why does he ask Phillip? Luke has the answer for us, because Phillip was from Bethsaida where the feeding of the 5k happened! These "undesigned coincidences" happen over and over again.

All of these evidences act as support towards the probability that the Gospels are true. Whereas some try to nit-pick