“I’m one of those closed-minded scientists who says he’ll ignore the evidence for Jesus”
He would probably answer that it is not scientific to ignore evidence. Miracles cannot be explained by science. But they could—theoretically—be proven with scientific methods. If someone claims to have a scientific proof of a miracle (for example a video), it would be unscientific to just ignore it, wouldn’t it?
I disagree. If a non-believer argues that he considers the Book of Job to be a sacred text and therefore of a different quality than, say, The Merchant of Venice he does this most certainly on the grounds mentioned by mtavern. The mere fact that a certain thing is considered as sacred or is admired by a lot of people changes our perception of that thing and insofar adds a new quality to it. It does that even if a certain person doesn’t admire it or believe in it. The fact that you (probably) don’t admire Britney Spears does not change the fact that you regard her as a “celebrity” which is nothing else than the consequence of other people admiring her.