Did Jesus Exit? – Part 4

June 15, 2013 By 7 Comments

When Bart Ehrman asserts that "Jesus existed", he is asserting something like the following Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH): ====================== There was a flesh-and-blood person who was... 1. named 'Jesus', and 2. a Jewish man, and 3. living in Palestine as an adult in the 20s C.E., and 4. known to be a preacher and a teacher, and 5. crucified in Jerusalem by the Romans around 30 C.E., and 6. crucified when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. ======================== There was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, Bible, books of interest, Christianity, debates, miracles, philosophy, philosophy of religion, resurrection, skepticism Tagged With: , , , , , 7 Comments

Did Jesus Exit? – Part 3

June 10, 2013 By 14 Comments

If Jesus did not EXIST, then Jesus did not EXIT this life by dying on a cross in Jerusalem. If Jesus did not die on a cross in Jerusalem, then Jesus did not rise from the dead. So, this question of whether Jesus existed has a direct logical connection to the question of whether Jesus rose from the dead. If the probability that 'Jesus existed' is .8, then the probability that 'Jesus rose from the dead' cannot be any higher than .8, and given that the evidence for the claim that 'Jesus was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, Bible, books of interest, Christianity, logic, miracles, philosophy, resurrection, skepticism Tagged With: , , , , , 14 Comments

Did Jesus Exit? – Part 2

June 7, 2013 By 2 Comments

Author: Bart D. Ehrman Publisher: HarperCollins Copyright: 2012. Full Title: Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth Contents: Introduction (p.1-7) Part I: Evidence for the Historical Jesus (p.11-174) Chapters 1-5 Part II: The Mythicists' Claims (p.177-264) Chapters 6 & 7 Part III: Who Was the Historical Jesus? (p.267-339) Chapters 8 & 9, plus a Conclusion Bibliography (p.341-345) Notes (p.347-361) I will focus in on Part I: Evidence for the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, Bible, books of interest, Christianity, miracles, philosophy, philosophy of religion, resurrection, skepticism Tagged With: , , , , , 2 Comments

Christian Apologists vs. the Kalam Cosmological Argument

June 5, 2013 By 9 Comments

In the last couple of days, two Christian apologists have published critiques of the Kalam cosmological argument. #1: Calum Miller Calum Miller provides an extremely thorough, open-minded critique. #2: Danny Faulkner Over at Answers in Genesis, Danny Faulkner has written an interesting article entitled, "Universe by Design: Misconceptions about General Relativity, Cosmology, and the Big Bang."  Among others, the article has a section entitled, "The Big Bang Does Not Prove God's … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, apologist watch, arguments for theism, kalam cosmological argument 9 Comments

Did Jesus Exit? – Part 1

June 5, 2013 By 12 Comments

Let me lay my prejudices out on the table, before I get into the pros and cons about Bart Ehrman's case for Jesus being an actual historical person. My current opinion is that it is very likely that Jesus existed, but I don't think that anything about Jesus is certain, so I would allow for about one chance in ten that Jesus was NOT a real person. I am a skeptic about the claim that "Jesus rose from the dead", so although my current opinion favors an historical Jesus, I have an interest in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, Bible, books of interest, Christianity, debates, logic, miracles, philosophy, philosophy of religion, resurrection, skepticism Tagged With: , , , , , 12 Comments

Preliminary Thoughts about Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell

June 3, 2013 By 27 Comments

I've been reading Stephen C. Meyer’s massive book, Signature in the Cell. For those who are unfamiliar with the book, it is a sophisticated defense of the intelligent design (ID) hypothesis. Meyer argues that intelligent design is the best explanation for the origin of biological, functionally specified information. In other words, Meyers is not arguing against biological evolution (including common ancestry). Rather, he argues that intelligent design is the best explanation for the origin of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: arguments for theism, books of interest, design argument, intelligent design, religion, religion and science, theism Tagged With: 27 Comments

Atheistic Moral Realism – Part 11

June 1, 2013 By 3 Comments

If I understand William Craig's third objection to AMR, then he is basically offering an inductive  teleological argument for the existence of God (similar to how Richard Swinburne argues for God)  based on the assumption that there are objective moral values plus the claim that humans and the circumstances in which humans find themselves are such as to allow humans to live morally significant lives (we have free will, are able to grasp moral principles, are able to reason from moral … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, arguments for theism, atheism & naturalism, Christianity, ethics, metaethics, moral argument, nontheistic metaethics, philosophy, philosophy of religion, skepticism, theism, theistic metaethics Tagged With: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Atheistic Moral Realism – Part 10

May 28, 2013 By 18 Comments

When I argue against the resurrection of Jesus, I generally take a two-pronged approach. First, I argue that there are various good reasons to doubt the claim that Jesus was alive and walking around on the first Easter Sunday. Second, I make a concession for the sake of argument; I grant the supposition that Jesus was alive and walking around on the first Easter Sunday. Then I point out that this assumption, an assumption that Christian apologists work very hard to try to prove, actually … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, arguments for theism, atheism & naturalism, Christianity, ethics, metaethics, moral argument, nontheistic metaethics, philosophy, philosophy of religion, skepticism, theism, theistic metaethics, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , 18 Comments

Atheistic Moral Realism – Part 9

May 25, 2013 By 9 Comments

I have argued previously that Craig's first two objections to AMR are weak at best. The third objection might not be as weak as the previous two. However, the third objection is the most unclear of the three, so if it turns out to be a strong objection, that will be because we help Craig to clearly formulate his third objection. William Craig’s third objection to AMR is given in a single brief paragraph: Third, it is fantastically improbable that just the sort of creatures would emerge … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, arguments for theism, atheism & naturalism, ethics, evolution, metaethics, moral argument, nontheistic metaethics, philosophy, philosophy of religion, science, skepticism, theism, theistic metaethics Tagged With: , , , , , , , 9 Comments

Atheistic Moral Realism – Part 8

May 22, 2013 By 13 Comments

I am not impressed by Richard Taylor's appeal to etymology as an argument for the claim that all duties and all obligations are 'owed' to some person or persons (see part 7 for my objections to that line of reasoning). However, to be fair to Craig, Taylor's appeal to etymology is not specifically and explicitly quoted by Craig in his essay 'Why I Believe God Exists' (WIAC, p.62-80). Perhaps Craig is aware of the weakness of Taylor's appeal to etymology, and so he avoids quoting such appeals … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apologetics, arguments for theism, atheism & naturalism, Christianity, ethics, logic, metaethics, moral argument, nontheistic metaethics, philosophy, philosophy of religion, skepticism, theism, theistic metaethics Tagged With: , , , , , , , 13 Comments