{"id":7617,"date":"2012-12-24T09:28:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=7617"},"modified":"2012-12-24T09:28:10","modified_gmt":"2012-12-24T14:28:10","slug":"evidence-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Evidence for Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2012\/12\/Nativity-fra-angelico.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-7618\" title=\"Nativity, fra angelico\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/149\/2012\/12\/Nativity-fra-angelico-252x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"300\"><\/a>Once again we\u2019ve had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for \u2018evidence\u2019 for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting because we have to ask what sort of evidence they require. Whenever I ask this question they all skirt around the issue in one way or another.<\/p>\n<p>There are many different kinds of evidence for many different aspects of the faith, but this is a complex matter for different questions demand different sorts of evidence. The evidence for the existence of God, for example, would be very different from the evidence for the Christmas story as recorded in the gospels. Evidence for a miracle like the resurrection would be very different from the evidence for the historical reality of King David. Evidence for Noah\u2019s Ark or Jonah and the whale would be very different from evidence on the authorship of the Psalms or the original meaning of the Book of Revelation.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, at this festive season I thought you might like to consider the interesting evidence on why December 25 is the most accurate date for the birth of Jesus Christ. Taylor Marshall summarizes the evidence <a href=\"http:\/\/cantuar.blogspot.com\/2011\/12\/dec-25-biblical-argument-of-birth-of.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a> very neatly. Enjoy!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once again we\u2019ve had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for \u2018evidence\u2019 for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting because we have to ask what sort of evidence they require. Whenever I ask this question they all skirt around the issue in one way or another. There are many different [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Evidence for Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Once again we&#039;ve had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for &#039;evidence&#039; for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evidence for Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once again we&#039;ve had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for &#039;evidence&#039; for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2012\/12\/Nativity-fra-angelico-252x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html\",\"name\":\"Evidence for Christmas\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"Once again we've had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for 'evidence' for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Evidence for Christmas\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evidence for Christmas","description":"Once again we've had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for 'evidence' for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evidence for Christmas","og_description":"Once again we've had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for 'evidence' for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/files\/2012\/12\/Nativity-fra-angelico-252x300.jpg"}],"author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html","name":"Evidence for Christmas","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00","dateModified":"2012-12-24T14:28:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"Once again we've had some tussles with atheists who keep asking for 'evidence' for the Christian faith. The whole question of evidence is interesting","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2012\/12\/evidence-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evidence for Christmas"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}