So, in my previous 2 “By Virtue Of The Absurd” posts, I was looking into some New Testament stories that were absurd on face value, but pointed to some deeper underlying meaning. I just wanted to let Prof Price have the last word as to Paul’s conversion story in Acts, which we should always raise … By Virtue Of The Absurd (post script)

Paul’s conversion is one of the great testimonies to the faith in Christian history.  The arch persecutor of Christians becomes their leading proselytizer and advocate.  Is he not what former atheist Lee Strobel was to the evangelicals? If something about Paul’s conversion story doesn’t smell right, you may be on to something.  For instance, Paul … By Virtue Of The Absurd (2/2)

Michael Nahm“A Guardian Angel Gone Astray: How Not to Engage in Scientific Debates” Keith AugustineAnswering More of the Same: A Reply to Nahm A really interesting journal exchange has been published between Augustine and Nahm regarding the life after death debate.  The journal issue is here:  https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/issue/view/89 Here are some of the topics: I think … Augustine vs Nahm: Soul Survival?

So, in recent posts I’ve been talking a bit about the turning points of Mark and John as the events causing Jesus’s arrest: the temple tantrum in Mark and the raising of Lazarus in John.  We looked at the absurdity of the temple tantrum story.  Also, we began to think about the absurdity of the … By Virtue Of The Absurd

So, if you’re new here, welcome to Secular Frontier! I’ve been exploring Christian Origins in the gospels in relation to sacrifice. In Mark, we have a dual presentation of Jesus as the Yom Kippur pure goat and scapegoat. In a superficial common way, this means penal substitution theology, but in a deeper way it means … General Summary Of The Gospels Christian Origins Argument Thus Far

So, briefly, the previous post took up the question of what are we to make of Jesus’s temple tantrum being the reason for his arrest in Mark, while in John the arrest is because of Jesus’s raising of Lazarus? Cleary, if Jesus was threatening the temple, this would be a reason for the Romans to … (2/2) What Is A Gospel?  Investigations Into The Gospel Of John – LINE OF ARGUMENT

ABSTRACT: I tried to showcase recent work by Robert Price (2017), Dennis MacDonald (2022), and Adele Reinhartz (2017) on the Gospel of John.  The question for the post is why the temple tantrum is the catalyst for Jesus’s arrest in the synoptics, while in John it is the raising of Lazarus.  I argue that the … What Is A Gospel?  Investigations Into The Gospel Of John

One common argument among atheists is that since evolution is a fact, there was no Adam to be responsible for original sin, and so Christ as a savior paying the sin debt is unnecessary.  This is based on the commonplace conservative penal substitution interpretation of the cross (as opposed to the moral influence theory), and … Evolution: No Adam?  No problem

I agree most secularists poke fun at the resurrection miracle claim of apologists, but have no good alternative, as even Dr. Bart Ehrman admits, which really isn’t playing fair. See Ehrman’s debate with William Lane Craig (see time 1:14:00 – 1:19:00): Ehrman’s argument is that any argument, however improbable, is still more likely than the … The Noble Lie Theory Of Christian Origins

So, last time I talked about getting beyond the personal sin/sinner’s prayer ideology of the conservative evangelical interpretation of Christianity to the corporate sin issue of things like systemic racism that needs to be made conspicuous and overcome with the liberal/progressive Christian interpretation. Terry Simon has a helpful quote on this: The story of Native … Corporate Sin (2/2)