God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 3
Richard Swinburne analyzes the concept of ‘necessary being’ into two implications (COT, p.241-242): 1. It is not a matter of fortunate accident that there is a God; he exists necessarily. 2. God is necessarily the kind of being which he is; God does not just happen to have the properties which he does. In his … God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 3
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 11
I will now take a brief break from answering the 44 questions about Mark, Q, M, and L. For your reading enjoyment, I bring you John Crossan’s brief defense of the historicity of the crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus’ death by execution under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be. For, if … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 11
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 10
In my previous post on this topic, I argued that we need to answer 44 specific questions in order to come up with fact-based initial evaluation of Bart Ehrman’s Seven Gospels Argument (SGA). The first question is whether Mark (one of the seven sources that Ehrman points us to) confirms the following attribute claim: A1. … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 10
Really Handy Survey of Metaethics
I have no idea if the site posting this actually has the copyright permissions to do this or not, but there is a site with the entire copy of Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s book, Moral Skepticisms, available as a PDF file. For those of you with an interest in learning more about metaethics–such as the distinction between “moral metaphysics” … Really Handy Survey of Metaethics
Trent Dougherty’s Review of Probability in the Philosophy of Religion
Excellent review of what appears to be a very interesting book. LINK
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 9
The current version of the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH) has five parts:=======================There was a flesh-and-blood person who was…1A. named Yeshu’a, and2A. an adherent of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, and3A. living in Palestine as an adult (in his twenties and/or thirties) in the 20s C.E., and4A. known to be a preacher … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 9
“Debating Christian Theism” is out
Yesterday I received my contributor’s copy of Debating Christian Theism edited by J.P. Moreland, Chad Meister, and Khaldoun A. Sweis, from Oxford University Press (554 pages). The volume contains forty pro-and-con essays debating topics relating to theism and Christianity. Most of the essays are on familiar topics and written by the “usual suspects.” For instance, … “Debating Christian Theism” is out
God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 2
Although there is an extensive discussion of the meaning of the claim ‘God is a necessary being’ by Richard Swinburne in his bookThe Coherence of Theism (revised edition, hereafter: COT), the main passages that I’m interested in understanding are found in a shorter and more popular book: Is There a God? (hereafter: ITAG), also by … God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 2
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 8
In Did Jesus Exist?(hereafter: DJE) Bart Ehrman argues for something like the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH), which I have clarified and tweaked a bit to get to this formulation: ======================= There was a flesh-and-blood person who was… 1A. named Yeshu’a, and 2A. an adherent of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, and … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 8
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 7
For the following discussion of the chronology of Jesus’ ministry, I’m drawing upon the evidence and reasoning and conclusions presented by John P. Meier in his book A Marginal Jew, Volume 1: The Roots of the Problem and the Person, Chapter 11 “‘In the Fifteenth Year’…A Chronology of Jesus’ Life” (hereafter: AMJv1). Jesus was crucified … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 7