A Ten-Year Project
I’m starting to build a plan for a ten-year project for myself. The goal will be to produce a multi-volume critique of Christianity, with a focus on Evangelical Christianity, but I would also like to touch on Catholic Christianity and Liberal Christian views. One objective would be for the critique to be systematic and comprehensive, … A Ten-Year Project
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 15
Part of MJH (the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis) is that Jesus was a Jewish male. Jesus was “Jewish” in both senses of the word: he was an adherent of the religion of Judaism, and a male descendant of the Hebrew people, according to MJH. We saw in Part 14 that Mark represents Jesus as both a … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 15
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 14
Mitt Romney is a lying sack of human excrement. Which is one of the reasons why he lost the election. Among MR’s many moral failings was his promotion of a racist religious tradition: Mormonism. MR grew up in a publically and openly racist Mormon church. As a young man he went to France to encourage … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 14
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 13
I have taken a quick look at the L-source passages in Luke, and my conclusion is that the L source does represent Jesus as a flesh-and-blood person. So, Bart Ehrman is clearly the winner of the first round. But there are several more rounds to go before I will have enough facts and data to … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 13
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 12
Back in Part 10, I took a look at Mark and (in the Comments section) Q, and determined that they both represent Jesus as a flesh-and-blood person. Now I’m looking into the M-source, the unique material used by the author of the Gospel of Matthew, to see whether M also represents Jesus as a flesh-and-blood … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 12
God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 4
Previously, I argued that it is not possible to become eternal. Recall that a person P is eternal if and only if P has always existed and P will always continue to exist. Here is a step-by-step proof showing that it is impossible for a person to become eternal: <————|———–|————–> …………….t1………..t2 1. At time t1 … God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 4
Rob Lovering’s New Book: God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers
God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers (Continuum, 2013). Here’s the blurb: God and Evidence presents a new set of compelling problems for theistic philosophers. The problems pertain to three types of theistic philosopher, which Lovering defines here as ‘theistic inferentialists,’ ‘theistic non-inferentialists,’ and ‘theistic fideists.’ Theistic inferentialists believe that God exists, that there is inferential … Rob Lovering’s New Book: <I>God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers</I>
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