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
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
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
God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 1
In his book The Coherence of Theism (Revised edition, hereafter: COT), Swinburne defends the claim that the sentence ‘God exists’ makes a coherent statement. In Part II of COT, Swinburne defends the coherence of the concept of “a contingent God”, which is basically the traditional concept of God minus the attribute of ‘necessary being’. In … God as a ‘Necessary Being’ – Part 1
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
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 6
Here is my clarified version of the Minimal Jesus Hypothesis (MJH): ======================= 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 3A. living in Palestine as an adult (in his twenties and/or thirties) in the 20s C.E., and 4A. … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 6
Did Jesus Exit? – Part 5
In his book Did Jesus Exist? Bart Ehrman argues for 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 … Did Jesus Exit? – Part 5