Defending the Hallucination Theory: COMPLETED
At the end of November 2021, I published Part 17 in a series of posts defending the Hallucination Theory of the alleged resurrection of Jesus. At that point, The Secular Outpost shut down. However, I continued to write and publish further posts in that series over at my own blog: THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT: GOD, JESUS, … Defending the Hallucination Theory: COMPLETED
Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 5
Because my main objection to a key argument in Chapter 3 of Bart Ehrman’s book Did Jesus Exist? (hereafter: DJE) is a strong and decisive objection (i.e. Ehrman provided ZERO historical facts to support the main historical premise of a key argument), I have felt some concern that my identification or interpretation of the ABSIG argument (Agreements … Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 5
Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 4
A Brief Review of My Previous Objections One key argument for the existence of Jesus presented by Bart Ehrman in Chapter 3 of Did Jesus Exist? (hereafter: DJE) is based on an historical claim about alleged Agreements Between Seven “Independent” Gospels: (ABSIG) There are seven Gospels which were written within “a hundred years after the … Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 4
Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 3
The Independence of Passages vs. Books Among the seven “independent” Gospels to which Ehrman’s ABSIG (Agreements Between Seven Independent Gospels) refer are the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. A “basic aspect” of the life or death of Jesus is the claim that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. There is agreement between Matthew … Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 3
Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 2
Existence vs. Basic Aspects/Attributes “Did Jesus exist?” – What does this question mean? Clarity is a gateway standard of critical thinking. If you are UNCLEAR about the meaning of a question, then your thinking about that question will also be unclear, and your thinking will probably not be very useful or productive or logical so long as you remain … Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 2
Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 1
I was recently asked to participate in a public discussion/debate about the question “Did Jesus Exist?”. I don’t plan to argue in favor of the mythicist position, just because I don’t think I would do it justice. I’m not a mythicist, and I have not studied any mythicists in recent years (I read some of … Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman’s Complete Failure – Part 1
The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry – Part 1
In this series I will discuss a recently published book called The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry (hereafter: TRACI). It is not my intention to DO a critical inquiry into the (alleged) resurrection of Jesus in these posts. Rather, I will be describing and commenting on the efforts of Michael J. Alter, the author of TRACI, to … The Resurrection: A Critical Inquiry – Part 1
Response to William Lane Craig – Part 10
Here is my main objection to William Craig’s case for the resurrection of Jesus: It is not possible for a person to rise from the dead until AFTER that person has actually died. Thus, in order to prove that Jesus rose from the dead, one must first prove that Jesus died on the cross. But … Response to William Lane Craig – Part 10
Response to William Lane Craig – Part 8
I have one final objection to raise against Luke Johnson’s use of the “method of convergence”. I have been using the phrase “the devil is in the details” to summarize a number of problems with, or objections to, Johnson’s use of the “method of convergence” to establish some key claims about Jesus. But there are some … Response to William Lane Craig – Part 8
In Defense of Dwindling Probability – Part 2
I see that Plantinga’s skeptical argument refers to “Dwindling Probabilities” rather than “Dwindling Probability”. Sorry about my failure to get the name of this topic quite right. I should mention that I did not learn about this sort of skeptical argument from the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga. I learned about the Multiplication Rule of probablity … In Defense of Dwindling Probability – Part 2