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Holy Week (Friday): Death of Jesus

After a kangaroo court and an undeserving death sentence, Jesus walks his cross (with some help) to the hill at Calvary:

As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.'” And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.

 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the landuntil the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Mt 27:32-54)

He is then buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  It really seems as though this small “cult” around Jesus is doomed.  After all, once your leader has been shamed, humiliated, and put to death, what else can you do?

So the disciples secreted away in wait.  But they didn’t know for what!

Questions Theists Can’t Answer, the Atonement

I was recently directed to a Reddit thread where the atheists were proposing questions that theists can’t answer. Surprise, surprise, we can answer them, and in many cases have answered them (just not the satisfaction of the atheist). Of course, personal satisfaction isn’t a prerequisite for truth.

That said, what follows are questions from that thread that center on the Atonement. Read the rest of this entry

CA: How Atheism Cost Me my Marriage

Guest Post by Tom Scanlon

So we understand each other, atheism itself didn’t cost me my marriage.  That would be ridiculous.  But the methodology I used to embrace atheism did cost me my marriage!

As a Christian, I believed in the Resurrection.  But I realized that the Resurrection left no evidence, except for numerous stories from eyewitnesses.  We all know that eyewitness testimony is extremely unreliable.  I can’t rely on eyewitness testimony, even the staggering number of people that claimed to see Jesus after his death (Paul said it was north of 500), because you just can’t rely on eyewitnesses!  It’s too subjective.

Realizing the subjectivity of eyewitness accounts, and realizing that there was nothing I could forensically touch or taste that would lead me to the truth, I have to side with the fact that never have I seen a body three-days dead get up and walk.  It should take more than inherently unreliable eyewitness testimony for anyone to believe that.

Eyewitness testimony is bad!

So, to be consistent, I started applying that to my everyday life.  When Laura, my wife, told me that it was raining outside, unless she was drenched when she walked in the door, I’d go check for myself.  She’s an eyewitness, after all.  She could be biased towards rain that day since the weatherman had predicted it, and thus be mistaken.  She could have just wanted it to rain and believed she saw rain.  Or, she could be lying to me to further an unseen agenda.

Either way, the only way to ascertain the truth would be to see it with my own eyes.  If Laura announced dinner was ready, I wouldn’t believe her until I smelled the food or saw it on the table.  If she told me a story about her past, I would try to empirically verify it, either from her old yearbooks or by looking at her scrapbooks.  Not her journals (that’s still eyewitness testimony); only pictures would do!

I started doing that at work, too.  I never believed what I was told, only what I could see with my own eyes.  There were lots of whispers, and no one wanted to work with me.  But I continued to verify every story someone told me, regardless of how mundane.  If I couldn’t forensically verify it, I didn’t believe it.

When Laura, or someone acting on her behalf, told me that she was staying late at work or visiting my in-laws, I never believed that outright.  If Laura were having an affair, that is exactly the sort of thing they’d tell me to keep it a secret.  So I always drove by her office or my in-laws on the way home to see if her car was there.

Laura started to get this crazy idea that I didn’t trust her.  “Honey,” I’d reassure her, “it’s not you.  I trust you.  I just don’t trust any eyewitness testimony.  Period.  Unless I can get forensic evidence to back it up, then I just won’t accept it on someone’s word!”

I thought she’d understand, but she filed for divorce only six months after I started this.  She also filed for an order of protection.  Since I was constantly driving by her alleged whereabouts, she got this crazy idea that I was stalking her.

What ticked me off most is that she had no forensic evidence to back up her claim: no tire tracks, no paint chips from my car, nor any surveillance tapes showing my car checking up on her.  Nothing like that.  Just three eyewitnesses.  The judge accepted the eyewitness testimony and granted the order!  Can you believe that?  How insulting.  Not to mention a bit ironic.

What Type of Evidence is Required to Believe Extraordinary Claims?

How many of us have said,  “I’ve been meaning to do [something], but [this] got in the way.”  I’ve been guilty of that many times, especially around the house.  I keep “meaning to,” but something else happens.

Wives are pretty forgiving here–or at least mine is.  Provided that [this] is reasonable, and not, “I just had to beat my high score at Yahtzee, and after 10 hours of rolling those dice, I finally did it!”

Supervisors at work are much less forgiving, even if [this] is extremely reasonable.  “I meant to get that paperwork faxed over, but four people called off for lunch rush and of the people that showed up, no one knew how to run the drive-thru register except for me!”  Those who have worked in fast food know that what I just said is a very legitimate reason for missing office work, but they also know that no district manager would actually accept that excuse.

In the world of blogging, “I’ve been meaning to write a post on [something], but [this] got in the way” has far less severe consequences than it does in the corporate world.  Usually, another blogger ends up writing the post, generally making the exact points that you would have raised.  Then comes the inevitable internal groan, “Why didn’t I just write the post sooner?”

Today, as I read over the usual blogs, I discover that the post I’ve been meaning to write on the so-stupid-it-burns talking point that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” has already been written by Dr. Randal Rauser.  Although I’ve disagreed with Dr. Rauser in the past, in this particular post he is 110% spot on.  This paragraph sums up my own points to people about this claim:

The problem starts with this: who decides what is “extraordinary”? Without an absolute, objective standard this principle collapses into “Anything that appears really implausible to me requires extraordinary evidence” and that in turn collapses into “No evidence will be good enough to convince me of something I find really implausible”. In other words, this is a recipe for an irrational dismissal of any evidence counter to what one already accepts.

Literally, all the “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” talking point ever does is allow the atheist to dismiss with a simple hand wave anything that he doesn’t want to believe–the existence of God, the Resurrection, any miracle in the Bible, or whatever else they don’t want in their worldview.  All they need to do is class whatever their opponent says as “extraordinary,” and whatever evidence or argument offered in support as “not extraordinary.”  BAM!  Case dismissed faster than a pothead’s lawsuit on Judge Judy.

All that is required to believe any claim, extraordinary or not, is sufficient evidence.  Period.

Questions Theists Can’t Answer, the Bible

Another question from that old Reddit thread that has questions designed to stump theists:

If the Bible is the word from God, and the word from God is perfect, why does it need interpretations? Why don’t you stone adulters or avoid wearing clothes made from mixed fibers as stated in the Bible? Why don’t you sacrifice animals to your God? 

This is really two questions. First, Why does the word of God need to be interpreted? And second, Why don’t Christians adhere to the Old Testament Laws? Read the rest of this entry

Do I Only Have to Reject One More God to be an Atheist?

There is one particular atheist argument that I hear quite regularly that inspires within me a desire to smack the smug person who says it right in the back of the head, as though he were Tony DiNozzo and I were Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

The argument runs a bit like this:

You are an atheist to thousands of gods.  I’m only an atheist to one more god than you are.

The speaker is acting as if I only have to take one small step and I’ll be free of this Vulcan mind-meld of Christianity and I can live my life like a “normal” person.  But atheism isn’t just lacking belief in one less god than the Christian.  Atheism is lacking a belief in any sort of deity.  In other words, atheism is rejecting the Divine.  Let’s explore that for a moment, because it is far deeper than rejecting “just another god.” Read the rest of this entry

The Moral Bankruptcy of Atheism

Let’s try this thought experiment:

On the side of the road is a man, his wife, and a child.  They are holding up a sign that reads, “We lost our home.  Help would be appreciated.”

Moved by their plight, I’m compelled to help them.  I pull my car over to an out-of-the way place.  I exit the vehicle and approach the family.

“Hi,” I call to them.

“Hello,” the man says.  His wife and daughter remain silent, though his wife offers me a tenative smile.

“I feel for your plight, sir,” I say.  “I’m going to give you $20.”

“Thank you,” the man says.  His wife smiles more broadly this time, and she extends a hand to thank me.

“But first,” I say, dangling a twenty dollar bill from my fingertips, “I want you to do a little something.”

The woman drops her hand to her side.  The man looks at me, while the woman raises a quizzical eyebrow.

Then I propose my deal.  “I have a hula hoop, clown shoes, and a colored wig in my trunk.  I want you to strip all of your clothes off–totally naked–and wear nothing but the wig and clown shoes.  Then, I want you to spin the hula hoop as many times as you can while chanting, ‘I can’t provide for the basic needs of my family, so I’m begging people for money instead of looking for a job!'”

Awkward silence.  I dangle the twenty dollar bill even closer to the man’s face.  “I don’t think so,” the man growls.

“I’ll make it $50 if you do this at the busiest mall in town,” I say.

The man just shakes his head vigorously.  His wife won’t look at me anymore.

In this example, I think that we can confidently conclude that I’m an asshole who should be shot.  Making the homeless jump through hoops for my own amusement is reprehensible behavior. People who engage in it deserve the label “asshole.”

Well, what have we here:

Though no one would praise my actions in the itallicized example, folks on ex-Christian.net are applauding the actions of the maker of that video.  Had the asshole done what I did above in the thought experiment, they (hopefully) would have universally condemned him.  Yet, when he asks the homeless person to deny God for money, that somehow is awesome.

To recap:

  • Make a homeless person jump through sadistic hoops for money = immoral.
  • Make a homeless person deny his Creator for money = strong commentary on religion.

Conclusion: Atheists have little moral compass, especially when it comes to making religion look bad.  Anything goes.  This is so disgusting that I can’t even come up with words for it.

Remember, the spirit is more important than the flesh.  Denying God has spiritual consequences greater than the physical consequences of turning down $20 from a complete asshole:

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:4-11)

And:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Mt 10:29, 31-33)

Returning to the God is Imaginary Rewrite

It’s been a while, but I’m now returning to the rewrite of my refutation of God is Imaginary. After reading some of my original disproofs, I’m happy to be doing the rewrite because some of my original apologetics were terrible. I’ve grown as an apologist, I’m proud to say.

Like anything, it’s a learning curve.

I have no set schedule for completing the proofs. I hope to also tackle Why Won’t God Heal Amputees in the near future as well.

What I’ve done so far:

And, co-author Dr. Joshua Rasmussen has put up his first article:

I’m probably going to edit that article a bit this week, since Dr. Rasmussen makes some points that I would like to expand on.

In Christ Alone

Great song. We played this at church today and I really got caught up in the music and pondered the lyrics. I challenge everyone to at least ponder the lyrics.

I like the more upbeat version of this tune, though Natalie Grant did an excellent take on this track with her amazing voice.

Questions Theists Can’t Answer, part 2

Continuing a short break from DaGoodS’s questions that Christians hope no one will ask, I proceed with a thread on Reddit proposing questions that theists supposedly can’t answer. Of course we can answer them, we have answered them, and yet they are still being asked as if they defeat theism once and for all.

In a previous post, I answered several miscellaneous questions. Here are some more miscellaneous questions:

Do you use any other 2000 year old information to live your life? Would you like your doctor to use 2000 year old methods? If something is wrong, it is always wrong. Morals are absolute, despite many (failed) arguments to the contrary. It was wrong to steal 2000 years ago, and it still is. It was wrong to cheat on your wife 2000 years ago, and it still is. Moral values don’t get revised over periods of time.

Why did god often appear to ignorant goat herders yet never makes an appearance now, except to the delusional? Jesus Christ represents the full and final revelation of God. God has no more need to appear to us today. Even if he did, it wouldn’t do any good. Even in the Bible, with the apostle Paul as the sole exception, God only appeared to people who already believed.

Why did god, in his perfect wisdom, give us totally useless body hair (and toenails)? Hair and nails may lack function on their own, but they serve a purpose within the frame of the human body. Hair and nails are recycled dead cells. Anyone who watches true crime documentaries also knows that deadly poisons are expelled through hair. Hair and nails, therefore, are part of the overall design. Otherwise, how would we get rid of useless organic tissues or deadly poison?

If god flooded the world, where did all the water go? In retrospect this question is easily answered. If someone were to believe a “god” could create water, the answer would most likely be he made it disappear. There is no “magic” necessary to answer this question. As I’ve stated before, if one subscribes to a global judgment in scope, but a flood that was local in geographic terms, then we no more have to ask where those flood waters went then we would for the receding flood waters of any of the numerous floods experienced in recent history.

As it happens, a local flood model actually makes all of the manifest problems with the story of Noah’s Flood vanish. For more information on this viewpoint, see here.