Category Archives: apologetics
the owens-campbell debate
I finished lately reading the famous Campbell-Owen debate on the evidences for Christianity and the correct principles by which society ought to run. It is a book-length discussion between Alexander Campbell, the restorationist preacher, and one of the founders of socialism, Robert Owen. Related Posts:Liberalism as Denial — A Response to John FenselHayek disappoints.Is the [...]
Posted in apologetics Tagged alexander campbell, dogmatism, evidence, evidences of christianity, robert owen, socialism Leave a comment
in the spirit of philosophical dialogue . . .
. . . here’s William Craig’s Five Arguments for God, which present some quite sound arguments for the existence of Someone who, at the very least, is generally similar to the standard Judaic / Christian / Muslim conceptions of God. And, as an added bonus, he does a great job of exposing the emptiness of [...]
whiston’s hypothesis on the testimonium of josephus
Lately I’ve been having a bit of back-and-forth discussion with atheist author Paul Tobin, over a post I wrote on Josephus. One of the great difficulties of online communication (indeed with any communication) is making sure we’re all on the same page. And so I’m reprinting Whiston’s hypothesis about Origen’s Contra Celsus comment about the [...]
come on!
Perhaps the only group of people who tend to distort facts more than Christians is non-Christians. Especially when discussing the Bible, non-believers usually don’t know what they’re talking about. This includes people with Ph.D.’s and whatnot. Take the case of John Loftus, a man who thinks he’s debunking christianity and constantly waves about his Master’s [...]
Posted in apologetics 3 Comments
uh oh . . . shake-up on the qeiyafa inscription
The loud buzz started with this press release. The University of Haifa announced that a Professor Galil had succesfully decrypted an ancient Hebrew inscription, which according to the press release was not only the most ancient Hebrew inscription ever found (from about 1000 B.C.), and said that “the significance of this breakthrough relates to the [...]
Also posted in biblical archaeology Tagged galil, hebrew university of jerusalem, misgav, qeiyafa, university of haifa Leave a comment
o little town of nazareth . . .
Guess what? Remember that skeptical position that Nazareth didn’t even exist in Jesus time? Famous atheist Frank Zindler, of atheist magazine, pointed out the following facts (quoted from Wikipedia): No “ancient historians or geographers mention [Nazareth] before the beginning of the fourth century.” Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament, the Talmud, nor in [...]
responding to an ignorant allegation against christianity
There is on the internet a fellow who goes by the name T H Mitchell, who lists on some sort of conversational forum a list of “Super Secret Mitchell Facts” which he believes produce a thorough debunking of Christianity. On of his proofs regards the variant readings found in Greek manuscripts at the end of [...]
jesus christ passes an impossible test
An atheist once said that the reason he did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that there is not a single independent source that confirms that Jesus died and was raised. Initially, that seems alarming: that God would send his son Jesus to die and be raised, but that historians would ignore [...]
Posted in apologetics Tagged atheism, christianity, flavius josephus, historicity of the bible, hoax, resurrection of jesus christ 14 Comments
population growth, exodus, and numbers
Often, people attempt to use what they call science to disprove the history in the Bible. One of the accusations concerns the rapid population growth recorded in the Bible during the Israelite sojourn in Exodus. This is the accusation: that to start with 70 Israelite men going into Egypt and end with over 2,000,000 people [...]
Posted in apologetics Tagged bible, biblical history, egypt, exodus, israel, population growth Leave a comment
on the new atheists