Facebook Theology Crashes Again

A friend writes, curious about my response to an atheist on Facebook who has made the following claims in a status update:

The Bible (and for that matter Christianity) depends upon 4 basic concepts: Creation, Original Sin, The Exodus and Mosaic Law, and the Resurrection of Jesus.  Science has debunked all 4 of these pillars, leaving the religious house of cards in a pile on the floor.

A few cursory responses…

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Lee Strobel Fouls Out

I took an hour or two today to watch Lee Strobel’s “The Case For Faith.”

The Amazon reviews are typically full-throated exultations of the video’s power. 

I found it weirdly lacking in substance.

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Truthiness and Factiness and How We Speak

Some truths cannot be expressed in factual language without loss.

For example, if somebody tells you “My love is a red, red rose,” he is speaking of an unverifiable emotional experience and inviting you to share it through the power of evocative imagery, and of course faith.

When we use simile, we do the same thing: “Reading your blog is like sliding naked down a razor blade into a pool of lemon juice,” a comment that shows up in my mailbag with startling regularity.

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Christians Speaking About The Resurrection

Maybe I'm what scripture calls a "scoffer," or maybe I'm just too good a teacher to let these things go.  But whatever the reason, I know when I hear certain religious phrases that a tiresome discussion is coming, and I have to either ignore it or challenge it.  But for some reason I just have the hardest time ignoring it.

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Q&A: Objections to My Views On Resurrection

Keep in mind you're not dealing with a literalistic culture, or at least not a culture addicted to literalism as we are: for them to say "Jesus lives" might very easily be understood at the level of metaphor of some sort, or parable.

That's not to say it would have to be. But the metaphor doesn't work quite so dramatically if there's a body you can point to.

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The Quandary of Some Christian Apologetics: History, Fact, and the Resurrection

Reflections on the idea of "fact" as it relates to the Resurrection, with an eye on some major failures in late 20th century American Christian apologetics. I look at what it means to claim the Resurrection is "historical."

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Contradictions and the Bible: Their History and Importance

For those who aren't clear on how important this is, keep in mind that the claim of biblical inspiration is (at least for many Christians) so sharp and absolute that any admission of error at any level is tantamount to betrayal of the whole show. But if you say that such problems do not amount to much, I have to ask, "What do you mean then by saying that the thing is 'true'?"

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Taking The Bible Literally: Observations on Resurrection and Genesis

Believing in something despite a lack of evidence is not the same as believing in something in spite of the evidence to the contrary. In the case of the Resurrection, you might not have objective reasons to believe in it (the testimony of scripture is hardly objective), but there will never come a day when science tells you, "Sorry... we found the body of Jesus, definitively identified."

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Resurrection and Its Meanings

In any case, those of us in the 21st century who do not have a strong practical experience of resurrection might mean anything by the word, whatever it is we tell ourselves that we believe. Some of the things we might mean are worth meaning. Some, not so much.

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Resurrection and Ascension inThe Ancient & Postmodern Worlds

The Ascension of Jesus: Apotheosis? Poetic Declaration of Pre-Existing Divinity? Historical Fact? Excellent Stagecraft?A friend's question:

• A few years ago I read Bart Ehrman's book Misquoting Jesus and somewhere in it he states how Jesus' ascension into heaven wouldn't have been a new concept to those of that day, because other ancient religions had myths and stories of their gods ascending into heaven too. I don't remember what I read exactly, but this was the gist of it. Is this true? If so, it makes the account of Jesus' ascension less credible.... thoughts?

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