Richard Dawkins on…Judaism? “Originally a tribal cult of a single fiercely unpleasant God, morbidly obsessed with sexual restrictions, with the smell of charred flesh, with his own superiority over rival gods and with the exclusiveness of his chosen desert tribe.” (58) Richard Dawkins on…Christianity? “Was founded by Paul of Tarsus as a less ruthlessly monotheistic…
Before we leave Dawkins chapter, “The God Hypothesis,” I feel the need to point out a number of other rather inflammatory and questionable comments Dawkins makes as he, in fact, goes out of his way to attack religion. No Tax Breaks for Religious Charities! In this first instance, he goes out of his way to…
Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching. And, if you have watched any amount of T.V. over the past few weeks, chances are you’ve seen those commercials: “pajama-grams,” “giant teddy bears,” etc. Yes, I know, they’ve been on T.V. for the past few years every Valentine’s Day season. But as I’ve seen them this year, something has occurred…
Dawkins’ second chapter in his book The God Delusion is entitled “The God Hypothesis.” Needless to say, that is quite a broad category. After all, depending on your time in history and your particular culture, “God” or “the gods” can refer to a wide-ranging amount of beliefs and practices. For Dawkins, the “God” he hypothesizes…
Dawkins: The Philosophical Naturalist The first chapter of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion is entitled “A Deeply Religious Non-Believer.” In it, Dawkins makes clear that he is a philosophical naturalist. He writes that he sees himself as: “…somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the…
Ah, the Gospel of Atheism! Atheism fascinates me. Not the kind of atheism in which someone simply says, “I don’t believe God exists,” and then just goes about living his life. I’m talking about the kind of atheism in which people see themselves positively evangelical about it. They bring lawsuits against towns that have any…
I recently watched a PBS presentation entitled, God On Trial. The setting was a barracks in Auschwitz, in which the Jewish men there decided to “hold court” and put God on trial. The issue they set forth to decide was this: “Was God guilty of breach of contract with the Jewish people?” He had promised to…
Perhaps you’ve heard this question before: “How can Jesus be the Messiah when he didn’t fulfill any of the prophecies?” A typical Christian might be surprised at this question, but trust me, it’s a question a typical Jew would ask that typical Christian. Today, I would like to address this very issue. I encourage you…
Continuing with my analysis of Bart Ehrman’s basic arguments against the reliability of the gospels, I wish to comment on a few more points he made in his debate with Craig Evans. No Preservatives… In response to the question, “Do the gospels accurately preserve the activities of Jesus Christ?” Dr. Ehrman’s basic answer was, “No.” …
Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina who is most famous for his books, Misquoting Jesus, Jesus Interrupted, and his most recent one, How Jesus Became God. At some point down the line, I hope to specifically address How Jesus Became God, but here in the next couple posts,…