A Reply To: Twenty good arguments for Christianity

This is a response to something at "Christian Medical Comment" that was posted at CARM recently; this is what I posted there, slightly edited. The blog itself has not been posted to in over a year so may be dead.

1. The uniqueness of Jesus Christ

The life, teaching, extraordinary claims and miracles of Jesus Christ as recorded by eyewitnesses are best explained by him being God incarnate: the creator and sustainer of the universe who took on human flesh.

Where is the argument? All I see is an assertion. I assert that it is false (but see also number 2).

2. Jesus death and resurrection

All historical records are agreed on the facts that Jesus was killed, that his dead body disappeared, that the disciples claimed to have seen him alive and that the church grew rapidly in the belief that he had been resurrected. His actual bodily resurrection in space-time history remains the best explanation for these observations.

Most of those records were written by Christians, so of course they agree with the claims of Christianity.

However, the claim that Jesus' body disappeared is actually argued against by 1 Corinthians 15, when Paul says Jesus was buried and resurrected, but nothing about an empty tomb.

The claims of an actual bodily resurrection are also refuted by Paul, who in that same chapter explains how Jesus got a brand new spiritual body.

A more likely explanation is that the disciples saw a strange bright light in Galilee and erroneously believed it to be Jesus. All the claims of Jesus being seen in Jerusalem are later fabrications that the author of Mark had not even heard of.

3. The manuscript evidence for the New Testament

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are by far the best attested events in all antiquity in terms of the number of manuscripts recording them and the closeness in time of those hand-written records to the events they describe.

So what? This only proves a lot of people believed it was true, not that it happened.

4. The uniqueness of the Bible

The uniqueness of the Bible in its continuity, circulation, translation, survival, teachings and influence along with its internal consistency despite consisting of 66 books written by over 40 authors on three continents over 1,500 years defies simple explanation and is fully consistent with its claim to be divine revelation.

The simple explanation is that it is and was a popular religion.

5. Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in Christ

The 39 books that make up the Old Testament contain several hundred references to the coming Messiah concerning his life, death and resurrection which were written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth but were fulfilled during his life and confirm his credentials as the promised Messiah.

The prophecies can be divided between those that were twisted to make it seem like they apply to Jesus (Isaiah 7:1-10 is actually prophesying that Israel and Assyria would fall within a few years), or where Jesus' life was re-written to make it conform to the prophecies (the Spear of Destiny, for example). Many of the so-called prophecies are not even that (again, Isaiah 7).

6. Biblical prophecy fulfilled in history

The hundreds of predictive prophecies in the Old Testament and New Testaments about the fate of nations, empires and cities are consistent with supernatural revelation from a God outside the space-time continuum (Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, Gaza, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome, Israel).

Generally these were written after the event. For example, the supposed prophecies in Daniel are all really good to about 165 BC, when the book was written, then suddenly all go wrong (eg Antiochus did not conquer Egypt). Others are wishful thinking that just happen to come true (how long did it take for Israel to get re-founded?).

7. The uniqueness of the Christian experience

The shared testimony of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ by millions of people from diverse cultures, nations, personalities, professions and time periods is unparalleled by any other ideology and consistent with the existence of a God with a universal attraction to all kinds of human beings. Each testifies to finding peace, forgiveness, the power to change and new meaning, hope and purpose through Christ's death and resurrection.

People of other religions will claim the same. My wife claims this about supporting football (soccer). It is not unique.

8. The origin of the universe

Everything that began to exist has a cause and it is now virtually undisputed that the universe had a beginning. Any cause would have to be outside the material universe so would be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, personal and all powerful – characteristics shared by the God of the Bible.

In fact it is disputed that the universe had a beginning. We do not know what happened before the Big Bang. But let us suppose it did start then...

Why would the cause of the universe have to be personal? There is no reason; this has been thrown in to make it sound more like God!

If it comes to that, why would the cause of the universe have to be all powerful?

Creating a universe does sound like something that requires great power, but that may not be the case. Cosmologies believe the universe could sum to zero - zero energy, zero charge, etc. It could have just started from a random quantum fluctuation. Nothing powerful or personal about it.

9. The fine tuning of the universe

In order for the universe to come into being and allow intelligent life to exist, it required an astonishing series of ‘coincidences’ to have occurred. The probability that the six dimensionless constants (N, Epsilon, Omega, Lambda, Q & D) would be tuned in such a way as to allow this is infinitesimally small and the phenomenon is best explained by intelligent design.

Or our universe is one of an infinite number, each with its own set of dimensionless constants.

The fact is, we do not know. But that does not imply you can pretend your pet theory must therefore be true.

10. Biological complexity

Whilst it is widely recognised that random gene mutation, genetic drift and natural selection can account for a degree of biological descent with modification (evolution) the mechanisms by which proteins, DNA, unicellular organisms and new body plans could have arisen remain unexplained. Blind chance and necessity alone are unable to account for the biological complexity that we observe on planet earth and these phenomena point to intelligent design.

Ah, God-of-the-gaps. The ever decreasing gaps, of course.

The reality is every day science moves on, and those explanations get nearer and nearer, get ever more comprehensive, ever better supported.

How can creationism account for the fact that chimp DNA is more like human DNA than like gorilla DNA? How can creationism account for the fact that all primates have the same pseudo-gene for vitamin C synthesis? It cannot. Which is why most Christians accept evolution.

11. The rationality of the universe

The universe operates according to physical laws which are not merely regularities in nature but also mathematically precise, universal, ‘tied together’ and rationally intelligible. These phenomena point to the existence of what Einstein called ‘superior mind’, illimitable superior spirit’, ‘superior reasoning force’ and ‘mysterious force that moves the constellations’ and are fully consistent with the teachings of Christian theism.

Th universe follows nature laws. That does not imply a law maker, any more than it implies there are celestial police out there who will fine you if you exceed the speed of light.

12. The human mind

Human experience of free will, consciousness, self-awareness, conscience and a sense of meaning, purpose and destiny are all very difficult to explain within a purely materialist world view (ie. the belief that nothing exists apart from matter, chance and time). These phenomena point to, and are consistent with, a reality existing beyond the material world and are consistent with the biblical teaching that human beings are made in the image of God.

Back to God-of-the-gaps. Again, while these things are difficult to explain, they are not impossible to explain, and science is getting there.

Dig a little deep, and I question how well Christianity explains these things. There is a lot of evidence that the mind supervenes on the brain (fMRI experiments, the effect of various drugs on the brain, the effects of brain injuries, etc.). How then does Christianity rationalise the role of the spirit and/or soul? Given the spirit and/or soul must necessarily interact with the material world, how does Christianity explain the continuing utter failure to detect the existence of a spirit and/or soul?

13. The explanatory power of the Christian world view

The Christian theistic world view described by the parameters of creation, fall, redemption and consummation has considerable explanatory power in accounting for the existence of human complexity, creativity, love, suffering, disease, evil and hope.

This is ironic, because this is exactly why I, as a child, decided Christianity is not true. It fails to explain the world we see.

Why does a loving, all-powerful God allow catastrophes and diseases? It makes no sense.

The blog does try to address this on another page. One section deals with free will, but that does nothing to explain catastrophes and diseases

Then it goes on to the Fall, but the story of the Fall actually makes no sense. God, being all-knowing, knew that Adam and Eve would eat the fruit, and knew what the consequences of that would be. Adam and Eve could have no understanding of diseases, earthquakes, famines, wars, etc. Indeed, God gave no indication he would curse the world with those things if they ate the fruits. Furthermore, until they did eat the fruit, Adam and Eve had no understanding of right or wrong!

The moral responsibility for the Fall lands squarely on God, not Adam and Eve.

That Christians refuse to accept that really just illustrates how their religion has blinded them.

The blog then uses faith as its next argument. It argues that some suffering is good if it prevents greater suffering (and presumably we should just take this absurd claim on faith). Of course, the examples cited (doing hard work to get good, operating on a patient to cure a disease) are quite unlike catastrophes and diseases. The blog offers no indication why being paralysed by polio or disfigured by leprosy is ever good thing.

Finally, the blog says "The presence of suffering reminds us that one day God is going to put everything right." But that is a tacit admission that it is not right already and that God is perfectly capable of making it right at some point in the future. Why has he not already done so?

He does not exist!

14. The universality of spiritual belief and experience

The universal belief in, and experience of, a spiritual reality beyond the material world and in the existence of other intelligent beings in addition to human beings (gods, spirits, angels, demons, ghosts etc), along with the proliferation of different religions, is consistent with the Christian world view including the existence of a Devil whose intention is to deceive people into believing anything but the truth.

And any number of other religions and superstitions.

People have been seeing spirits in rivers and trees and animals for thousands of years. Does not mean Christianity is true.

15. The moral law

The universality of moral beliefs and conscience, and the similarities of moral codes across times, continents and cultures, point to the existence of moral laws and a supernatural law giver. The moral laws outline in the Decalogue (ten commandments) encapasulate these principles of respect for life, marriage, property and truth and their observance leads to more stable and enduring societies. These observations are consistent with the existence of a moral God who has designed human society to operate according to moral norms and who reveals moral principles.

It certainly suggests the existence of moral laws.

But not a moral law giver. Are we to suppose murder is only wrong because God decreed it is real? Could he have decided murder is moral, and then it would be?

The first two laws of the Decalogue are about stroking God's ego! Modern society actually stands in opposition to the very first command; the right to religious freedom says that actually we can worship whoever we like.

Only three of the Ten Commandments are actually against the law! What does that tell you?

Why is there no prohibition against rape or slavery in there? Clearly they are not as important to God as keeping the Sabbath. Is that really a universal morality? Of course not. The idea that the Ten Commandments represent a "universality of moral beliefs and conscience" is a myth that Christians embrace blindly.

16. Lives changed by Christian faith

The power of Christian faith and prayer to change behaviour and improve human functioning in restoring the lives of those suffering from addictions to drugs, alcohol, pornography and other enslaving activities or in reforming antisocial and criminal behaviour and strengthening marriages, families and societies is unparalleled.

Great. But that does not prove it is true, only that a belief that it is true can help people.

17. Christian reformation of society

The reformation of British society in the 19th century (and many similar phenomena elsewhere in the world throughout history) through such moves as the abolition of slavery, child labour, child prostitution, prison reform and the establishment of schools and hospitals through the work of Wilberforce, Booth, Fry, the Clapham Sect and others was largely the result of the evangelical revival of the 18th century and lends strong support to the existence of a redemptive supernatural God who changes and shapes human lives and societies.

What is more significant is what God fails to do.

He could have said slavery is wrong in Old Testament times. How much suffering would that prevent? He chose not to. Why?

He could prevent diseases. How much suffering would that prevent? He chose not to. Why?

All the achievements listed were achieved by mankind. Sure they believed in the Christian God, but they were still done by man. There is no reason to suppose God actually had to exist for that to happen.

18. The work of Christian missions

The development of education, healthcare and societal reform in the developing world owes a great deal to the work of Christian missionaries motivate by the love of Christ who underwent great hardship and made great sacrifices to assist and empower those marginalised through ignorance, superstition or poverty. If Christianity were true we would expect it also to result in demonstrable good across nations and cultures.

See previous answer.

19. The plausibility of Christian eschatology

The emergence of a one-world government under the leadership of an antichrist, antagonistic to God, based on the worship and pursuit of material things, strongly opposing Christian faith, dominating through economic control and resulting in massive environmental destruction seems increasingly plausible given recent historical experience and the current trajectory of world history.

If Christians could agree on what Christian eschatology actually this might be worth addressing.

20. The phenomenon of Israel

The history, laws, influence and endurance of the nation of Israel through over 4,000 years of world history whilst world empires have come and gone, the maintenance of its national identity and central place in world affairs through war, persecution and holocaust, its recent restoration to Palestine and the educational and cultural achievements of its people are unparalleled but fully consistent with its special status as described in the biblical record and teaching of Jesus Christ.

An argument to adopt Judaism, not Christianity.