On Creationism

This is a response to a blog page with the same title that can be found here . The blog, by Sean McDowell, has the byline " Bringing Truth To A New Generation ", which is kind of ironic, if this article is anything to go by. He introduces the topic: “How does the historical evidence for Jesus compare with other prominent figures of his day?” This is one of the most common questions I get from believers and skeptics alike. It is a fair question. One of the best responses I have found is to compare the sources for Jesus with the sources for Tiberius Caesar, the Roman emperor from AD 14-37. The Historical Evidence for Tiberius To determine what historical evidence we have of Tiberius, he goes to a book by Sherwin White published about sixty years ago, and selects this quote: The story of [his] reign is known from four sources, the Annals of Tacitus and the biography of Suetonius, written some eighty or ninety years later, the brief contemporary record of Velleius Pa...

I think it is worth posting about John the Baptist for a couple of reasons, which I will get on to in a moment. John the Baptist was almost certainly a real person, and we know much about him from Josephus, who discussed how Herod's army was defeated, then goes on to say: [18.116] Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God as a just punishment of what Herod had done against John, who was called the Baptist. [18.117] For Herod had killed this good man, who had commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, righteousness towards one another and piety towards God. For only thus, in John's opinion, would the baptism he administered be acceptable to God, namely, if they used it to obtain not pardon for some sins but rather the cleansing of their bodies, inasmuch as it was taken for granted that their souls had already been purified by justice. [18.118] Now many people came in crowds to him, for they were greatly moved by his words. Herod, who fea...