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Refuting Gromacki

This is responding to an article from over 20 years ago, but I only came across it! The Historicity Of The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ (Part II) , by Dr. Gary R. Gromacki, Associate Professor of Bible and Homiletics, Baptist Bible Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. That the guy is from a bible Seminary tells us he will be assuming the Bible is true, but it is worth looking at anyway. You may be able to get the article from here ; you will need to register, but registration is free. Harmonising the resurrection sightings What attracted me to the paper is the author starts by trying to align the various accounts of the sightings of Jesus. Not something I have seen many Christians do, so I admire his bravery in addressing this thorny issue. The first resurrection appearances of Jesus were made to women. The risen Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). Mary Magdalene came with the other women to the tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday (Matt 28:1-8). An angel told her a...
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Parable of the Wedding Feast

Here is the passage. Mat 22:1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. 4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ 5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they co...
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The Software Industry Sucks

This is totally off-topic, but I wanted to rant. It does not necessarily apply to all the industry, but... In September 2015 Microsoft brought out Office 2016 on Windows. It had some bugs, but modern software is complex, so we expect that. I have done some coding, I understand that that is inevitable. However... What did Office 2016 do that Office 97 did not do? It had some new features, but nothing I have ever used. Microsoft produced an app that did everything I wanted twenty year earlier. But I cannot use that because... Well, because Microsoft no longer support it. And that brings us to the second point. Office 2016 came out over a decade ago, and still Microsoft have not got it right! They bring out a new update once a month for over ten years, and still it has security holes in it! How utterly pathetic is that for software engineering? Imagine if you bought a car, and every month you had to return it to the garage because a whole new raft of design faults had come to light! This ...
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The Supposed Disingenuousness of the Jesus Legend in Popular Media

This is responding to an article "The Disingenuousness of the Jesus Legend in Popular Media" By Emma Louie. It can be found here, but I think you need to sign in to read it (but it is free): https://www.academia.edu/68997185/The_Disingenuousness_of_the_Jesus_Legend_in_Popular_Media?email_work_card=title The article sets out its stall in the first paragraph. Mom, is Jesus like Santa Clause?” Perplexed by her fifteen-year-old daughter’s question, Sarah a young Christian did not know how to answer as she thoughtfully placed the popular Christmas Blu-ray movie in the shopping cart along side the diet sodas and popcorn. Zoe repeated the question with the persistence of adolescent curiosity. When Sarah did not respond for the second time, Zoe added, “Well, Santa Clause isn’t real.” Just what was an appropriate response to Zoe’s question, in an age when much of what teenagers and young adults know about Jesus comes from sources other than the Christian church. The fact that Jesus ro...
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The Tragedy of Death

An article from 2012 on CARM is the starting point here. " Looking at Whitney Houston’s death through atheist eyes " https://carm.org/looking-at-whitney-houstons-death-through-atheist-eyes It wasn’t Wax’s argument that gave me pause but rather one of the comments made by one of the hatetheist trolls that consistently man the comment boards of Christian Post. Predictably, the hatetheist mocked anyone who would dare to believe in a personal evil such as Satan, but he went on to say that the death of Houston was “tragic.” You just know an article is going to be intellectual when the author uses terms like "hatetheist trolls"... If someone wants to define Whitney Houston’s death as “tragic,” then he is going to need a couple of things. First, he’ll need to show that she possessed some innate worth that was marred by the lifestyle that eventually took her life. Whitney Huston possessed innate worth because she was a person. It is as simple as that. Compare to the Christi...
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There is no Evidence for God because there is no Evidence for God!

With the CARM forum down for three weeks now, I am obliged to read the articles on the site. One that caught my eye is; " Atheists err when asking for material evidence to prove God’s existence ". https://carm.org/atheists-err-when-asking-for-material-evidence-to-prove-gods-existence He says: First of all, the scientific method is a system of learning that consists of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, prediction, and theory.  It is based on logic and observations of the material universe and its properties. Second, the scientific method, along with a materialistic worldview, necessarily excludes transcendence – that which exists independent of the universe.  Therefore, it can’t detect what is outside of the material realm since it is based on observing things inside the material realm. Third, the Christian worldview proclaims a transcendent God who exists outside of, and independent of, the material universe.  In other words, the Christian God is not dependent upo...
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Is Christianity or the Bible misogynistic?

This is a response to an article of the same name by Matt Slick at CARM. https://carm.org/is-christianity-or-the-bible-misogynistic Wiki describes misogyny as: Misogyny (/mɪˈsɒdʒɪni/) is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women or girls. It is a form of sexism that can keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide. But Slick has an agendas, so he uses his own definition. Misogyny is a hatred of and distrust of women. In Slick's world having contempt for all women is not misogymy. Being prejudiced against girls and women is not misogyny. Keeping women at a lower social status is not misogyny. Why is that? Well, I would suggest that as a Christian he has been raised to believe that women really are less than men, and that it is therefore perf...
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