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Showing posts from January, 2018

Was Jesus Given an Honourable Burial?

At the outset we have to acknowledge that we have no way to tell for sure what happened. We can only look at the evidence available, and see what makes the most sense, what seems most likely. Why was Jesus crucified? Never mind the theology (which makes little enough sense), why did the Romans crucify Jesus? The usual Christian claim is that Jesus was crucified by the Jews for blasphemy, but this is patently false. The punishment for blasphemy was death by stoning, and we know that because James, Jesus' brother, suffered exactly that fate. Early Christianity was in the business of selling the religion to the Romans and so had to shift the blame from Pilate to the Jews. The Gospel of Mark, the earliest account we have, is very clear: Mark 15:25 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 26 The written notice of the charge against him read: the king of the jews. Recall that just days earlier Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem, proclaimed as the messiah, the awaited ki

Dr John Lennox: A Christmas Gift for Doubters

Okay, I know Christmas was a few weeks ago, but I only just got around to posting. This video was posted on "Chrtian CADRE" and "Dangerous Ideas", like it was supposed to convince people of the virgin birth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eUKqrVSrSc ETA: The video has been removed due to copyright infringement (those naughty Christians!), but there is a transcript here: http://www.johnlennox.org/jresources/a-christmas-message-from-john-lennox/ Later ETA: Looks like the transcript has also been taken down. I am guessing it got ripped to shreds so many times... In fact, the reverse is true. This video is a gift for those arguing against Christianity, because it shows that when it comes to their faith, Christians will turn off their critical thinking (and it is probably not just Christians). Dr John Lennox From Wiki : John Carson Lennox (born 7 November 1943) is a Northern Irish mathematician specialising in group theory, philosopher of science and Chris