Ian N. Mills of the New Testament Review Podcast offered a critique of my critique of methodological naturalism. Here’s the video with a few points of critique below: First, a quick observation: if Mills can play clips from my video at 1.5x speed (or whatever it is) then why doesn’t he record himself at 1.5x […]
history
Methodological Naturalism as a Wet Firecracker: A Response to Ian N. Mills
Can a Historian Accept that God Raised Jesus from the Dead on Historical Grounds?
Dogma Debated: A Conversation with David C. Smalley
Yesterday, I appeared on the David C. Smalley Podcast (formerly known as “Dogma Debate”). The conversation goes for 2.5 hours (!) and the first hour and a bit is available to everyone. The longer version is available to Patreon supporters. In the first part of the conversation, we talked about rationality, plausibility frameworks, and the […]
Methodological Naturalism is BAD Historical Method
Methodological naturalism — the idea that all causes to which one appeals must be “natural” — is bad historical method. It’s pure dogmatism, that’s all. Here is a simple illustration: in his famous book Chariots of the Gods, Erich Von Daniken visited ancient human civilizations. It’s a bad theory but note that it is, nonetheless, […]
The Resurrection of Jesus as a Historical Miracle
Reasonable Belief, Reasonable Doubt, and the Resurrection of Jesus
Two days ago, I posted two Twitter surveys directed at two different groups and asking a similar question about an event which is purported to have occurred two thousand years ago. One would think it is possible for people reasonably to disagree about a topic this far removed in time and based on documentary evidence […]
Miracles, Resurrections, and Historical Explanation
This morning, I had an exchange with CounterApologist on Twitter regarding the question of whether the historical resurrection of Jesus is a datum open, in principle, to historical explanation. In this article, I’d like to expand a bit on one of the points I made in our exchange. I begin, however, with one of CounterApologist’s […]
Does the religious status of New Testament documents undermine their historical veracity?
In his classic 1943 book The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, F.F. Bruce makes the following observation: “Somehow or other, there are people who regard a ‘sacred book’ as ipso facto under suspicion, and demand much more corroborative evidence for such a work than they would for an ordinary secular or pagan writing.” This […]
29. Craig Keener on miracles
From the crossing of the Red Sea to the virgin birth, miracles occupy a central role in the biblical narratives. Alas, their role in modern life has been decidedly more ambiguous. That ambiguity owes much to the skeptical eighteenth century philosopher David Hume who famously defined a miracle as a violation of the laws of nature. […]
25. Do the gospels have errors? Michael Licona’s new insights on ancient history
Christians have always been aware of the apparent contradictions in the Gospel accounts. For example, how does one reconcile the genealogies of Matthew (1:2-17) and Luke (3:23-38)? Did Jesus cleanse the temple at the beginning of his ministry (John 2:13-17) or the end (Mark 11:15-19)? Who appeared at the empty tomb? Was it a young man […]
On finally getting the Bible right
When I came across this cartoon the other day at the “Value of Saintliness Blog” (you can visit the site here) I knew my readers would appreciate it. Let’s all have a good chuckle and then you can rejoin me below for a debriefing. Once the chortles have subsided, what’s the take away lesson from […]
The Resurrection of Jesus, 52 Pickup, and Prior Probabilities
In my rebuttal to John Loftus’ essay that the cumulative claims of Christianity are “wildly improbable” I pointed out that this argument has no force for those who already accept the cumulative claims of Christianity. To make the point I gave an illustration which I’ll streamline slightly here. Imagine that you tell me your new […]
The Jesus double standard
This article was originally published at The Christian Post in 2009 under the title “What does Jesus always get picked on?” How many Shakespeare scholars do you suppose believe Christopher Marlow wrote the great Bard’s plays? Less than one in a hundred, I’m sure. Are Shakespeare scholars fools? That seems a little bit presumptuous […]
