There are certain questions that linger in the shadows of Christian faith. Due to their awkward, difficult, disturbing implications, we are reluctant to ask them. And the Christmas story has been a catalyst for many such questions. For an earlier generation under the sway of modernist skepticism about miracles, the doubts often centered on whether […]
virgin birth
Debating the Virgin Birth: A Christian/Atheist Conversation
For this Christmas Eve, I repost my 2013 Reasonable Doubts debate on the virgin birth with Jonathan Pearce. This debate was prerecorded and as a result, it doesn’t have the same crackle as a live debate (the heated repartee; the gotcha moments; the laughter and applause of a fired-up audience). On the upside, being scripted and […]
Is the virgin birth an essential doctrine?
Since we’re in the midst of Advent, it would seem to be a good time to pose a question about the relative importance of the doctrine of the virgin birth. (By the way, the term is infelicitous since the doctrine in question is really about whether Jesus was virginally conceived. Be that as it may, the […]
How young was the Virgin Mary … and was that too young?
I’ve posted some more-or-less heart-warming Christmas greetings in years’ past. See 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011. This year I’m going to instead offer a brief word on the Virgin Mary. If not particularly heart-warming, hopefully it is at least thought-provoking. And if honest about the problems it raises, hopefully it is not impious for doing so. Let’s start […]
What the virgin birth isn’t
Last week I told The Atheist Missionary that my very next post would be on the virgin birth. It wasn’t. Was that baloney? No. Neither was it a lie. It was a statement about a future state of affairs that I believed to be true but which, due to my scattered mind, turned out not to be. […]
