The Atheist Blogger

This week at my university, the Christian Union are holding a “Jesus Awareness Week” (J.A.W) and although I am only involved in one of the events (a debate on Thursday), I am trying to attend as many as I can. Last night’s talk was on the Bible (as the title of this article suggests), and the speaker was the son of Michael Howard. He came up with a list of reasons why people should trust the Bible:

The Bible proves itself to be trustworthy. It’s so obviously true that we don’t need to question it’s trustworthiness.

Yes, he actually opened his argument with that one. The standard circular argument that goes against all common sense and justification. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if he hadn’t stated that that reason alone should convert you to Christianity. If it were so “obviously” true then rational people wouldn’t reject it, or go and worship other Gods.

The Gospels are based off eyewitness accounts from people who were alive at the time of Christ.

John was written around 90A.D, and he used this as an example. Given that the average life expectancy of people back then was much lower than it is today, the chances of someone actually seeing Jesus perform a miracle, and then living to be over 70 (if we take it as read that they would have to have been around 10 years old at the time of Jesus’ death) are remote at best. Even if this did happen, the eyewitness accounts of a child are rarely 100% accurate, and so we would have to find an eyewitness who lived to be around 76 at least, which 2000 years ago would have been even more miraculous than walking on water.

Not one of the gospels mentions the destruction of Jerusalem in 70A.D, so they must have been written before 70A.D.

This point was filled with pure inaccuracies, as I have already mentioned that the Gospel of John was written around 90A.D, and the Gospel of Mark was written after 70A.D since it does contain references to the fall of Jerusalem.

If the gospels were a hoax, they are a very bad hoax. The first person to see Jesus alive was a woman, and in that period of history it was unusual for a woman’s word to be trusted.

Yet even so, people believed her. Although there are some points that can be discussed here, the fact that people did believe shows that women were trusted somewhat. Since we are already doubting the very factual accuracy of the stories in the gospels, whether it was a woman or not is hardly a big deal.

The key facts are confirmed by non-Christian historians. Roman historian Tacitus mentions the crucifixion in his Annals writings.

Putting aside the doubts that Jesus existed, this point merely shows that there was a recorded man by the name of Jesus who was executed. It does not say he was divine, neither does it say anything about him, other than he committed blasphemy.

Paul’s first letter was written in 52A.D so it was in the time line for eyewitness accounts.

However, as I mentioned in “Jesus Christ - Fact or Fiction?“, Paul never met Jesus, which means even if he was told the story from an eyewitness, the source is secondary, and therefore prone to inaccuracies. It should also be noted that Paul always envisioned Christ in heaven, not on Earth, and that none of the miracles he supposedly performed were known about by Paul. If an eyewitness did indeed inform Paul of Jesus, why did they leave out such important parts of the story?

After the talk, the speaker admitted to the fact that the church left out gospels that were deemed to “lessen” the view of Jesus as the son of God, and outright denied the Dead Sea Scrolls as fakes, because they were written too far after the crucifixion. Actually, scientists are still unsure about the dating on the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the current estimate is between the 2nd century B.C and the 1st century A.D, so the scrolls that mention Jesus come pretty close to his supposed “resurrection”.

We were left with an ultimatum: Since Christianity is so truthful and easily trusted (according to him anyway), the burden of proof lies with the sceptics to find an alternative reason why Christianity spread so fast during after Christ’s death. Hardly the ultimatum a person whose entire belief system is structured around 100% faith should be advertising.

Possibly Related Posts:

• What The Bible Really Teaches About Hell
• Heaven: The Game
• Religion Destroys Cognitive Ability
• My Mother Is An Atheist
• The Benefits Of Atheism