Religious Apologists: Science Can Do It, Why Can't You?

Science, which is from the Latin for "knowledge", has universally-accepted methods that provide reliable, verifiable data. If there is enough supporting objective evidence for a claim, it is provisionally accepted as being probably true (comports with reality). In other words, scientists working in the appropriate fields form a consensus on the matter until such time as better evidence is available to modify the findings.

What do religious apologists have to equal such consensus? Philosophical and theological opinion is all over the place. It is more than time for religious apologists to comply with the "Put up or Shut Up Challenge" (H/T David Madison):

• "Please tell us where we can find reliable, verifiable data about God, and all devout theists must agree: “Yes, this is where the reliable, verifiable data can be found.”

Please Tell Me Jesus Didn’t Say That

"As much as Christians celebrate the virtue of faith, they rely far more on doubt—as in benefit-of-the-doubt—when they want us to believe that the gospel accounts of Jesus are true. Only just so much can be downgraded to metaphor (“Well, of course, you can’t take that literally…”), so their default position is that we need to be overly generous as we scrutinize the gospel stories; give the gospel writers the benefit of the doubt that they were sincere and somehow got it right.

"But sorry, it doesn’t work that way."

 

Mark, Chapter 4: The gospel writer pushed history off the page

The Rise and Fall of Faith

"Skeptics, atheists, and moderate Christians should listen up. It’s important to understand how this religious mentality works, and why it is usually so impervious to critical thinking. These folks know God. Bekius broke away, and we can benefit from paying close attention to his story, especially since he tells it so well. I found this book hard to put down."

Escaping the Spooky Christian Spy God

Beware Of Simple Explanations And Apologist Evasions

"My article, and Avalos’ essay, were about how best to account for mass murder pulled off by a madman. There are no simple explanations, but Christians should own up to the role that the sins of their fathers probably played. And contemplate the implications of that for the much-vaunted superiority of ‘Christian morality.’"

Can Christianity Be Blamed for the Holocaust? Round 2

 

Dumb Things Christians Say, Another Installment

"All of the quotations I have included here do give us pause: Do the Dumb Things Christians Say reflect what they learn in Sunday School or catechism? Never forget—which is why I keep repeating it—that the priests and pastors who run the schools are paid propagandists. They are custodians of indefensible doctrine. Hence critical thinking can never be part of the church curriculum."

Critical thinking is not taught in Sunday School

 

Christianity And The Holocaust

 " - - - it’s hard to make the case that the Holocaust had a single cause. It’s foolish to look for simplistic explanations, because major historical events—hell, even minor ones—have multiple causes."

However,

• “There is little question that the Holocaust had its origins in the centuries-long hostility felt by Christians against Jews.” José M. Sánchez, Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy, 2002, Catholic University Press of America.

• “Hitler was merely doing what the Church had done for 1,500 years.” Guenter Lewy, The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany, 2000, De Capo Press

Can Christianity Be Blamed for the Holocaust?

Ancient Superstitions At The Heart Of Christianity

" From Bethlehem to the Empty Tomb, the Christian story doesn’t make sense. Secularists like to poke fun at Bible silliness, e.g., transferring demons into pigs, walking on water—and changing it into wine. All such episodes deserve ridicule, and savvy apologists can make the point, quite rightly, that such tales don’t really matter.

"Apologists know, however, where to draw the line: don’t touch the resurrection of Jesus. But trying to bring Jesus back to life—as a fact of history—doesn’t make sense at all, on any level. Thus apologists have gone to extraordinary lengths to make resurrection look respectable. Maybe we should give them “A” for effort, but a failing grade is inevitable."

A Review of Robert Conner’s book, Apparitions of Jesus: The Resurrection as Ghost Story

Don’t Be Fooled By ‘Processed’ Scripture: Those Damned Red Letters

"But no matter how much you believe that God inspired the Bible—whether literally or figuratively—the book that Billy was waving, or the copy on your church altar or at your bedside, isn’t actually the real thing. The real Bible disappeared a long time ago, never to be retrieved. The Bible you own today isn’t exactly fake, but it is processed."

There is no original Bible 

The Bible As ‘Word Of God”: Fatal Flaw Number 4 (of 5)

"I can think of at least five items that should be in the Bible that aren’t there: clear, unequivocal, easy-to-grasp prohibitions. With these missing—and with the quantities of human misery that ensued—it’s hard to take the Bible seriously as the best that could emerge from the divine mind. How could God have left out these commandments?"

The ‘Good Book’ Has Never Lived Up to the Hype 

 

Colossal Deceptions To Protect The Faith

"Yes, we can give Thielen some credit for trying to humanize Christianity, but he serves too many generous helpings of bad theology. He wants churches to use his book as a study guide, and he includes detailed instructions to help them along with that. But he doesn’t drive Christians to be curious about the big problems of the faith. He tries the cover-up approach instead, and guides his readers away from thoughtful due diligence. Christians, snap out of it: preachers are paid propagandists, and Thielen plays the role to perfection."

Christianity Thrives When Curiosity Doesn’t 

Are Theologians and Apologists Honest?

Yes, I realize that is a potent question. However, the article below will clarify why I mention it.

Theology fails the honesty test