Atheism - Part 5

Is Jesus a myth? Did he really exist? It is more and more common to hear that Christ never even existed, that some ”fanatic Christians” invented Him.

We read in the Encyclopedia Britannica: ”These independent accounts prove that in ancient times even the opponents of Christianity never doubted the historicity of Jesus, which was disputed for the first time and on inadequate grounds by several authors at the end of the 18th, during the 19th, and at the beginning of the 20th centuries.”

There is a lot of ressources to answer that claim. Of course, it is not true but you sometime need to give something more than ”That’s not true!”

Here‘s a lot of info about the existance of Jesus-Christ. You’ll find information from both religious and secular sources.

Here’s a detailed article on the testimony of Flavius Josephus concerning the historical Jesus.

Need more details about Julius Africanus ?

Would like to read a book on the subject? Or would like to buy Lee Strobel’s Book on the subject?

Oh! You also have the 4 Gospels and the rest of the New Testament… But there is a good chance an atheist would not accept them as proof that Jesus did exist…

The lies about Christ are not new, they will always exist, you will always be confronted to them… We read in Matthew 28:12-15:

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Atheism - Part 4

Are Iron Chariots God’s ”weakness”?

We read in Judges 1:19, KJV: ”And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.”

This verse is often used by atheists as ”proof” that God isn’t almighty. It even inspired the name for Matt Delahunty’s Website, http://wiki.ironchariots.org/.

A good place to start would be Judges 4, we’ll start at verse 12 : ”When they told Sisera that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, Sisera gathered together his nine hundred iron chariots and all the men with him, from Harosheth Haggoyim to the Kishon River. Then Deborah said to Barak, “Go! This is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has not the LORD gone ahead of you?” So Barak went down Mount Tabor, followed by ten thousand men. At Barak’s advance, the LORD routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword, and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot. But Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth Haggoyim. All the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left.” ( Judges 4:12-16)

Apparently, Chariots of Iron are no problem for the Lord Almighty if it was then Barak and his troops would have failed miserably against the 900 iron chariots of Sisera…

Also note that this attack on the Bible is nothing new, it was addressed by C.H. Spurgeon more than a hundread years ago. Please read Pastor Spurgeon’s sermon on this passage to get a better understanding of it.

More information can be found here.

A good practical advice here would be to read the Bible daily ( not just the NT). Going through ALL of Scriptures every year would be a good excercice. That way when someone throws a difficult verse at you instead of creating doubts in your mind, you’ll be ”Yeah, I know that verse, I read it before, I know what it means, I know what it says…”

Atheism - Part 3

Because The Bible is constantly under attack, I decided to post a link to an older post about biblical contradictions.

Hope you enjoy it!

Atheism - Part 2

Let's ask why do Atheists care about religion/God? Why do they debate something they don't believe exist?

Here's some atheists quotes I found on the Internet :

''As a point of fact, religions are dangerous. People use religion to justify the most absurdly cruel acts and attitudes. Few will argue that religion was the principle motivator for the 911 attacks.'' Source

''In practice, though, atheists are interested in both theism and religion, commonly regarding both as not only false but harmful to people and society. Atheists care because religion and theism affect them as well.'' Source

''This is wrong. ALL theists and ALL forms of theism are harmful and destructive. The points outlined above are not specific to fundamentalist extremists; They are common among virtually all theistic denominations.'' Source

You get the idea. It is mostly the reason you get. Atheists care about religions because of ''all the harm that was done'' in the name of religions/god. That's fine and it is a valid concern, indeed a lot of people were harm and killed in the name of relions/god.

You get a ''Saint atheist'' vs. ''Bad religious'' kind of debate...

Do atheists have valid reasons to reject religions? Is it true that religion is dangerous and harmful? Is it always the case?

It is not. Not ALL religious people are bad people and terrorists. Not ALL religious people are fighting a ''holy war'' where someone holding a different belief should be eliminated. Most religious people do no harm at all, they go to church, pray and go back home no harm done.

I know they are not saying that atheists are perfect and never did anything wrong. I know they don't believe that. Yes, standard answer they'll give you is '''Yes, but atheists never did harm to others in the name of atheism.''

Of course, they never did something in the name of atheism. Who would do something in the name of a disbelief? ''In the name of the god that doesn't exist, here, I have to kill you.'' That would be ridiculous...

Religious people did a lot of harm in the name of god/religions and atheists did a lot of harm, period.

So what's the point of this debate? Are we saying that if we get rid of all religions we would have a better society and we would get rid of 'evil'?

Obviously, we would not... Religion is not the root of all evil.