This book by my friend Gary Habermas just came out. It's volume 1 of an expected 4 volumes. They represent the culmination of decades of research that he spent on a lifelong quest to defend the resurrection of Jesus. Other notables who have done a great deal of research on the resurrection include William Lane Craig, Michael Licona, and NT Wright.
The reason why so much research has been devoted to the resurrection claim is because it is the linchpin upon which everything else hangs when it comes to a Bible believing faith. If Jesus was raised from the dead their faith is not in vain, Paul tells them. But it also provides the justification for believing in a miracle working god of the Bible, including the story of the garden of Eden, Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac, the Exodus, and all other miracles, including the virgin birthed son of a god. It also guarantees the return of Jesus, and his promise of everlasting reward in a heavenly existence.
Gary and I have met and have emailed each other for more than a dozen years. He invited me to Skype into a class of PhD students [in June 2020] who were majoring in Apologetics to discuss my book, The Case Against Miracles.
Having known about his upcoming set of books I suggested a blurb he could use based on his previous writings:
My friend Gary Habermas has produced the most exhaustive defense of the indefensible claim of faith in the resurrection of Jesus that has ever been attempted. No non-Christian who cares to argue otherwise can avoid it. [Sent on February 18, 2020]
[First published on 10/5/20] Because this is the haunted month of Halloween
here's something to spook ya all!
I'm always interested in new angles to argue my case
against Christianity. Kris Keys does that in the excellently researched
essay below. He argues there is more evidence for the resurrection of
Vampires and Revenants than there is for the resurrection of
Jesus.
Introductory comments by Kris Keys:
Well this is my first time writing a blog post and little
did I know it would be for the website Debunking Christianity!! I find
this to be completely hilarious as I am not in of myself militantly
opposed to Christianity in of itself; I tend to dislike Evangelicals but
that is because I view them as hypocritical and blatantly power hungry
but of course this description would not apply to all Christians. As
probably the readers of this post have deduced by now I am not a
Christian, but I am also not an atheist either. I tend to be rather
eclectic in my views. I fancy myself to be broad minded and open to
change.
I am a schoolteacher by profession, and I have taught both social
studies and science at the high school level. I have dual degrees in
both fields. In my not remotely enough spare time I enjoy reading
folklore, Medieval history, sociology, anthropology and other subjects.
Basically a lot of stuff. Over the years I have heard the
Christian argument for the physical resurrection of Jesus and at one
time I found this argument to be convincing, but more and more for many
varied reasons I became rather skeptical of it.
None of this explains though, how this essay came about! Nothing
remarkable about it really. I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw
John Loftus’s profile. In discussion with him I mentioned that one could
use the resurrection argument to demonstrate the existence of vampires
and I showed him a response I wrote to a friend of mine on this.
John asked me to do a write up
for him.
So here is a write up I never seriously figured I would write up on a
blog, one that I never suspected I would write for. So I hope everyone enjoys
it. So without further ado, here is my attempt to show that the
Christian argument for the resurrection of Jesus would also demonstrate
vampires exist. I will leave it up to you dear readers to determine if
Jesus rose from the dead and if you need to invest in crucifixes and
garlics now; or that perhaps claims of the dead returning bodily just
should not be given the benefit of the doubt. You decide.
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| Albrecht is a Catholic apologist. |
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Dr. Jonathan McLatchie is dismissing my chapter on apologetics in "The Case against Miracles" saying it "grossly misrepresented" apologetics, even though I quoted directly from apologists and have studied under some of the leading ones. One might ask McLatchie why apologist Gary Habermas invited me to talk with his PhD class on apologetics.One might also ask why Gary Habermas recommends my book on miracles, if I "grossly misrepresented" apologetics. See his blurb!
Why would Gary do that?
Or, is McLatchie disingenuous, uncharitable, and not to be trusted on these matters?
Watch him double down folks. He could never apologize or change his mind. Sad. But that's usually what it takes to be an apologist. See my book on that.
We're
celebrating the 12 days of Solstice rather than the 12 days of
Christmas. I'm done writing and editing books. So I'm highlighting each
of my twelve books leading up to the 25th of the month when we party. I'll tell
you something about each of them you probably don't know. [See Tag Below]
The first thing you should know about my book How to Defend the Christian Faith: Advice from an Atheist, is that I first thought of doing such a thing before any of my 12 books were published. This is what I said back in 2006, the year I began blogging. After almost ten years I revisited the concept with a series of fifteen posts titled, "Do You Want to Be A Christian Apologist? Part 1...15". From them I was able to write Part 2 of this book. [Sorry, I drafted these posts since I owe it to my publisher to send people his way]. That same year I also wrote a series of critical posts on every chapter in God and Evil: The Case for God in a World Filled with Pain, edited by Chad Meister, and James K. Dew. [Again, I drafted these posts since I owe it to my publisher to send people his way].
This Wednesday I'll be Skyping into a class of PhD students majoring in Apologetics under Dr. Gary Habermas. I'll be interacting with the students who were assigned to read my new anthology, "The Case against Miracles." These are the future apologists! It's a good opportunity! What points would you make if you were me?
A miracle must be an event caused by a supernatural force or being, a god. Such an event could not take place on its own in the natural world without the action of a god. It must be an event which involves the interfering, or suspension, or transgressing, or breaching, or contravening, or violating of natural law. Such an event could not be explainable by science because it would be an event impossible to occur by natural processes alone. A miracle is therefore an extraordinary event of the highest kind.
