He’ll find the truth soon enough.
Then why is he loose from the Ape House? Someone go round him up and put him back in his enclosure.
He’s a smug, know-it-all liberal bastard. You can tell he’s a teacher. Thinks he knows it all, thinks everyone he associates with is of superior intellect, thinks he’s more learned about Christianity than those who practice it and read the bible.
He claims to be so intelligent yet can’t understand why God would send His Son to die for us, to take our deserved punishment for sins onto Himself. This is why the logic of natural man is unable to find God on its own. Much less, save man himself.
If he honestly doesn’t ask God to save Him, he’s going to find out just how NOT “tooth fairy” God is.
Er...er...forget I asked.
“The evidence he existed is surprisingly shaky,” he told Playboy. “The earliest books in the New Testament to be written were the Epistles, not the Gospels. It’s almost as though Saint Paul and others who wrote the Epistles weren’t that interested in whether Jesus was real.”Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian and no friend of Christianity, sure was convinced that he lived.
Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing was to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the Sibylline books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus, Ceres, and Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first, in the Capitol, then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was procured to sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women. But all human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed.Will Durant, one of the greatest historians of the 20th century, and a self-described "reluctant" atheist wrote:
Annals (written ca. AD 116), book 15, chapter 44
All this granted, much remains. The contradictions are of minutiae, not substance; in essentials the synoptic gospels agree remarkably well and form a consistent portrait of Christ. In the enthusiasm of its discoveries the Higher Criticism has applied to the New Testament tests of authenticity so severe that by them a hundred ancient worthies - e.g. Hammurabi, David, Socrates - would fade into legend. Despite the prejudices and theological preconceptions of the evangelists, they record many incidents that mere inventors would have concealed - the competition of the apostles for high places in the Kingdom, their flight after Jesus' arrest, Peter's denial, the failure of Christ to work miracles in Galilee, the references of some auditors to his possible insanity, his early uncertainty as to his mission, his confessions of ignorance as to the future, his moments of bitterness, his despairing cry on the cross; no one reading these scenes can doubt the reality of the figure behind them. That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision of human brotherhood, would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded in the Gospels. After two centuries of Higher Criticism the outlines of the life, character, and teaching of Christ, remain reasonably clear, and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of Western man.I always chuckle when I read or hear interviews with these supposed intellectuals who do not seem to read much.
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol 3, Caesar and Christ, Ch 26, Sec I.
Speak for yourself, Ape Boy.
Most athiests are fairly clueless when interacting with the text of the Bible ... but what we have here is a new standard for ignorance of all things Biblical.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
Paul was fairly certain Jesus existed, perhaps Dawkins should undertake actually READING the Bible before commenting on it.
It’s that the circles I move in tend to be educated, intelligent circles, and there aren’t any religious people among them that I know of ...
Dawkins called the idea that “Jesus died for our sins” “barking mad.”
1 Cor. 1:18-21
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written,
“ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
In summary Mr. Dawkins ... the joke is on you. Through all of your intellectual persuits you cannot find the savior that you desperately need ... nor even the reason why you need Him.
The existence of Jesus Christ was attested to by numerous witnesses and the fact that twelve of them at least were willing to die horrific deaths rather than recant what they saw and heard. Later on disinterested historic authorities such as Josephus took his “existence” at face value. Who would be willing to suffer such a fate for the sake of Richard Dawkins and can anybody swear they’ve actually met the SOB? Anybody?
“Sir, why did you go to such lengths to hide yourself?”
Won’t wash, Dickie. God is inside your head. He KNOWS how you have run from Him, denied Him. He KNOWS how many times He has Touched you.
His agnosticism on the historicity of Jess Christ simply paints him as a nut and does us Christians a huge favor.