FOR RELEASE AT WILL Contact: Wendie Owen
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UFO’s, Ghosts, and a Rising God: Debunking the Resurrection of Jesus
Selected Excerpts
Can We Rely On the Bible’s Historical Accuracy? Chapter 2, pg. 41
“Suppose every discrepancy in the Bible could be harmonized. I’m not sure that they can be, but suppose. It would still destroy the argument from confirmation of the Bible. Harmonization means not taking a clear look at the evidence. It means instead that when you find confirmation, your view is supported, but when you find disconfirmation, you harmonize. You must never, ever admit a real contradiction, even if it means asserting the test was miscopied or saying “It’s the Bible, therefore it’s inerrant, therefore there’s a harmonization in there somewhere, even if I don’t have a clue where.” When apologists take this approach, their evaluation of the evidence has been rigged from the start, and they have no business going around talking about all the confirmation for the Bible’s historicity.”
Was Jesus A Magician? Chapter 5, pg. 89
“The suspicion that Jesus engaged in trickery has appeared quite attractive to people today who are familiar with fraud, including Paul Kurtz and Robert Sheaffer. Both have noted Celsus’ allegation that Jesus’ miracles were similar to those of other wonder-workers of his day. Kurtz has argued some elements of the story of Lazarus’ resurrection raise the suspicion of fraud. I should also say that the changing of water into wine is suspicious; it isn’t hard to imagine switching one for the other, and the story features Jesus giving quite specific instructions to servants, the way a magician would have to do for a trick. I, however, do not think that Jesus was a magician.”
Christian Apologists Seed to Prove Christianity Introduction, pg. 15
“It is all bunk. It is bunk the way sensationalistic claims of UFO encounters and psychic phenomenon are bunk. This is not something I say simply to emphasize how wrong the arguments are, even though there are some stunning instances of arguments premised on wildly, demonstrably false claims. Rather, I bring up UFOs and such for this reason: the claim, that the Bible’s miracles can be proven on evidence, is extraordinary, but the evidence is not better than for other extraordinary claims. The fallacies employed by proponents of both sets of claims are the same. Also, while apologists have insisted that the evidence for Christianity’s miracles can only be explained by real miracles, the mystery disappears when one is familiar with modern claims.”
Gospels in Doubt Chapter 2, pg. 34-35
“Unfortunately, we don’t have any eyewitnesses to interview to check out the Gospel stories. What we do have is several accounts that can be checked against each other. This is because the New Testament was not originally one book but a set of books that circulated separately. When we compare these separate accounts we find discrepancies that cast plenty of doubt on the reliability of the Gospels.”
What’s the Evidence? Chapter 3, pg.49
“Now is the time to consider what kind of evidence we have for the resurrection (or any aspect of the life of Jesus, for that matter). This is the area with the greatest amount of plain misconceptions among laypersons. This is not simply a problem of lack of information. All too often, misconceptions are the result of false or at best, misleading information from popular writers, both Christian apologists and secular sensationalists like Dan Brown.”
Further Reflections Chapter 3, pg. 66-67
“In the first chapter, I argued that our information on modern miracle claims strongly suggests that ancient ones are equally bogus. This chapter raises a similar broad issue. Spiritualism has made attempts at becoming a full-fledged religion, and cults have sprung up around UFO belief. However, such modern superstitions have been less successful than the mainstream religions, in spite of the fact that they can claim better evidence than any of them. Why?
“At first I thought this might be a fluke of history. However, I suspect the problem is that religions simply cannot flourish when too much will be known about their origins. As a rule, when believers are in a position to produce positive documentation, skeptics will be able to record embarrassing facts that will make it impossible for the religion to thrive. This is why the best-documented miracle claim of a modern religion (the Resurrection) still has weaker evidence than many readily dismissed claims.”
People Will Believe in Absurd Legends Chapter 7, pg. 138
“If there is any doubt that people can be gotten to believe patiently absurd legends, just consider some of the stories people will believe on no greater authority than an e-mail. In one Snopes.com article, Barbra Mikkelson lists seven different problems with an online ghost story, starting with the fact that a young girl was supposedly murdered while her older sister was either sleeping beside her or checking a noise at a window, but the sister only found out the younger girl was dead because the bed was wet and had a bad smell. After the list, she makes a comment: ‘If all this seems too silly to bother dissecting, we initially thought so too. Then we read this discussion at alexlab.com, which shows at least some folks have been taking the story somewhat seriously.’”
Lack of Information Casts Doubt Chapter 7, pg. 142
“It could be objected that in the case of various phenomena attributed to UFOs, the various terrestrial explanations can be independently established. However, the main reason we cannot positively establish explanations for the resurrection is because the evidence is so sketchy. Most of it is not even second hand, and for the first 60 years of Christianity’s history none of our sources are hostile. We cannot perform the type of investigation that is often necessary to uncover the truth about modern paranormal claims; that is to say we cannot go back in time and give psychological evaluations to the disciples or interview those implied in burying Jesus. This lack of information must be a reason for skepticism, not credulity.”