Tag Archives: Epistemology

Faith

Islamic Evidence of the Bible’s Corruption

Note: While living for two years in Saudi Arabia I made Muslim friends and as a result have developed Islamic connections on social media. One group I am a part of is devoted to interfaith dialog between Muslims and Christians. The majority of the members appear to be from the Middle East and Africa. In April, I posed a question to the group: “Muslim apologists frequently claim that the Bible has been corrupted from its original form. What specific evidence do you have of corruption? As someone who has spent more than a little time studying the textual history of the Bible, the New Testament in particular, I find the claim of corruption difficult to substantiate. Compared to all other ancient texts, the Biblical text is extremely well attested in the manuscript record.” The question led to hundreds of comments and counter comments from many members. Those comments I consolidated into a single list of twenty evidences. I then shared that list of twenty with the group and asked for validation, which I received from the Muslim members of the group. I present that list here without additional comment. I hope in the future to return to it and share further thoughts. (DL, Sept. 13, 2021)

Continue reading →
Standard
Faith

Irrefragable: Examining the Word-for-word Reliability of the Gospels

“The Scripture cannot be broken.”

Jesus

The following analysis was first written in May of 2015 for a group of dear friends with whom I was working through some questions related to the Christian faith of my childhood and early adult years. Beginning in my early-mid 30s, for the first time in my life I began to seriously question the veracity and authority of the Bible. This analysis was an output of that process of questioning. (DL, Sept. 6, 2021)

Bart Ehrman’s arguments about who Jesus actually was and how he came to be thought of as he is now among Christians all take as their starting place a conviction that the four gospels which describe Jesus were not supernaturally delivered and are not literally, word-for-word true and error-free.

In order to enter into Ehrman’s arguments, one must be able to entertain the possibility that the four gospels are not 100% true and reliable guides to history. This is the key leap for a person like Ehrman who moved from evangelical faith to agnosticism. At one point he believed that the gospels are 100% historically reliable; at a later point he did not.

The parts of Ehrman that I’ve read so far delve briefly into the question of the gospels’ reliability, but mostly take it as an assumption that they are not 100% reliable. But for those in our position, the question needs more detailed attention.

Continue reading →
Standard
Faith

Presuppositions that Frame my Examination of the Scriptures

The following points were first written in May of 2015 for a group of dear friends with whom I was working through some questions related to the Christian faith of my childhood and early adult years. Beginning in my early-mid 30s, for the first time in my life I began to seriously question the veracity and authority of the Bible. These points are an output of that process of questioning. (DL, Sept. 6, 2021)

What follows is an attempt to frame the starting point from whence I begin an examination of the Scriptures. These points should be taken as a provisional and ad hoc distillation of thoughts I’ve been a long-time forming. I am happy to see them challenged or accepted as suits the reader.

Continue reading →
Standard
Thoughts

Morality Presupposes Transcendence

Note: This series of Facebook comments began as a response to someone I’ve forgotten on a friend’s post that I’ve also forgotten. Through all my decade plus of spiritual doubt, I never lost confidence in—and still have never lost—the observation expressed in this post that without a transcendent reality beyond the material universe, there can be no rational basis for the concepts of Good an Evil. I only have my part of the exchange. Summary comments have been added for clarity. (DL, June 13, 2023).

What the quote [OP’s Name Redacted] posted addresses is a fundamental flaw with philosophical materialism. If there is no reality beyond the matter of this universe, then talking about good and evil is meaningless.

States of matter cannot be good or evil. They are simply configurations of atoms. A supernova doesn’t have moral quality, neither does an avalanche. Both are simply matter in motion.

Continue reading →
Standard
Faith

On the Historicity of Genesis

Note: Like many of my peers (but unlike many of our parents or many of our children), I have made a lot of Facebook comments over the years. The writing is often unpolished, but they nevertheless offer excellent snapshots of what I was thinking at a particular time and how I articulated those thoughts for a particular audience in a particular context. This comment was made on the post of a friend who shared without comment a Gospel Coalition article entitled, “Biblical Reasons to Doubt the Creation Days Were 24-Hour Periods.” It is an in-progress moment in the decade-long unwinding of my evangelical faith. I have cleaned up a number of typos from the original comment. (DL, Sept. 13, 2021)

My thoughts based on my understanding of various things:

Continue reading →
Standard