"To the evolutionist the death of Christ makes no sense. Misotheist Richard Dawkins in his book The Blind Watchmaker (ch. 4) said that we live in a universe that he thinks looks like it has ‘no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.’
‘Pitiless indifference’? Dawkins thinks that way because he thinks evolution is true, that we are just the product of blind, materialistic processes. If there is no God, then Dawkins is right. There is nothing out there that even knows you exist. And Dawkins tells you to get used to it.
But the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ destroy that desolate outlook. They prove once and for all that God exists and cares about what happens in this world....
Antony Flew, once described as the ‘world’s most notorious atheist’, surprised an audience in May 2004 when he announced a change of mind—that he ‘accepted the existence of a God’....
Although he is still dealing with the question of Jesus Christ being God incarnate he said, ‘I would say the claim concerning the resurrection is more impressive than any by the religious competition.’
Previously, in 1985, Dr Flew had debated philosopher and theologian Dr Gary Habermas on this very question, the proposition that Jesus Christ conquered death itself. This debate was held in Dallas in front of a crowd of three thousand people. It was judged by two panels of experts from leading American universities: one panel comprised five philosophers who were asked to judge the content of the debate, and the other comprised five professional debate judges who were asked to judge the quality of the arguments.
Four of the five on the philosophers panel voted that Habermas had won, i.e. the case he made for the Resurrection was stronger than Flew’s attempts to refute it, and one scored it a draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two to Habermas. The following comments from two of the judges follow:
The Apostle Paul once challenged some academics of his day, ‘Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?’ (Acts 26:8).
If God did not create Adam supernaturally in the past, then it is inconsistent to think that He will raise the dead supernaturally in the future. If God needed the laws of nature to act on matter and energy over millions of years before the first man and woman emerged, then why would we expect him to change his modus operandi in the future and raise the dead supernaturally?" CMI
‘Pitiless indifference’? Dawkins thinks that way because he thinks evolution is true, that we are just the product of blind, materialistic processes. If there is no God, then Dawkins is right. There is nothing out there that even knows you exist. And Dawkins tells you to get used to it.
But the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ destroy that desolate outlook. They prove once and for all that God exists and cares about what happens in this world....
Antony Flew, once described as the ‘world’s most notorious atheist’, surprised an audience in May 2004 when he announced a change of mind—that he ‘accepted the existence of a God’....
Although he is still dealing with the question of Jesus Christ being God incarnate he said, ‘I would say the claim concerning the resurrection is more impressive than any by the religious competition.’
Previously, in 1985, Dr Flew had debated philosopher and theologian Dr Gary Habermas on this very question, the proposition that Jesus Christ conquered death itself. This debate was held in Dallas in front of a crowd of three thousand people. It was judged by two panels of experts from leading American universities: one panel comprised five philosophers who were asked to judge the content of the debate, and the other comprised five professional debate judges who were asked to judge the quality of the arguments.
Four of the five on the philosophers panel voted that Habermas had won, i.e. the case he made for the Resurrection was stronger than Flew’s attempts to refute it, and one scored it a draw. The panel of professional debate judges voted three to two to Habermas. The following comments from two of the judges follow:
‘I am of the position that the affirmative speaker [Habermas] has a very significant burden of proof in order to establish his claims. The various historical sources convinced me to adopt the arguments of the affirmative speaker. Dr Flew, on the other hand, failed, particularly in the rebuttal period and the head-to-head session, to introduce significant supporters of his position. Dr Habermas placed a heavy burden on Dr Flew to refute very specific issues. As the rebuttals progressed, I felt that Dr Flew tried to skirt the charges.’
‘I conclude that the historical evidence, though flawed, is strong enough to lead reasonable minds to conclude that Christ did indeed rise from the dead. Habermas has already won the debate. … By defeating the Hume-inspired skeptical critique on miracles in general offered by Flew and by demonstrating the strength of some of the historical evidence, Habermas does end up providing “highly probably evidence” for the historicity of the resurrection “with no plausible naturalistic evidence against it.” Habermas, therefore, in my opinion, wins the debate.’It all hinges on Jesus’ Resurrection. The Apostle Paul wrote about Christ that he was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead’ (Romans 1:4). We know that Jesus is who He claimed to be because of His Resurrection. Indeed, there are at least 17 factors that show that Christianity could not have succeeded in the ancient world, unless it were backed up with irrefutable proof of the Resurrection.
The Apostle Paul once challenged some academics of his day, ‘Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?’ (Acts 26:8).
If God did not create Adam supernaturally in the past, then it is inconsistent to think that He will raise the dead supernaturally in the future. If God needed the laws of nature to act on matter and energy over millions of years before the first man and woman emerged, then why would we expect him to change his modus operandi in the future and raise the dead supernaturally?" CMI
