John Loftus is supposed to debate a Christian apologist on the resurrection on May 12th. I’ve got some advice to him and everybody else who wants to debate the resurrection: don’t be a bitch. Really. The big mistake that atheists make in debates like this is taking a purely defensive standpoint (trying only to explain the “minimal facts”) when in fact we can do much better than this and go on the offensive. For example:
* In his debate with William Lane Craig, John Shelby Spong recounted a conversation he’d had with the late astronomer Carl Sagan: Sagan did a calculation which showed that if Jesus had ascended into the sky (See Acts 1:9-11) traveling at light speed he would not have made it out of our galaxy yet! This is a strong telltale clue that the resurrection story is something invented or hallucinated by the people of the time.
* Suppose you heard about a weird cult that believed (a) they were in contact with a super-intelligent alien race (b) an asteroid would hit the earth in 2012 and (c) buying an iPhone was one of the wickedest sins a human being could commit. After 2012 came and went, would you ever believe (a) and (c), assuming you ever took the cult seriously in the first place? No. The refutation of (b) shows that the other two claims are also doubtful (unless they can be supported with something besides “The cult said it was true, Mr. Smarty Pants Extraterrestrial told them so!”). Likewise, the fact that Jesus and the early church predicted the end of the world was nigh is reason enough to reject all the other stuff they believe (unless it can be supported for other reasons besides “the Bible said so”). I don’t have to tell John this, he’s written one of the best essays on the subject for his book The Christian Delusion.
There are other points of this nature that I could bring up, some of which I discuss in my book Extraordinary Claims, Extraordinary Evidence. Of course, the other half of the debate should be destroying the five facts case, but I think John already knows how to do this, and plenty of people have written about that issue, from my book to the previously mentioned Christian Delusion to Matthew Ferguson.
Here is the best philosophy comic I have ever laid eyes on: “The Machine” from Existential Comics.
Get Richard Carrier on the Colbert Report! is getting liked left and right, so share it on facebook today. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get that interview one day…
Brian Sapient is happy about the new healthcare law, he’s had his medical bills drastically reduced because of it. I’m happy too, even if I would have preferred national health insurance (which would’ve helped Brian even more).
Hector Avalos has a new essay up on the historical Jesus.
