The Great Resurrection Debate: John Shelby Spong vs. William Lane Craig

Y’ever wondered what the difference is between Christian apologetics and Biblical scholarship?  If you haven’t,  and you have taken the time to read this far, you should.  Watch a Christian apologist misrepresent information and blather on and on, without evidence, about his evidence.  Ya, it doesn’t make any sense.  Watch William Lane Craig dishonestly misrepresent Biblical scholarship.  Watch John Shelby Spong, a fellow Christian and retired Episcopal bishop, bitch-slap Craig for being dishonest.(Timestamp 50:30)

The debate is just over an hour and a half, including the question and answer session, but a debate worth watching if one is interested in seeing how Christian apologists spin information, and ultimately why, in my opinion, Christian apologetics is helping to destroy Christianity.  (I recommend spot checking William Lane Craig’s alleged “facts”, and it becomes absolutely clear, as is typical with Christian apologists, that he is intentionally lying.  I will offer one example)

Part 1:

Fact check:  Starting at 11:50
“Today, the relevant facts are largely agreed upon, by New Testament critics.”
“The majority of scholars affirm the following three facts about what happened following Jesus’ crucifixion.” (Let’s take the first “fact”)

1. Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty
This is folklore, not a fact.  There exists no contemporary accounting of an empty tomb.  There exists no first-hand testimony telling of this event.  The “fact” is that no one knows what happened to Jesus’ body.  Historically, the earliest known reference to the discovery of an empty tomb is from an anonymous writing, written in a different country, separated from the events described by about 40 years.This writing is known as the Gospel of Mark,  It is entirely possible that this is fiction.  

It is NOT a fact, affirmed by the “(m)ajority of scholars”,  and certainly not , “largely agreed upon, by New Testament critics”, that Jesus’ tomb was found empty.  This is a minority opinion, maintained by those who believe.  It is not a fact.  William Lane Craig is prevaricating, and he’s just getting started.

Check his facts, I dare ya.

Now listen (audio only, sorry) as Craig builds a gargantuan straw-man; misrepresenting what Spong has written (read Spong), and then burning the straw-man to the ground.  This is the straw-man that he had just finished building.

IMO, a Christian apologist is a defense attorney for the mob.

Part 2:

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• Another doozy by William Lane Craig… (francoistremblay.wordpress.com)