Antony Flew’s New Book

Antony Flew, famous English philosopher, has released a book entitled “There is a God” that charts his journey from atheism to theism. It reads quite a bit like a biography rather than a work of philosophy, but I was pleasantly surprised at the exposition of his former atheism (and, for that matter, the innovative atheistic arguments he created). He appears to be his best critic, and the reader is given a whirlwind tour of the history of his arguments and why he does not think they cut it. For the C.S. Lewis aficionado, he has some interesting anecdotes of his time in the Socratic Club- he appears to have taken the Socratic maxim of following the evidence where it leads to heart, and may have gleaned that from his time with Lewis.

While his story is certainly interesting, perhaps the best part of the book was not written by Flew. Roy Abraham Varghese wrote the first appendix, and in the space of a few pages offers a very compelling critique of the so-called New Atheists. Without commenting too much, it is interesting to see someone calling Dawkins out as a non-scientist charlatan.

The second appendix is a Question/Answer with the always fantastic N.T. Wright. As it is a condensed version of his usual resurrection stuff, we are treated to a summarization of his book Resurrection of the Son of God (to those familiar, a massive tome). It is interesting to me that Flew would include a section on the resurrection, especially while he remains committed to Aristotelean theism (read: non-Christianity).

All in all, this is a read for everyone. It is non-technical, so nearly anyone interested in religious themes could pick this one up and have a meaningful dive into one of our centuries brilliant minds.

Secular Columnist in Historical Jesus Shock!

Posted by Beast Rabban

Shock! Horror! Sensation! The British newstand magazine of the weird, The Fortean Times has published a piece supporting the historicity of Christ. In the October 2007 issue, the Fortean Times’ resident classicist, Barry Baldwin attacks the latest attempt by Tom Harpur to disprove Christ’s existence as ‘as futile as his many predecessors’ and reviews the extrabiblical classical authors who mention Christ – Suetonius, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, Celsus, Porphyry and even the vehemently antichristian Roman emperor, Julian the Apostate, who wrote the official imperial attack on Christianity Against the Galileans. Examining their accounts of Christ, Baldwin concludes that ‘The overall point is, had any of these hostile sources thought there was the slightest chance of denying the fact of Jesus’ earthly existence, it is inconceivable that they would not have taken it. This conclusion is enhanced by the Neo-Platonist Porphyry’s remark (quoted by Augustine, City of God, bk19 ch23, from his Philosophy from Oracles – lost, as is his Against the Christians) that opponents preferred to attack Christianity rather than Christ himself’, Baldwin, Barry, ‘Classical Corner 91. For Christ’s Sake!’, Fortean Times 228, October 2007, p. 23.

It’s a surprise to me, as the magazine is by no means a Christian publication and has published in the past an awful lot of material critical of Christian claims, including positive reviews of previous books supporting the ‘Christ myth’ hypothesis from fringe writers like Harpur. One could take issue with Baldwin’s description of the Gospels as ‘irrelevant to the argument’ with the ancient non-Christian evidence being the only material that counts. In fact scholarship, contra Harpur et al, supports the view that the Gospels do indeed count as biographical evidence and were based on eyewitness accounts of Christ’s life and mission. However, simply seeing a secular scholar in a magazine that has published material supporting the Christ myth in its pages is a welcome surprise in itself.

My guess is that it won’t be long before furious antichristians write in criticising Baldwin’s endorsement of Christ’s historicity, despite him stating, as ‘pre-emptive retaliation’ that he is ‘non-sectarian’. I suspect that one reason why the Fortean Times published this at all is because the flood of Christ myth material has got out of hand and has now gained the status of a new orthodoxy, despite the fact that the majority of historians, classicists and Biblical scholars, Christian and secular, completely reject it.

Geivett and Tabash to Debate the Existence of God

The debate takes place on September 19, @2:00 p.m.
Eddie Tabash vs. Douglas Geivett: “Does God Exist?”
Cypress College, Complex 216, Cypress, CA

Douglas Geivett is an analytic philosopher and theologian;  Eddie Tabash, a lawyer.

Remains of the Second Temple Found

Posted by Beast Rabban

It appears that construction work fitting a pipeline to the al-Aqsa mosque on Temple Mount has uncovered the remains of part of the Second Temple. This is obviously a find of immense importance to Jews and Christians. Gaby Barkai, a senior Israeli archaeologist, has called for the construction work to halt for the remains to be properly investigated. See here.

There has been considerable conflict between archaeologists and the Muslim authorities administering the al-Aqsa mosque in recent years. A few years ago the waqf – Islamic charitable organisation administering the mosque commenced construction work as part of a maintenance and restoration programme. However, in doing so they burrowed into Temple Mount itself and uncovered archaeologically valuable material from the pre-Islamic periods, including Jewish artifacts and remains. Scandalously, this material was simply dumped along with the other construction rubbish. The archaeology appeared to have been deliberately mixed with construction debris as part of a programme to erase the pre-Islamic archaeology there. Unfortunately, there have been assertions in part of the Islamic world that the Temple Mount was never a Jewish site. If the remains are indeed part of Herod’s Temple, then this will be a sound disproof of such historical revisionism.

For a scholarly and detailed critique of the way the construction work has threatened the precious archaeology and historic buildings on the Mount, see this piece from Biblical Archaeology Review.

Proper archaeological investigation of remains from the Mount offers to add much to our understanding of the milieu in which Christ lived and ministered, and it’s been the case that the descriptions of Jerusalem in St. John’s Gospel are so detailed that they support the idea that it may have been written by an eyewitness and the trustworthy nature of the Gospel’s witness to our Lord’s ministry. Hopefully, a way can be found to prevent further destruction of the Mount’s archaeology without exacerbating the religious tensions in this politically and religiously sensitive area further.