The Case for Faith - A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity
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- That is not quite true. You might think it's not "indisputable" however there is evidence that corroborates many of the Biblical accounts as studied by academics and scholars [0]. Much of this is archeological, statistical, along with a significant amount sociological support as well. There is generally still some level of "faith" involved in religious beliefs (obviously), however it does not mean that those that hold them hold no scientific evidence at all.
It's possible that you have researched for yourself and have some evidence for your "beliefs" presented by your statement. Many people (admittedly on both sides of the fence) have not done much research in this regard, but in my opinion is a valuable exercise, so if you haven't I'd highly suggest it.
[0] The Case for Christ (Lee Strobel), along with The Case for Faith and the Case for a Creator. He was a former atheist who initially set out to prove God did not exist after his wife converted. This is certainly not an extensive list of resources out there, these are just some that I remember off the top of my head.
- > It would seem categorically incorrect to claim that faith is evidence based
Everyone lives by faith. How can you be sure --- I mean really sure --- that the chair will not collapse beneath you, this time? I guess you don't know, 100%. But nevertheless, you sit in it.
Faith != Blind Faith. Blind faith is a particular kind of faith, which has no reason for its being --- in fact has reason against its being. Faith, by itself, is just to go on believing something that you have been given enough evidence for, in spite of irrational fear or self-centered temptation to disavow. There is a reason that sexual loyalty is also called "faithfulness."
The Bible is evidence-based because: in the Old Testament God said, believe that I am the one true God because of this or that miracle that I just did; in the New Testament, it keeps talking about testifying, "I bear witness," "believe on the testimony of these witnesses," citing them by name.
Here someone will say, but how do we know any of that really happened, just because it's written in a book? That's where manuscript evidence comes into play, whether the people who say they wrote this or that really wrote this or that, and that's where I point you to a book like Josh McDowell's, which will talk about how the Bible has tons more manuscript evidence than any other book on the face of the earth. We know that John wrote John far more than that we know that Homer wrote The Odyssey. There are other books too, like The Case for Faith. I just generally pick Josh McDowell because it is the shortest, and I know your time is valuable, and your patience for contradictory opinions is limited.
Here again someone will say, but just because I know John really wrote the book of John doesn't mean that John wasn't lying. That's where McDowell --- and the other books --- will talk about logic and human nature. Most of the disciples were martyred, terribly. Who would die for something they knew to be a lie?
> to call Josh McDowell an expositor of Orthodox Christianity is a bit offensive
lowercase o orthodox: "conforming to what is generally or traditionally accepted"
Besides, what in More Than a Carpenter would a Greek Orthodox believer disagree with?
