Reading last Thursday’s “Ask an Atheist” column was saddening for me as a Christian who knows the writers of both columns and knows they are consciously writing lies about the Christian faith with the express intent of intellectually coercing skeptics who are on the fence about whether to start accepting God’s free gift of grace. I have intense respect for the atheists and skeptics from SURE [a group for UCSB atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and secularists], primarily because — as I have told their membership before — if it weren’t a historical fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, after which He appeared to hundreds of eye witnesses, I would be an atheist. I’m not a Christian because it makes me feel good, or helps me get through problems (as it happens, God helps me with both), but because the resurrection is true — Jesus openly demonstrated Himself to be God. But my respect for them is severely diminished when they accuse Christians of “ritualistically hack[ing] off parts of a little … girl’s genitals.”
Let me be clear — never, in the entire history of Judaism and Christianity, has the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ordered female genital mutilation. Never. This is a smear not only against the Jewish and Christian faith, but a smear against the living God. No, the only religion that requires female genital mutilation is Islam — the one religion that “Ask an Atheist” has never smeared so ruthlessly (and falsely). I encourage the Nexus editors to watch more closely for these writers’ libelous slanders, to which they seem to be frighteningly prone.
That said, I want to briefly engage these brazen slanderers on their hit piece against Jefferson Bethke and his viral video, “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus.” First, this video is not representative of the entire Christian faith, and many Christian writers — Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Reformed denominations — have written critiques of his work, which can be easily accessed on the web. Bethke is representative of a small faction of Protestants who are not quite sure how to intellectually engage the more ravenous critics of Christianity (typified in the weaselly pieces written last Thursday). In order to make their faith appealing, these well-meaning Christians simply accept the false premises of their attackers (i.e., “Christianity causes wars”), but then say, “Even though the church is really bad, you can still have a relationship with Jesus.” It’s a way for the less intellectually savvy to share their faith with their friends, who may have heard similar lies about the church, so they too can experience the love of Jesus.
Unfortunately, it’s a poor method of argumentation, and the predatorial “Ask an Atheist” writers know it. The fact is, if you go to just about any Christian church on Sunday, you won’t be witnessing any genital mutilation, or hear a sermon on why America ought to bomb Iran. Instead, you’ll watch as hundreds of people join together in song, praising God for His grace and love. You’ll hear a minister talk about how mankind, lost in sin and rebelling against God, was saved by the King Himself, who chose to leave His heavenly throne, become a man and take our death penalty for sin so that we would not have to face eternal punishment. You’ll see meek and tear-stricken sinners receive a piece of broken bread, dipped in wine, as they remember the God who freely submitted Himself to torture and crucifixion for their sin, so they could experience eternal life with Him.
In most religions, man is either trying to save himself from punishment, or trying to become like God. In Christianity, God took on human form to save us from the punishment we deserve. Ours is a truly unique and beautiful religion. All the sins that have been committed in the name of Christianity cannot take away from the magnificence of the Christian faith revealed in Scripture. Jesus Christ, the sinless savior, died for your sins and rose on the third day. If you confess your sin to Him, and place your trust in Him, receiving the forgiveness He bought for you with blood, sweat and tears, you will be with Him forever. There is no self-righteousness, hypocrisy or word play here. We are all unworthy sinners; only some, by the grace of God, are brave enough to admit it and humble enough to find their salvation in Christ alone.
Steven Begakis is a fourth-year political science major.
Steve,
You have a truly have demented faith if eternal toture is the punishment every human “deserves” if they don’t worship Yahweh & his son properly.
You can go to hell (if it existed)
Steven, what a beautifully written summary of the Gospel. Thank you for speaking up.
” if it weren’t a historical fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, after which He appeared to hundreds of eye witnesses, I would be an atheist” – please site your historical references that confirm this occurred. Do not use the bible – it is obviously not a impartial source of information. “First, this video is not representative of the entire Christian faith” – nothing is entirely representative of the entire christian faith, because each person makes up what they want to believe – No True Scotsman “go to just about any Christian church… Read more »
“Let me be clear — never, in the entire history of Judaism and Christianity, has the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ordered female genital mutilation. Never.”
No, he did much, much, much worse. Have you ever read the Bible? Slaughtering women and children is a fairly common hobby of your “god”. No thanks.
“— if it weren’t a historical fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, after which He appeared to hundreds of eye witnesses, I would be an atheist”
There are exactly zero eyewitness accounts of Jesus rising from the dead. Don’t accuse others of lying if you’re going to do it as well.
Correct…there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever for the existence of an invisible, magical, zombie in the sky.
Jesus christ is simply a myth.
It would seem the entire faith of little Stevie Begakis is based on a false premise. Apparently, no one ever told him the “resurrection” of Jesus is based upon 1, 2, 3 or 4 women (depending on which gospel narrative you read) discovering his empty tomb. This is where the gospels end, aside from Mark 16:9-20, which is widely accepted amongst scholars as being added well after the original was written, which should negate its so called “appearances” for any rational person. You are then left with the appearances mentioned in John, Luke, and Matthew. Go read them. Should these… Read more »
Clearly the author hasn’t been to a baptist, pentecostal or lutheran service or he wouldn’t be making these claims.
If you sincerely desire to look at the evidence, it’s widely available. Many atheists and agnostics have spent the time it takes to actually seek out and review the evidence for themselves and have written about their findings. You can read Tolstoy (yeah, the War and Peace guy, “A Confession”), Josh McDowell (“More than a carpenter”), Lee Strobel (“The case for Faith”), Nicky Gumbel (who presents his evidence in a series of courses called Alpha), Peter Hitchens (yes Christopher Hitchens brother “Rage Against God”), C.S. Lewis (“Mere Christianity”). There are many more. RTFM – do your research in order to… Read more »
Sounds like Steve doesn’t understand the definition of the word “evidence”. Modern day authors writing about Christianity isn’t exactly “evidence” of supernatural claims. Not even close.
You clearly don’t know what the word evidence means. Again another excuse to not do your own research. How about starting with Augustine (or even Saul). Again – RTFM.
RTFM? By manual I’m guessing you mean that book full of talking animals, unicorns, dragons, giants, and zombies? Yeah, I’ve read it. Ugly, violent, immoral, and laughably silly. Not to mention evidence of absolutely nothing.
Lemmy, The bible isn’t a book of evidence – it’s a statement of fact. It doesn’t try to prove God exists. It’s not a proof – it’s a testament. Again you don’t know what the word ‘evidence’ means. But if what you have read satisfies you and is the basis for how you believe and act and speak to people, then that’s good. You’ve invested the time and come to a conclusion. You clearly have taken to time to investigate something that is either of the utmost importance if true, or of no consequence at all if false. Now wouldn’t… Read more »
Give it a rest Steve.
The bible is a book of fiction. Most historical stuff covered within the bible is false. It has no correlation with available historical data.
Sure, it’s a testament written in the Bronze Age. It’s full of useless advice with a few tidbits of good information.
Please Steve, without using the bible to prove Yaweh’s existence (since that is circular reasoning), explain to me why you believe Yaweh exists at all? What do you use as proof?
I must add that the books you referenced are also all fiction based on the bible.
I want evidence from OUTSIDE the bible. So it must not rely on the bible at all. I would also like evidence, not pure conjecture. I would like to be able to verify this evidence.
That would be a good start anyway.
“A statement of fact” based on no evidence other than its existence?
You are not credible in the least Steve.
Here are a few “facts” from the first couple of pages of the Bible:
All animals were poofed into existence in their current form.
Everyone is descended from two people.
Stars are fixed points of light hung an equal distance from Earth.
Plants were created the day before the sun that they need to survive.
Laughable.
It looks like you need to look up the definition of “fact” as well as “evidence.”
Here is an excellent evidence for something really out there: quantum theory (almost as wacky as the stories in the bible). We have a theory that says we should see certain things when looking at subatomic particles The theory is then backed up by repeatable peer reviewed observations The theory can then be used to make predictions – such as how to build a transistor – without which, we wouldn’t have an ounce of modern electronics. This is how you build evidence – it has been used to prove microbes get people sick, nuclear forces and countless other things. I… Read more »
Love quantum theory. In fact I enjoy history, biology, chemistry, archaeology, astronomy, theology, physics, math – you name it. The more we learn the more we can understand our world and make sound reasoned arguments for our positions as opposed to flaming. Many people prefer to base their life principles on web site comment boxes instead of leaning upon the foundation of learning that is already in place.
Great, statement of fact. Please let me know of the references I could use (external to the bible) to verify the major testimonies in the bible. You know, the ressurection and so forth. Historians generally like to verify facts from lots of different sources to confirm a particular story – especially when the original source has a good reason for biasing the facts. Oh, and for a book of facts, it certainly contradicts itself alot. Would never happen when real standards of evidence are used.
I did already.
See my original posting.
That’s just a sampling of the people who looked at the evidence
(and they will list many resources that are not in the bible).
Use the library – what a great resource we have access to.
Most people would rather not invest the time for the difficult things, taxes, finances, politics, their moral foundation. It’s good that you seek knowledge. I still do too.
Bull. I have read a number of them and they provide no new data. Every modern Historian that has looked at factual claims in the bible relative to the life and miracles of Jesus along with all the other wacky claims has come up empty. This book is the reason that Kentucky feels the need to give an Ark Park 56 million in tax breaks while cutting education (real fact based education) by 50 million.
And I thought we were having an intelligent conversation but what you are really mad about is politics, or taxes, or both – and looking for a group to blame. Hmm – read the archaeologist William M. Ramsay? Dedicated 19 years to prove the author of Acts was a phony. Came to a different conclusion. Ok enjoy, gotta get back to life, it was fun, you get the last flame! You win!
I’ll reply to this one, since there’s no “reply” link after the post in which Steve gives up.
Steve, if there’s so much evidence out there, why can’t you point to any of it? In all these books, there’s nothing you can give us as an example of evidence for God’s existence? Why is that?
I’ll tell you, because there isn’t any. Not in any of those books and not anywhere.
I know I keep asking for facts and all we get is argument from authority. Please stop with the book and name dropping and give us an actual example of real evidence. And while I am disturbed by the Kentucky decision, it does not influence my perspective about the existence of biblical facts. I disagree with Mormonism too, but I know the Joeseph Smith actually existed – although I am sure like me, you probably doubt his miracle claims.
Steve,
Your research is one-sided, believers reinforcing what they believe – Lee Strobel is only convincing if you’re already a believer. If you want to really see why your argument isn’t convincing to an Athiest, read Bart D. Ehrman http://www.bartdehrman.com/books.htm, read Robert M. Price and listen his Bible Geek podcast. Read Hector Avalos’ The End of Biblical Studies. These are the arguments that have convinced us, and you’d have to do much better than them to change our minds.
Its unfair and inappropriate to attack a systemic ideology which has inspired violence, irrationality, intolerance, racism, tribalism, bigotry, ignorance, hostilty towards free inquiry, contempt of women, and coerciveness of children? I need a Christian to explain this please.
Well Tim,
God is love.
Quantum Theory.
It’s neato.
Sorry can’t quite fit all the details into this comment box, but I’m sure you have enough information to come to a conclusion.
Gotta go – dinner bell…
God is love? You consider it an act of love when you are told to believe rhetoric without question (despite obvious contradictions), or be sentenced to enternal torture and damnation. Please pull your head out of your ass.
Steven Bejakis,
You should get out more. This happens on a continual basis. Atheist’s main attack method is to misconstrue facts, or perpetrate an outright lie.
This from someone who believes in talking snakes…
This is the punishment given by the Bible for a woman not being a virgin on her wedding night: “If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death.” -Deuteronomy 22:20-21 Genital mutilation provides extra assurance for this token of virginity because the scar tissue closes up most of the vagina until her husband rips it open. So, while the Bible doesn’t order the mutilation (at least for women), it… Read more »
It is true that Muslims practice this stupidity more than Christians and their idiocy is based on much the same reason.
Christians are bigger fans of chopping off pieces of the MALE genitalia.
To say that “if it weren’t a historical fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead three days after His crucifixion, after which He appeared to hundreds of eye witnesses” is actual fact makes the author of this letter seem slightly ignorant. The Bible was written by man hundreds of years after Jesus is said to have died and risen. Man is not infallible. The bible is a historical account, history books are not perfect fact. The stories of how Jesus died and then arose was passed on verbally from man to man. I look at the stories that were… Read more »
In conclusion maybe you should be an Atheist since Christ rising from the dead, is not FACT, but FAITH.
The assertion that God exists is made without evidence and can thus be dismissed without evidence. Atheism is the only conclusion one is left with.
Hi Shannon, The Bible was not written “hundreds” of years later, it is a collection of lots of books, most of them many hundreds of years old 2000 years ago. The gospel of John and Revelation for instance, were written by an eyewitness, who testified what he saw and heard. If You read Josephus the historians account of the destruction of Jerusalem, in 70AD You would realize that would have been big news, and mentioned in the Bible somewhere other than a prophecy by Christ(that didn’t specify when), if written later. The books that make up the Bible, however were… Read more »
“The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide” puts the authorship of The Gospel according to John” at the end of the 1st century, essentially two generations past the crucifiction. In fact, some scholars think it may have been gnostic in origin, later re-written by Ephesus to fit the anti-gnostic canon.
Considering all the older myths that contain a god born of a virgin, with 12 apostles, sacrificed and come back to life 3 days later….how could anyone possibly believe the Jesus story to be anything other than a tired myth?
Oh yeah, because their mom and dad told them it was true from birth.
The Bible neither condemns nor condones female genital mutilation. It is in fact completely silent in the issue. This is a telling omission in itself, because FGM certainly was practiced on the biblical times, and one would think that if the biblical authors disapproved, then they would have said something.
I’ interested in why Steve Begakis thinks FGM is objectively immoral, since many Christians say that the Bible is the only source of objective morality, and the Bible is silent on this issue. Could Steve be applying subjective morality?
Hi Steve, Might I mention how many Bibles, and their owners were burned at the stake, by the church? Foxes book of Martyrs records the history of Christianity nobody seems to want to talk about, the one thing You can’t help but bring from Foxes, is the perception that there might be some truth in there(the Bible) the “powers that be” in the world don’t want noticed. Why is the book of Enoch mentioned and quoted from(as scripture), but not included in the Bible? Would that “sons of God DNA” that corrupted the world before the flood of slipped through… Read more »
We should pity the author. Forgive him, for he knows not what he writes.
Many of us here easily see the lack of logical and critical thinking and the numerous logical fallacies of those like SteveG. The lack of knowledge of what constitutes “evidence” and the appeals to ignorance are very sad, particularly within a university environment. I can only encourage SteveG to take a course in logical and critical thinking and study logical fallacies, of which numerous sources are available on the Internet, to appreciate why he should learn to question his own beliefs, learn that Biblical claims are just that: claims without evidence. We can all see that SteveG is steeped in… Read more »
Im an athiest, but I do believe a prophet named Jesus was born who spread peace and wisdom. Im not sayinhlg he was the magic zombie son of a god that could be reserected and do miracles, but nonetheless he spread words of peace and gave everything he had to the needy. Btw there are 0 credible sources saying there were hundreds of witnesses to the zombie’s ressurection. GET YOUR UNSCIENTIFIC ATHEIST BASHING SCIENTIFIC PROCESS STUNTING CLAIMS OUT OF HERE
Dear Steve,
I just want to say thank you for clarifying that God’s grace is free….I was really starting to wonder when my bill was coming. I heard a rumor he charges more than a senior partner at Cravath.