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Anthony's Faith Statement.

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A brief Introduction:

While studying to be a pastor in college I abandoned my faith. In fact, I abandoned everything I thought I believed and rebuilt.

To my own surprise at the time, I found that Christianity was much stronger than I had thought. As I rebuilt my belief system, I realized that there needed to be people out there responding to the questions people have. I had them myself. So, while not continuing on to be a pastor, I have focused on educating people about what Christianity is all about and responding to the various charges and accusations made against it.

There are some obvious challenges to being successful in that capacity, but a big part of it consists not in arguing with atheists and skeptics, but rather in providing Christians with accurate information in the first place to prevent them from leaving the faith in the first place.

Questioning is a very normal and natural part of growing up, and I am convinced that it is not wrong to ask questions of God at any age. God doesn't strike people down. On the other hand, if people are going to reject Christianity, it is my aim to at least make sure they reject the real Christianity and not a false view of it. Also, much heartache can be avoided by educating Christians properly to begin with. My experience has helped me... but it was unnecessary.

Paul said that some plant, some water, and others reap the increase. My job is to go out into the land and move rocks- or break them if necessary- till the land, and struggle through knee deep fertilizer... all in the effort to allow those who come later to plant, water, and reap the harvest. I look forward to the prospects of either serving you as someone who needs to haul rocks out of the field, or as someone who can look at the field, detect problems, and help farmers more effectively plant, water, and reap.

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Course on the Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus: Against Naturalism

Posted by Anthony on April 24, 2008

My recent blog posts discussing philosophical naturalism really show that this course is relevant. Here is the question: on the historical evidence alone, unfettered by the presupposition that there is a God or that there isn’t one, and unfettered with baggage that reasonable people MUST interpret everything in naturalistic terms, can it be shown (again, on the historical evidence alone), that Jesus rose from the dead?

If he did, that is a prima facie case for the existence of God, and not just any God, the Christian God, and it also undermines naturalism.

The Athanatos Online Academy’s course on the historical evidence of the resurrection seeks to expose the fact that virtually every and all argument against the resurrection boils down to the assumption that philosophical naturalism is the true account of the world, or if it is not the true one, it is the one we must prefer. It is all well and good to adopt a methodological naturalism in some areas of inquiry, but if the very question is whether or not naturalism is the true account, or whether or not non-naturalistic or even super-naturalistic realities offer the true account, then assuming naturalism is clearly circular reasoning and begging the question.

Everyone knows this. I have only just now recapitulated the arguments of Christian apologists ranging from CS Lewis to William Lane Craig. Atheists know this is true. They just don’t think it is unreasonable. For those of us who wish to build our view of the world based on what is real without deciding in advance what is real, I submit that the Academy’s course on the matter is just the ticket.

It begins Friday, April 25th and lasts for just two weeks. William Lane Craig’s book “The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus” is the ‘text’ book. Alternative materials are provided from the Internet but participants in the course are strongly advised to pick up the book.

Positive arguments for the resurrection form the core of the course but objections to those arguments are introduced as well, as one would certainly expect.

The Academy portal page is: http://www.athanatosministries.org/academy/

In order to sign up and pay for the course you will have to enroll in the apologetics academy.

Here is the direct link to the course on the Historicity of the Resurrection.