Revamped "Historical Jesus" Page

I spent a good deal of time over the weekend (especially with the wife and kids at the grandparents) revamping the Christian CADRE's own The Historical Jesus page. We introduce it with this description:

The theory that Jesus did not exist as a historical figure is often referred to as the Jesus Myth. Though dead as a serious academic position, the notion that Jesus did not exist is advanced by skeptics through their various publishing arms and on the internet. Others have argued that though some sort of founding historical figure is possible, the miracles attributed to him must be legendary developments. As a result, one the CADRE's priorities is to educate readers about the overwhelming evidence of Jesus' historicity. On this page are links to articles and books dealing with the question of the historicity of Jesus.

I have reorganized the topics, removed outdated links, cleaned up the formatting, and added a number of excellent articles on the issue. Here are the new topics:

* The Historicity of Jesus: Overviews and Defenses
* The Value of the Early Christian Sources
* Non-Christian References to Jesus
* Pagan Parallels: Answers to the Copy-Cat Savior Theory
* The Historicity of the Miracles of Jesus
* Books on the Historicity of Jesus

I also revamped the Scholarship page, which lists all of the websites, virtual offices, and blogs of CADRE Members, as well as the Resources page, which lists "some of the best and most useful sites to the person seeking to learn more about a reasonable view of Christianity, or to the person seeking information necessary to properly defend the faith in the public forum."

Check them out and let me know what you think. Or, if you have suggestions for new articles or formatting, please let me know.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Ok, here goes. Religion basically makes it seem ok to die. It is not! When you die, there is a chance that your counsciousness ceases to exist. Religion is trying to stop science from reaching its full potential, which includes Immortality.

Instead of wasting all this time IMAGINING there is a GOD and praying/going to church/ or whatever mental hang-up you go through to make yourself feel better, why not actually contribute to curing or fixing the thing that killed your loved ones?

Example: Mom dies of liver cancer. The church tries to squash the possible cure (stem cells) which could probably be developed in a very few years. But a group of delusional people insist they are all-knowing about a group of cells in a petrie dish, therefore thwarting the advancement of science and contributing to the killing of millions of people. This is why people hate Christians. So everytime you wonder why, now you know.

When sceince can (and it will) do everything you imagine your God can do, why would you need that God anymore? Religion cannot survive; it can only hamper the scientific process in hopes to buy a little more time.

Regards

Leon
BK said…
Leon,

I sense that you are angry with Christians over a loss you have suffered. If that is the case, I grieve for you. Having already lost a father and two sisters, I can certainly agree that losing someone is hard.

But the point of this blog (and Christianity) is not to make it seem okay to die. It is to make the rational case that Jesus is God. If that is true, then there are consequences that follow.

With the exception of some Christians who believe only in faith-healing (a miniscule minority among the millions of Christians worldwide), Christians are not opposed to science or finding cures for diseases. In fact, many Christians have devoted themselves to finding cures to diseases and caring for the sick and dying. Christians are not against stem cell research -- in fact, I am not aware of any Christian (except the previously mentioned faith-healers) who opposes stem cell research.

There are some Christians (including me) who believe that embryonic stem cell research should not proceed because it does take the life of a child with a very small chance of reward. Some scientists do see hope in this line of research, but it remains a hope only, and diverts resources from other stem cell line research that has proven more productive and less objectional.

I suggest to you that science will never "do everything you imagine your God can do". I suggest to you that there is reason to believe that God really exists and that there are consequences that flow from His existence. I urge you to look into this question without any presuppostions that God doesn't exist and examine the evidence. You will see that no Christian, least of all any of the bloggers on this site, feel anything but pain when someone passes away and certainly none are trying to stand in the way of true scientific progress.
Layman said…
"When sceince can (and it will) do everything you imagine your God can do, why would you need that God anymore?"

Science can forgive me for my sins?

Wow. We have come a long way.
Brad Cooper said…
What happened to ChristianCadre.org? I had linked to your page on the historicity of the miracles of Jesus, but now it is not there. :/
Jason Pratt said…
That poor site goes up and down a lot, for weird technical reasons. The whole thing needs to be migrated somewhere safer before we lose it altogether.

JRP
Brad Cooper said…
It seems that it has been completely taken over by some Chinese internet ad service. :/ I hope you have it backed up somewhere. There are some really excellent resources there.

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