“He’s Never Lied” featuring Lucy Rutherford, Jim Rogers and Mike Backhouse from the album “The Season of Singing” recorded and produced by Ross Gill

Back in August 2015 I began a series of posts that centred on my correspondence with an ex -Crofton school student named Alan. Alan is a confirmed atheist and I am a confirmed believer in God. It was very interesting for us both to exchange views but neither of us changed our beliefs.

In a series of posts beginning September 21st 2017 I talked about the Alpha course. At this time I sent Alan a link to an Alpha video clip asking him what he thought- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6xTEewEok

He replied in detail citing Richard Carrier, the American historian and atheist activist. Alan said

There is an awful lot of confirmation bias going on in this video. Fallacious arguments like because billions believe in it, it must be true (mentioned at least twice). This is the ‘appeal to popularity’ fallacy. They mean well but their idea of evidence is very far removed from what reliable proper historical evidence looks like. It is essentially faith based with a dollop of wishful thinking thrown in. Which is fine! But faith should be recognized for what it actually is… belief in something in the absence of evidence.

Also of course falling foul of confirmation bias yet I submit far more based in real evidence…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYRoYl7i6U

As you may gather Alan is a very intelligent man who runs a successful business and who is a student of Psychology .

So I started watching the video but gave up when Carrier said that Moses and Abraham were also mythical characters. However I noticed another video which was posted on, what I imagine to be an atheist forum. The video was a debate between Carrier and William Lane Craig on the subject “Did Jesus Rise From The Dead?” Even though it had been posted in an atheist forum I felt that the debate was fairly presented and worth sharing with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFuhlnsF9cI

An extract from my reply to Alan is below:

At the moment I am soaked in Christian culture and you, I suggest atheist culture  – so you and I will naturally be  influenced by the belief systems of the two  cultures in which we move.  Unless something happens for me to lose my faith in God or something happens for you to gain faith in God all the arguments in the world are not going to change the way we feel.  You and I, William Lane Craig and Richard Carrier etc will have to wait until we die to discover the truth- but I suppose if there is no God even at death we will not discover the truth as we will not exist and so be in a position to know anything.  I would guess that not existing is not a concern for you, but it is for me Alan.   To think that life completely stops when our hearts stop seems to me to be very sad-and does it really matter what we do with our lives if at the end of 3 score years and 10, or a bit more or less that’s it?  Maybe I am using Christianity as an insurance policy as I like the idea of eternal life which Jesus promised. Of course if Jesus is just a mythical figure then I have been conned – but I have to say that if that is the case then I have rather enjoyed being conned. I just can’t see any advantage of being an atheist- where would be my hope ?  I know some would say that false hope in the supernatural denies the terminal nature of man and is therefore a bad thing but I still cannot see why Carrier and co spend so much energy for a cause that appears to offer so very little.

One person offers me a gift of special worth, albeit one not necessarily guaranteed. Another person offers me information- a personal opinion based not on the truth but on what they perceive as truth – which says that the gift I have been offered is a lie – a myth. Will I still accept the gift of special worth – you bet I will!