{"id":717,"date":"2015-08-20T11:35:45","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T11:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.risen.org.uk\/?p=717"},"modified":"2015-08-20T11:35:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T11:35:45","slug":"blog-august-27th-was-jesus-really-raised-from-the-dead-part-seven-challenging-the-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"Blog August 27th Was Jesus really raised from the dead?\u201d Part Seven- \u201cChallenging the Verdict\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earl
\nEarl Doherty<\/p>\n

I sent \u00a0\u201cThe Case for Christ\u201d \u00a0written from a Christian perspective by Lee Strobel to Alan, an \u00a0atheist friend who in return sent me \u201cChallenging the Verdict \u201c written from an atheist perspective.\u00a0 In last week\u2019s blog I briefly reviewed The \u201cCase for Christ\u201d and this week I look at \u201cChallenging the Verdict.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author,\u00a0 Earl Doherty states that he has a BA degree in Ancient History and Classical Languages. He has also written \u201cThe Jesus Puzzle\u201d and \u201cJesus Neither God nor Man \u201cboth of which deny, not only that Christ was resurrected, but also that He ever existed. \u00a0Doherty runs a website promoting atheist doctrine and postulates that the stories of Jesus are not historical but are based on myth and legend. He writes articulately refuting all the claims of Strobel by using a court room format in which he imaginarily cross -examines the theologians that Strobel questioned in his investigation into Christ\u2019s Resurrection. \u00a0Strobel, to my knowledge has not responded with counter arguments but there are on- line articles which have, for example http:\/\/answers.org\/atheism\/appealdenied.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Doherty makes many thought provoking claims, but for me none are persuasive; my main thought has been \u00a0why is this man spending all his time attempting to deny what has been written in the Bible- what are his motives?\u00a0 I found the answers in his concluding chapter.<\/p>\n

First Doherty believes that Christianity has been, and still is detrimental to humanity rather than beneficial.\u00a0 He cites Christianity and rival faiths as causing divisions between people, families, societies and nations which lead to inquisitions, witch hunts and religious wars.\u00a0\u00a0 I would argue that there have been many bad things perpetrated in the name of religion, including of course wars, but would personally place that firmly at the feet of man\u2019s inhumanity to man and not try to shift the blame to God.<\/p>\n

Another belief of Doherty is that \u00a0faith\u00a0 draws the focus of attention and energy away from the present world of day to day existence to a dimension which he regards is likely to be\u00a0 fantasy ; one In which the real world gets neglected, disparaged and distorted- one populated with concepts which can only be detrimental to humanity\u2019s enlightenment. Belief in angels and devils and personal saviour gods he says \u201cHave never produced one iota of real human progress.\u201d\u00a0 He seems to believe that God did not create us but that we have created Him.<\/p>\n

Doherty continues by stating that if the attainment of personal immortality is the goal then we may be grasping at that which is irrational as nothing in the observable universe suggests that such a goal is possible. Furthermore if something of significance is possible then the route to its discovery must lie in a fuller comprehension of our observable universe. To that I would quote Jesus who, when speaking to Thomas, said \u201cBecause you have seen me you have believed but blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.\u201d Interesting that I have also just read in \u201cThe Word for Today\u201d that when we believe that reality is confined to what we can see we become trapped into thinking the only truth is what we see \u2026. reality extends beyond what we \u00a0can see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before leaving this subject of \u201cWas Jesus really raised from the dead\u201d I wish to consider how the lives of countless people have been changed by Jesus. Next week I will use one such life as an example – mine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earl Doherty “Do I Need to Worship” featuring the Mustard Seed Soul Band from the albums “Heart and Soul” and “His Story” recorded and produced by Ross Gill. I sent \u00a0\u201cThe Case for Christ\u201d \u00a0written from a Christian perspective by Lee Strobel to Alan, an \u00a0atheist friend who in return sent me \u201cChallenging the Verdict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ken-shearsmiths-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/risen.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}