Gunning for God (40 page)

44.
Dawkins,
River Out of Eden
, p.133.

45.
Cited in “Believe it or not”, New York,
First Things
, May 2010.

46.
Acts 17:31

47.
For they hold that science has long since put miracles in their rightful place – in the pigeon-hole marked “Fantasy” along with Santa Claus, tooth-fairies and flying spaghetti monsters. However, science has done no such thing. See my
God’s Undertaker,
Chapter 12.

48.
C. S. Lewis,
The Problem of Pain
, London, Geoffrey Bles, 1940, p.133.

49.
Romans 8:18, 38–39.

50.
C. S. Lewis,
Mere Christianity
, New York, Macmillan, 1952, Book 2, Chapter 3, p.53.

51.
I used the Hebrew word for Jesus.

Chapter 6: Is the Atonement Morally Repellent?

1.
GD
, p.287.

2.
GD
, p.285.

3.
Romans 6:23.

4.
Nicholas Lash,
Theology for Pilgrims
, London, Darton, Longman and Todd, 2008, p.10.

5.
GD
, pp.286–87.

6.
Richard Dawkins, “Forgive me, spirit of science”,
New Statesman
, 20 December 2010, p.80.

7.
1 Corinthians 1:23.

8.
James Boswell,
The Life of Samuel Johnson
, London, John Sharpe, 1830, p.513.

9.
Luke 11:13.

10.
In light of the caricatures of “original sin” by Dawkins, Hitchens, and others, it is important to notice that the last clause in this quotation does not say (as is sometimes suggested) that “all men sinned
in him
(i.e. in Adam)”. The last clause is introduced by the Greek conjunction
eph’ h
which cannot mean “in whom”, or “in him”, for that would have required
en h
.
Eph’ h
means “because”.

11.
Romans 5:12.

12.
GD
, p.304.

13.
Genesis 3:5. The Bible here indicates that an alien evil intelligence was involved to which many people react with instant dismissal. I find it interesting (and rather ironical) that many of the very same people will argue for the existence of (as yet undiscovered) alien intelligences in the universe – and they expect one day to find them. For more on the Genesis narrative see my
Seven Days that Divide the World
, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2011.

14.
Genesis 3:7–10.

15.
GNG
, p.209.

16.
Romans 3:23.

17.
Romans 5:19.

18.
Romans 3:24, 28; 4:5.

19.
This mistake seems to be made by Christopher Hitchens when he accuses God of totalitarianism and says that: “The essential principle of totalitarianism is to make laws that are
impossible to obey
.” See
GNG
, p.212.

20.
Ephesians 2:8–9.

21.
Though Hitchens appears to think it is,
GNG
, p.209.

22.
The Greek word
metanoia
used in the New Testament for “repentance” means “change of mind”.

23.
GD
, p.287.

24.
Ibid.

25.
In the context of his question, “Why can’t God just forgive?” Dawkins tellingly says: “Progressive ethicists today find it hard to defend any kind of retributive theory of punishment…” If that is the case, may we be protected from “progressive ethicists”. For the danger of the “progressive ethics” that involves replacing “punishment” with “treatment”, see C. S. Lewis’s essay “On the Humanitarian Theory of Punishment” in
Undeceptions
, London, Geoffrey Bles, 1971, p.250ff.

26.
In Simon Wiesenthal,
The Sunflower
, New York, Schocken Books Inc., 1997, p.123.

27.
Luke 23:34.

28.
D. W Gooding,
According to Luke
, Leicester, IVP, 1987, p.342. Christ’s attitude to those who did know what they were doing was very different. See Matthew 11:20ff.

29.
GNG
, p.211.

30.
For instance, Matthew 21:12–13, Mark 11:15–17, Luke 19:45–46, and John 2:13–17.

31.
1 Timothy 2:5–6a [NKJV]

32.
It is worth recording Carton’s words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”

33.
Matthew 9:2.

34.
Wiesenthal,
The Sunflower.

35.
Matthew 1:20–21.

36.
John 1:29.

37.
See Hebrews 10:4.

38.
Mark 10:45.

39.
Luke 22:19–20.

40.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4.

41.
Isaiah 53:5.

42.
2 Corinthians 5:19–21.

43.
For further explanation of this terminology at a popular level the interested reader might consult
Key Bible Concepts
by David Gooding and John Lennox, Grand Rapids, Gospel Folio Press, 1997. The book is available for download at www.keybibleconcepts.org.

44.
Luke 23:11, 35–37.

45.
The Greek word used denotes a spectrum including robber, brigand, bandit, or outlaw.

46.
In Charles Williams,
Taliessin through Logres
, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1974, p.307.

47.
Luke 23:40–41 (Jerusalem Bible translation).

48.
David Gooding,
According to Luke
, Leicester, Inter-Varsity Press, 1987, pp.344–45.

Chapter 7: Are Miracles Pure Fantasy?

1.
An earlier version of this chapter appears as Chapter 12 in my book
God’s Undertaker
. It is included here since it forms an essential bridge to the next chapter on the evidence for the resurrection.

2.
GD
, p.83.

3.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2008/1/28/hitchensKnocksIntelligentDesign.

4.
Francis Collins,
The Language of God
, London, Simon & Schuster Ltd,
2006,
pp.51–52.

5.
Acts 1:22.

6.
Lewis,
Miracles,
p.148.

7.
1 Corinthians 15:14.

8.
See David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
:
A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh
, Indiana, Hackett Publishing Co., 1993, 10.1, pp.76–77.

9.
This is the meaning of the Greek word for “resurrection” (
anastasis
).

10.
David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
, 4.1, p.15.

11.
GD
, p.187.

12.
David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
, p.49.

13.
Alfred North Whitehead,
Process and Reality
, Macmillan, London, 1929.

14.
Anthony Flew,
There is a God
, New York, HarperOne, 2007, pp.57–58.

15.
John Earman,
Hume’s Abject Failure
, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000, p3.

16.
GNG
, p.141.

17.
GNG,
p.79.

18.
Luke 1:5–25.

19.
Acts 4:1–21.

20.
Acts 23:8.

21.
Tom Wright, James Gregory Lecture, University of Durham, 2007.

22.
Lewis,
Miracles
, p.62.

23.
In this connection one thinks of the words of Wittgenstein: “The great delusion of modernity is that the laws of nature explain the universe for us. The laws of nature describe the universe, they describe the regularities. But they explain nothing.”

24.
Lewis,
Miracles
, p.63.

25.
David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
, p.73.

26.
Ibid
. p.77.

27.
Norman Anderson,
The Evidence for the Resurrection
, Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 1990, p.1.

28.
Corinthians 15:15.

29.
Acts 4:3; 5:18.

30.
John 2:21.

31.
John 21:18.

32.
C. F. D. Moule,
The Phenomenon of the New Testament
, London, SCM, 1967, pp.3, 13.

33.
See his article “Miracles” in
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
, ed. Paul Edwards, Macmillan, New York, 1967, vol.5, pp.346–53; see also the essay, “Neo-Humean Arguments about the Miraculous”, in
In Defence of Miracles
, eds. R. D. Geivett and G. R. Habermas, Leicester, Apollos, 1997, pp.45–57.

34.
Edwards,
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
, p.252.

35.
Another defect in the Hume-Flew view is that it does not appear to be falsifiable (in the sense that they do not appear to be able to conceive of an observation that would prove their view false).

36.
David Hume,
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
, p.76.

37.
Lewis,
Miracles
, p.109.

38.
Wolfhart Pannenberg,
Jesus – God and Man
, translated by L. L. Wilkins and D. A. Priebe, Philadelphia, Westminster, 1974, p.109.

39.
That is, reasons that have to do with the convictions, beliefs, and principles that we already have,
before
we bring them to bear on a situation.

Chapter 8: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

1.
This chapter is based on material that appeared in D. W. Gooding and J. C. Lennox, “Worldview”, Yaroslavl, Nord, 2004.

2.
GNG
, p.114.

3.
GD
, p.122.

4.
This incident occurred just after a debate organized by the
Sydney Morning Herald
in which both Stenger and I took part. The debate may be seen at http://www.iq2oz.com/events/eventdetails/2008-series/08-08-19.php.

5.
E. P. Sanders,
The Historical Figure of Jesus
, Penguin Books, 1993, p.11.

6.
Christopher Tuckett, “Sources and Methods”, in
The Cambridge Companion to Jesus
, ed. Markus Bockmuehl, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p.124.

7.
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz,
The Historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide
, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1998, pp.93–94.

8.
Bertrand Russell,
Why I Am Not a Christian
, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1957, p.16.

9.
GD
, p.122.

10.
GNG
, p.110.

11.
Frederic G. Kenyon,
Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts
, 4th ed, Harper, New York, 1958, p.55.

12.
Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman,
The Text of the New Testament, Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration,
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 3rd enlarged ed, 1992.

13.
Interview recorded by Lee Strobel,
The Case for Christ
, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1998, p.63.

14.
GNG
, p.111.

15.
Luke 1:1–4.

16.
Luke 2:1

17.
The times and dates are to be found in Luke 1:5, 2:1, and 3:1–2, respectively.

18.
Acts 17:6, original Greek.

19.
See, e.g., Acts 17:17, original Greek.

20.
Irina Levinskaya,
The Book of Acts in its First Century Setting
,
Volume 5 Diaspora Setting
, Michigan, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1996, p.51ff.

21.
Ibid.
p.80

22.
William Ramsey,
St. Paul The Traveller and The Roman Citizen
, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896.

23.
Colin J. Hemer and Conrad H. Gempf,
The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History
, London, Coronet Books Inc, 1989, p.107ff.

24.
Sherwin White,
Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament
, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1963, p.189.