Why is it that some Christians pretend that overwhelming physical evidence of their god’s existence is impossible? The Gospels themselves lay out instructions on how to demonstrate to the world that God is behind that faith that you have. As Netwriter shows so clearly in this video, there are no ifs, ands, or buts, no qualifications to these promises at all. Should be easy to take Jesus up on them, if you have even the tiniest bit of faith!
If you don’t think that direct quotations from Jesus appearing in the Gospels are reason enough to believe something, what exactly do you base your understanding of Christianity on? And if you do believe Jesus’ promises of doing anything you ask … I look forward to seeing your amazing feats of faith.
mist42nz on 
Christopher on 
Well…I did what you said….prayed to God to show up on my TV and He DID!!!! Unfortunately. it was on FOX and no other channel and he appeared to be a little bit like Bill O’Rielly in drag with his long robes and all.
He spoke to me and said “What is it you want my son”???? Of course I was dumbfounded and instead of making a wish I changed the channel as I often do when watching Fox. I didn’t know what to say or do.
After a while I switched back and he was gone with only Bret Hume mouthing supposed news. But I , and I’m sure many other FOX viewers did see him…verily we did….and I’m sure Rupert Murdoch will testify to this fact when they try to take away his license.
Ya know, I follow your blog because even though you can sometimes be a bit wry, there is usually substance behind your work. That said, I am rather disappointed that you would offer this as anything other than a parody of a real argument.
http://truthinreligionandpolitics.com/2010/10/01/complaint-department-01/
Where’s the parody, John? Jesus said “Believers can do this.” But believers can’t do this. Therefore Jesus was either lying or mistaken. Your link claims that he was taken ‘out of context’, but that’s not the point: regardless of what the context is, that’s what he SAID.
Now, according to you this guy is the son of God, so he can’t claim to have been ignorant about how his sayings would be written down and preserved. Presumably if he meant: “You should have believed me when I said I could cast out demons”, he would have said: “You should have believed me when I said I could cast out demons”. That would be the rational thing to do, right?
So here are your options: either Jesus was too dumb to know, or didn’t care, that what he said would be written down and misunderstood — in which case he can’t be the Son of God — or he was lying or mistaken — in which case he can’t be the Son of God. Or someone else made the whole thing up.
Not much of a choice, is it?
Interesting. So if someone misquotes Jesus 1980 years after he said something, that shows that Jesus was not the son of God?
Why is this a true statement, that if Jesus didn’t care that what he said would be written down and misunderstood, that means that he wasn’t the Son of God? It’s not at all obvious to me why that must be true.
We don’t have any source of information, reliable or not, about Jesus and his life other than the New Testament (and maybe some of the noncanonical scriptures). If the scriptures aren’t reliable sources of information, then what basis do we have for supposing anything about Jesus at all?
The only chance for Jesus actually being the son of God requires that we take the Bible and its claims seriously. If the Bible is full of false statements (especially of the sort, if you do x, then y will always happen), I just don’t see how we could do that. Wouldn’t the son of God (or, depending on your denomination, an embodiment of that same God) make sure not to lie to people, make sure to communicate his important message clearly?
If Jesus was the Son of God, he was all knowing, just, and merciful. Being that, he knew if he left an ambiguous message of his existence here on earth that people of intellect and reason would doubt it. So he knew that he would be condemning them to hell for all eternity for doubting his non-historical record. WTF kind of sadomasochistic God are you worshiping?
Bear in mind too that if there turned out to be anything in the Bible that didn’t say what God wanted it to say, he could have corrected it immediately without anyone even noticing the change. So if it’s there, we can assume God wanted it there. Otherwise God’s omnipotence goes phhht!
And yet, in the very sentence preceding the one he quotes, Jesus is quoted by John as saying “He that believeth on me, …” That is certainly a qualification, that carries forward into verses 13 and 14, and not an unimportant one. So I give the video creator an A for cleverness but a D for reading comprehension.
My question to you all is, how do you know so much about what Jesus and God would have done and thought?
How do we know anything??? By evidence, intellect, and reason.
Do you take the word of God seriously who slaughtered all the inhabitants of Sodom and threatens damnation for all those who disbelieve in him? WTF kind of vain glorious vindictive SOB are you listenening too???
Some conditions are implied. For example, no one expects that instruction to apply to Muslims, Hindus or Atheists.
We know because we’ve been listening to Christians blather on about it our entire lives. We know because we’ve been told by these self-same Christians that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. It therefore follows that if God intended to provide accurate, perfect and contradiction-free instructions he could have easily done so. That he hasn’t suggests that he just doesn’t care, that he isn’t omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent, or, much more likely, that he simply doesn’t exist and we’re arguing about an early urban fantasy novel.
[...] And it’s really kind of unfortunate, because the author, Frederick Price, is actually taking the Bible at its word and explaining how a believing Christian can truly get anything they ask for in prayer. Seriously [...]
Of course God exists. All kinds of gods exist, apart from the ones that are completely forgotten. Since RD himself came up with the idea of memes, he defined a place for gods to exist: in our brains, our culture, our emotions. God is a memetic being. And being a strong meme, having a central place in our culture and in the psychology of most people, God certainly influences the physical world.
I can’t understand how any rational person could deny God’s existence in this sense. It’s like saying there’s no Hamlet.
But … there is a difference between claiming, “The concept of a deity exists in people’s minds,” and “This particular deity manifestly exists in the real, physical world.” People’s beliefs in the Christian god definitely influence our world. But that is not the same as saying that the god itself causes that influence.