With Due Respect: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

A criticism of miracles

In the 1980, popular cosmologist Carl Sagan made a comment concerning miracles in episode 12 of his famous TV series, Cosmos.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

This statement became dubbed as "Sagan's Dictum" and is often used by atheists and sceptics to dismiss the eyewitness accounts of Jesus's miracles and resurrection.

To be fair, this statement is healthy as it encourages checking of claims. Too many a time, we see reports on how honest, hardworking people are conned of their valuables by cheats or charlatans. Too often we are too trusting and take wholly the word of advertisements.

However this statement is flawed to some extent. Let me explore why.

1) Self-refuting claim
This statement itself is an extraordinary claim! Because it claims to be true for all possible extraordinary claims. We cannot prove this claim to be true with extraordinary evidence.

2) How much evidence?
Furthermore, the person asking for evidence tends to not to define the how much evidence would be considered extraordinary, and whether this demand is reasonable. Let's take the claim for Jesus's resurrection.

More evidence?
Some people argue that if Jesus really rose from the dead, there would be much more accounts than the Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John). However the fact that most people living that time period were illiterate, and the fact that we even have copies of the original manuscripts is extraordinary!

Higher quality evidence?
Some people argue that since the Gospels were written so some time after the life of Jesus that they cannot be considered accurate. The copies of the original Gospel manuscripts were written about 100 to 200 years and sceptics often claim for evidence of a higher quality (copies closer to the events themselves).

However, when we compare the copies of the Gospels to other records of the Antiquity (i.e. that that time period of Ancient Romans and Greeks), the Gospels are of extraordinary quality! The earliest copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars were written 1,000 years after the events,  but few doubt the events happen. The earliest copies of Aristotle were written 1,100 years after his lifetime, but no one doubts that there were Aristotle original works.

A different kind of evidence?
Lastly, some people demand a different criteria for reliability. Some people lament the lack of video evidence (why should there be?) or more secular records of Christ. However, we have to wonder why such demand is resonable.

3) Flawed reasoning
The statement also fails to acknowledge that extraordinary claims need not extraordinary evidence. For instance, in 2008 I won a poker tournament despite having zero experience at card competition and only played poker at a recreational event once before. Despite this being a highly unlikely event, I did not have any supernatural evidence for it.

My friends witnessed the event, I have a trophy to show for it and my victor was announced by the emcee. None of this evidences can be considered extraordinary, yet none of my friends doubted the event.

Conclusion
While Sagan's Dictum sounds intelligent on paper and encourages proof-checking, it is inherently flawed.

For further reading

Apologetics

CARM

For evidence on the resurrection of Christ-- bethinking

Theology 1.0: Who is Sophia Blackmore?

Sophia Blackmore

Despite Singaporean, I realised I often do not post about the Christians would contributed to Singapore. So let me give a brief description of the life of one Christian-- Sophia Blackmore. She is more famously known as the founder of Fairfield Methodist School (Primary) and Methodist Girls' School.

In the beginning...
Born 18th October 1857 in Australia to devout Methodist parents, Sophia had a calling to be a missionary after meeting American missionary Isabella Leonard.

However the Australian church did not dispatch unmarried woman as missionaries, so Sophia had to rely on the American church (and thus the help of Miss Leonard) to sponsor her instead. She was then sent to Singapore.

Welcome to Singapore
Arriving in Singapore on 16th July 1887, Sophia started the Tamil Girls' School (later known as the Methodist Girls' School) within a month with a cohort of nine students. She then set up a mission to spread the gospel in Chinatown, making 800 visits to 90 homes a year.

In August 1888, she set up a Chinese girls' school (now Fairfield Methodist) with a cohort of eight students. Still not done, she also established a shelter for homeless girls, calling it Nind home, in honour of a friend (Mary Nind) who supported her.

Church planting
In 1894, she planted a church in Singapore catering to those who worshiped in the Baba Malay language. This was affectionately called the "Baba Church", and now is known as Kampong Kapor Methodist Church today.

In 1928, Sophia returned to Australia. She passed away on 3rd July 1945.

Personally
I admire Ms Blackmore for her dedication to the Christian faith, and her aid to teenage girls. This is despite her initially setback with the Australian church and her struggles in a foreign land.

Updates: My career

Hello readers, as you all my know (or may not know), my teaching career has now taken full swing. As such, I am now unable to update this blog regularly.

Nevertheless, this blog will still be operational, but posts could come quarterly. Don't expect high quality apologetics or theological articles, but I'll try my best.

Thanks for reading faithfully!

Regards,
Defensedefumer

With Due Respect: My Christian friend is a bad example!

"The worst people I know are Christians"

When I was in the military, one of the reasons I hesitated in becoming a Christian was because some of the worst people I worked with were Christians. They would avoid responsiblities, feign illnesses and were undependable. Their terrible work ethic and moral behaviour were reprehensible to me.

Why should any non-Christian be attracted to Christ in the light of the behaviour of his followers?


Some Christians have done terrible stuff
Now I have to admit this: Some Christians have done terrible stuff in history. Many people have listed the examples of the Crusades and the Inquisition that have caused many deaths in the name of Christ. Torquemada, one of the Spanish Inquisitors, deported more than 40,000 Jews and was estimated to be responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people during the Spanish Inquisition.

If following Christ maybe leads to people doing horrible things, it is little wonder people find Christianity a turn-off.

Some non-Christians have also done terrible stuff
However, we need to be fair. Non-Christians have also done many terrible things in the name of their worldview. During the Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao of China caused the death of millions for his view of atheisitic Communism. During World War II, the Japanese killed millions in the name of their divine Emperor or Shinto Buddhism.

If not following Christianity also may result horrific things, where does this lead us?

What about the issue of truth?
However in philsophy, this line of logic (that the argument is bad because the person saying it is bad) is an ad-hoc argument (Sire, 2006). In other words, an argument is cannot be considered invalid just because a person is of bad character.

As someone who is seeking the truth, one must be able to explore statements independent of whoever says it.

Conclusion
In our effort to discern the truthfulness of arguments, one must be wary not to focus on the ills of the speaker. However, in Christianity we have Jesus saying that he is God. Why not spend time discerning his claim?

References
Sire, J. (2006) Why Good Arguments Often Fail

Alternative Culture: Persepolis review

Before I begin this review, I would like to say I'm a big admirer of Persepolis, the comic series by French-Iranian artist Marjane-Satrapi. I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of the film adaptation in the library, and did not hesitate to borrow it.

The premise of the film

Similar to the comic book, the film covers Marjane's life as a child under the Islamic Revolution to a teenager wandering the streets of Europe to a young adult leaving Iran for a second time. She struggles

The theology
There are many issues I would like to blog about. For instance, I would like to blog about how Marjane's uncle faith in the people was misplaced, on the ideology of the Iranian government or even on Marjane's teenage experiences in Europe. However, what I would like to highlight is how Marjane's view of God has changed overtime.

Marjane and God

At the start of the movie, Marjane is portrayed as an ordinary young girl who idolises Bruce Lee and hopes to be a prophet of God in the future.

This "God" is loving and kind, and would never let any harm come to Marjane's way. This "God" is like a cosmic Santa Claus who gives Marjane a good life, without preparing her for the suffering to come.

So it was no surprise that Marjane's theology was shattered when her uncle was executed by the Iranian state. Angered by powerlessness from her "God", she bids him to go away. As she becomes a young adult, her view on God has become more deistic (a "God" who does not care) and answers her queries with a "Yeah, yeah" emotionlessly.

Although the film does not explicit state Marjane's current religious belief, she has stated her lack of belief in God. I find her current belief unsurprising since her theology was not strong in the first place.

Her theology should serve as a warning to Christians. So often, we Christians also have a "Santa Claus" theology: God will reward us if we behave well, and punish us if we behave badly. If Christians are not prepared to have a theology of suffering, then we will have an incomplete theology (Carson, 2006). After all, Jesus had warned in John 15:20 that "the world will persecute" Christians.

In addition, when we face suffering, we often complain of the unfairness of suffering, just like Marjane confronts "God". But why do we expect not to suffer? Were we expecting our wealth, family and social status to protect us from the reality of the world?

Left with a poor understanding of God, we too might abandon our faith unwittingly. Christians should be mature about their faith.

Overall
I particularly am humbled by her experiences in Iran during her childhood days, and her struggle for identity during her adolescent years. I cannot even begin to imagine what it was like growing up during the Iran-Iraq War, or to be discriminated against when in Europe (even though I did my university studies there).

I rate this 85/100.

References
Carson, D. (2006) How Long, O God?

With Due Respect: Don't all religions lead to God?

In pluralistic, sensitive and secular Singapore, it is often regarded taboo to talk about religions, much less the exclusitvity of a certain religion. To even say in public that "Jesus is the Way, the truth and the life" (according to John 14:6) can be frown upon and considered to be disruptive in society.

After all, given the huge number of religions in the world, isn't it bigoted to say that Christianity is the only way to God?

Think about it first:

The statement that all religions lead to God presupposes a few assumptions, and I will handle some of them.

1) It is arrogant to say that any one religion has exclusivity to God
 The statement firstly assumes that anybody who claims to have monopoly on the truth is standoffish and unnecessarily divisive.

However, this statement is unconcerned about the nature of truth (i.e. whether something is true or not) and is more concerned about sensitivity (whether people will be offended or not). It has no bearing on truth claims.

Furthermore, the statement by its own rules is also arrogant. This statement is also exclusive in stating that no one religion can be exclusive.

2) All religions talk about the same God
The statement also assumes the God that all religions talk about is the same. However, there are many irreconcilable differences between the differing religions.

For instance, in Hinduism there are many gods. In Christianity, Judaism and Islam, there is only one God. To cite another example, Christianity claims that Jesus is God, while Judaism and Islam rejects that notion.

Hence, to be completely logical and coherent, only one of the following is possible:
A) All religions are wrong OR
B) Only one religion is right

The idea that all of them lead to the same God, or rather the same conclusion is logically inconsistent.

Conclusion
Instead of engagning in senstivity mud-slinging and accuse each other of arrogance, I encourage all readers to come and explore this site and others like it. Come and see if Jesus is truly God or not!


For further reading

Bethinking

Theology 1.0: Did Jesus have a wife?

Oh no, were the Gnostics right?
Earlier thie year, a Bible scholar, Professor Karen King of Harvard University discovered an ancient manuscript that claimed that Jesus had a wife. This echos the view of the Gnostics (early Christian heretics) who also claimed the same thing.

But wait..
We have to give Professor King her due-- at no point did she say that the text proves that Jesus was married, or that the text was even geniune.

Nevertheless, we have to bear in mind the following.

1) The text could be a copy of the Gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic gospel.  Gnostic gospels are not considered to be accurate historical accounts of Jesus as (amongst other reasons) they were written about two hundred years after the events in the cannonical Gospels.

2) If the text is an original, dated to be about 4th century (since Coptic, the language on the manuscript emerged as a written language in the 3rd century). This means that this script is written many years from events of Jesus's lifetime. Of this writing, the mauscript has yet to be subjected to carbon dating.

3) This authenticity of the manuscript has been doubted.

Nevertheless..

We should give credit to Professor King for discovering and working on an accurate translation of the manuscript. However, the question on the reliablity of the document is still in question.

Additional references

Bethinking

Textual criticism