Bluechipx Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I have a very Xian friend that asked me to read the 'case for christ' as a favor to him. The book is supposed to be an unbiased look at the evidence for a historical jesus using detective like skills. I made it over halfway through the book before I had to stop and gather my sanity back. First off, Stroebel goes to the baptist evangelical theological seminary (sound unbiased yet?) to gather information. Every example Stroebel uses is either straw man or horribly convoluted logic. In the preface of the book there are about fifteen other books by Stroebel, all christian, and the case for Christ was one of the bunch. Stroebel claimed to be an atheist before researching this book and became a believer afterwards. So are we to believe he wrote a half dozen Christian books, became an atheist, did research for this one and converted back? If you are not positive your atheism is correct, try reading this book to reassure you that you are on the right track! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 If it was me I would say to my friend "Thanks for the book recommendation. I'm half way through. It has convinced me that Christianity is wrong." 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Strobel has to be a con man. No real skeptic would blindly swallow religious proponents' claims without inquiring of scholars without a religious bias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheerbliss Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 My aunt gave me that book to read. I got most of the way through it, writing, paragraph by paragraph, the logical fallacies, and sent that to her. IIRC, there was a lot of appeal to popularity. Billions of believers can't be wrong, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sybaris Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 A minister where my wife went to church many years ago gave that book to me. I couldn't finish it either. It's just too absurd. It's not so much for convincing a non-believer as it is fodder for the flock. In that sense it's genius cause christards eat that shit up and Stroebel laughed all the way to the bank. I may have it confused with another Stroeble book but is this the one that asserts the existence of the Jesus man by the volume of Bibles that have been printed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 It's not so much for convincing a non-believer as it is fodder for the flock. That's apologetics in a nutshell. It purports to be giving reasons that should convince the nonbeliever, but the arguments are pretty much only convincing to the already convinced. Any exceptions are almost always people who were already predisposed to belief because of their upbringing. Apologetics doesn't work on those who have genuinely applied critical thinking to Christianity, and with good reason. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Check out Steve Shives for more fun on this crappy book, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey101 Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Religion and Western thinking don't mix. We try to 'prove' religion and just end up looking like idiots. Religion is about faith lol. But that's the US, we are pretty much idiots. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salemite Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 So true Mikey101! The Christian apologetic books do more to damage to the one questioning than convincing anyone of the truth of the matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I have read his books and when i finished them i just remember thinking, so what, he didn't prove a thing. I didn't learn anything from his books. -whatever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blood Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I have a very Xian friend that asked me to read the 'case for christ' as a favor to him. The book is supposed to be an unbiased look at the evidence for a historical jesus using detective like skills. I made it over halfway through the book before I had to stop and gather my sanity back. First off, Stroebel goes to the baptist evangelical theological seminary (sound unbiased yet?) to gather information. No, that is totally what an "unbiased" reporter would do -- only talk to evangelicals who support your pre-conceived conclusion. If the reporter worked for Fox News. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ ficino ♦ Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Anyone know about accessing "Becca's" videos, which Steve Shives mentions in #7 linked by Burny? They sound insightful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Anyone know about accessing "Becca's" videos, which Steve Shives mentions in #7 linked by Burny? They sound insightful. She disappeared from YouTube - that's what motivated Shives to start his channel. Apparently one day she just closed her channel and vanished. Nobody knows why. She was fairly young and was defying her parents and family with her posts so hopefully she's OK and living her life in freedom somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I'd ask him to do me a favour in return and read a book of my choosing. I daresay we can all come up with some possible titles... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'd ask him to do me a favour in return and read a book of my choosing. I daresay we can all come up with some possible titles... Most fundies wouldn't give any "heathen" book a fair consideration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llwellyn Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I would agree to read an apologetics book only if they read "God Virus, The: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture," by Darrel W. Ray. This is not the most profound book, but it will do the trick, and won't go over the heads of most Christians. Imagine that -- Christianity is like a very fancy chain letter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikey101 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 So true Mikey101! The Christian apologetic books do more to damage to the one questioning than convincing anyone of the truth of the matter. I believe it. When I tried to read them when I was a Christian they just made me uncomfortable, and I didn't understand why. Now I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Positivist Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Someone gave that book to me too and I rolled my eyes through all of it. And now, for Xmas, my DH's dad gave DH a book endorsed by Joyce Meyer. Which means that I have her smarmy face lying around the living room. I picked the book up with BBQ tongs and gave it to DH to put "away" somewhere. These people are cray-cray. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadedAtheist Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I read the book when I first became a Christian and found it pretty good, same with CS Lewis' Mere Christianity and Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Now that I am out of the fog, the books are painful to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I read the book when I was a Christian, and even then as a believer who agreed with the conclusions put forth by the book, I found the book itself to be rather weak and unconvincing. I had hoped for a powerful book full of strong arguments and solid evidence, but I could see that it was rather shallow and wouldn't likely be taken seriously by any real skeptic. At the time I just figured that Strobel was trying to dumb things down so that it wouldn't be over the heads of anyone reading it, but now I realize that the reason it didn't amount to much is because there wasn't much for him to go on. The evidence against Christianity is so insurmountable that any honest in-depth look at the evidence would lead to entirely different conclusions than those put forth in the book. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'd ask him to do me a favour in return and read a book of my choosing. I daresay we can all come up with some possible titles... Most fundies wouldn't give any "heathen" book a fair consideration. I would hope that they would not give it any consideration - sort of "I only need the bible" type response. Which provides the perfect rationale for refusing the favour requested by said fundy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
★ Citsonga ★ Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'd ask him to do me a favour in return and read a book of my choosing. I daresay we can all come up with some possible titles... Most fundies wouldn't give any "heathen" book a fair consideration. I would hope that they would not give it any consideration - sort of "I only need the bible" type response. Which provides the perfect rationale for refusing the favour requested by said fundy. Good point, although some would agree to read it so you'll agree to read their book. They won't give yours a fair reading, though, if they even read it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsathoggua Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 You can count me as one of the people who could not manage to get through the whole book. (It was loaned to me by my sister.) Not convincing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Christians writing books about whether christianity is true or not. Then passing it off as an objective look at the subject....yeah no bias included i'm sure -nothin' but fodder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seven77 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 'The Case For Christ' makes a lovely doorstop. So does 'Mere Christianity'. Somehow those two survived my Christian faptard lit days. I can't resist throwing in a free Joyce Meyer meme. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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