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Atheist Debate Quotes

I believe that the following quotations, from the president of the USA’s largest atheist organization, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), Dan Barker, and from the president of PATAS, the Philippine ATheism,Agnosticism, and Skepticism (Society), are helpful in illuminating Psalm 14’s statement:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

Dan Barker [Freedom From Religion Foundation president]: “Even if Jesus did exist, even if I agreed …100%–yep, [Christ] rose from the dead; yep, there’s a God; yep, I don’t deny any of that—does not mean that He’s my Lord.  If He did exist, I will go happily to Hell.  It would be worse of a hell for me to bow down before a Lord regardless of the legend and historicity issue.  Even if I agreed 100%, I would still reject that Being as the Lord of my life because I’m better than that. …Amen. … I cannot accept Jesus as Lord.  You’re much more free to live and enjoy your life unshackled from the demands than have some Lord of your life.  To me, I think that’s more important than all this historicity stuff which you heard me admit is a matter of probabilities  I might be wrong.  That still doesn’t mean that Jesus is Lord.  He’s not the Lord of my life. (Dan Barker-Thomas Ross debate, “The Old Testament is Mainly Fiction, not Fact”. 1 hr 48 min)

Benjamin Maisonet [PATAS president]:
Mr. Maisonet: “I can give a better explanation [for the historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection than that it took place] … aliens did it. Its a better explanation … life could have come down and made it look like Christ resurrected [sic] from the grave. That’s more plausible than a supernatural, all-powerful [Being causing Christ to rise] … massively more probable.”  …
Mr. Ross: “I think you said there is no amount of historical evidence that would confirm, in your mind, that a miracle took place, no matter what, no matter what historical evidence there was?”
Mr. Maisonet: “Yes, I did say that, and I do agree with that.”
Mr. Ross: “So the historians who say that the resurrection is one of the best attested events in history–even if that’s the case, it wouldn’t matter, because it’s a miracle?” ….
Another illuminating exchange:
Dr. Ross: “So predicting the future to the year and to the day hundreds of years in advance [as Daniel did in Daniel 9, predicting Christ’s coming and His death] … we are going to say that we don’t know how it happened … [but nevertheless] no predictive prophecy, no matter how specific, would be able to show that there’s a God?”
Mr. Maisonet: “No. … [Even] assuming we grant that that’s how accurate the prophecy is.” (Thomas Ross / Benjamin Maisonet debate, “Does History Validate the New Testament Gospels? 51-55 min & 1 hr 27 min in)
TDR

PATAS, Philippine Atheism, Agnosticism, and Secularism (Society) Debate live: Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels? Ross / Maisonet

I am pleased to inform What is Truth? readers that the Thomas Ross – Benjamin Maisonet debate, “Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels?” is now live and can be watched on YouTube.

 

Click here to watch the Ross-Maisonet debate, “Does History Validate the Accuracy of the New Testament Gospels?”

 

The debate took place in Manila, Philippines, in 2019, where I was teaching a class on the preservation of Scripture and preaching for Bro Billy Hardecker of Mt. Zion Baptist Mission in Manila, but issues with the audio and video lining up kept the debate from going live until now. The quality is still not absolutely amazing, but considering the non-first-world setting and the equipment used, I am thankful for the quality that is present. Mr. Maisonet was (and I assume still is) the president of the Philippine Atheism, Agnosticism, and Secularism (Society), or PATAS.  He told me that he replaced the previous president because that person had been stealing money from the organization.  Atheism and agnosticism are much less common in the Philippines than they are in the United States, which may be one reason that the president of PATAS was born in the United States and moved to the Philippines.  In any case, Mr. Maisonet, as the president of PATAS, was a good representative of atheism in the Philippines.  He made the sort of popular-level arguments that one will run across in personal evangelism, rather than the more scholarly type of arguments against the accuracy of the New Testament made by Islamic apologists such as Shabir Ally.  I confess that I did not find his argumentation particularly convincing, but he seems to have thought he made a good case, and I will allow those who watch the debate to evaluate what was said based on facts and logic in God’s world.

 

PATAS Philippine Atheist Agnostic Society

 

The PATAS debate was set up at short notice, so I employed a lot of the material from my debate with Dr. Ally on “The New Testament Picture of Jesus: Is It Accurate?” which is also in my study on evidence for the New Testament from archaeology, prophecy, and history.  In my view, which is admittedly biased in favor of God and His Word, the arguments made for the historicity of the New Testament have now stood up well against both Muslim and atheist apologists.

 

Feel free to subscribe to my KJB1611 YouTube channel,”like” and comment on the debate, and share it with others, if you believe it deserves it. Also, if you would be interested in sponsoring a debate with a non-Christian philosophy or a pseudo-Christian cult, please contact my church.

 

TDR

AUTHORS OF THE BLOG

  • Kent Brandenburg
  • Thomas Ross

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