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Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 6:16 am
Hi all,
I'm just wondering if any of you are familiar with the writings of Lee Strobel? I've been coming up against his works more and more when arguing against christianity. Apparently, he used to be an atheist, but found proof of God, and now is a born again christian. Based on what I've already read on him, I call total bull shit, but his supposed "scientific findings" seem to be swaying a lot of people. I was just curious if any of you had an opinion on him or were familiar with his work.
"I'm not going to ask if you just said what I think you just said, because I know it's what you said."
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 8:06 am
Lee Strobel is a fucking moron. All he has to do to prove that fact every time is open his mouth.
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 9:38 am
Lee Strobel is not an authority on religion he was a reporter and in his book The Case For Christ he tries to use an investigative approach to proving the veracity of the claims made by Christianity regarding Christ and the plan of salvation in particular. He relies heavily on the claims of Christian apologists such as William Lane Craig and others and in the end his investigation in my opinion was an utter failure. He does not seek the opinions of other notable biblical scholars that are known as skeptics to answer or contradict the other sides claims. In fact his whole investigation is one sided and geared toward proving what Mr. Strobel himself has been led to believe.
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 12:19 pm
I think part of what happens is when people doubt they try to seek comfort or something to affirm that what they believe is true. When I was a Christian and I had a particular nasty "doubting" situation I ran out and bought a book I knew of called "I don't have enough faith to be an atheist" and I read it and it solved my problems for awhile.
When someone tells you a reason even if it is a bad one that supports what you believe it is easy to accept it. It lines up with what you want to be true so you jump on it and tout it as great evidence etc. I think this is partly what happens with strobbel's books and makes them popular. As far as atheists being converted through it etc I think I agree with others here that many atheists are not well thought out.
If someone is born into a secular environment and the issue of religion and oppositions to it isn't really touched on it won't be hard to influence them with religion a lot of times. Without critical thinking about the subject beforehand people can be very impressionable very quickly.
That doesn't make those who do get influenced easily like that stupid it just means they aren't prepared to deal with it. Back before I saw the "light" I used to argue with atheists occasionally problem is I never really looked at everything they were saying or tried to study the issue from their side extensively. All I got was straw-men examples of atheism, misconceptions, etc.
To the OP I am not saying you aren't studied in atheism or anything I was just speaking generally about the issue. If you have friends who are getting heavily influenced by Strobbel and you want to do them a HUGE favor read the book yourself and write a short refutation of his main points. There is probably a refutation like that already available somewhere if you want to just give it to them or if you need more ideas for your own.
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 12:50 pm
(This post was last modified: December 13, 2011 at 12:50 pm by Minimalist.)
Strobel was a "teaching pastor" (whatever the fuck that is!) at some shithole church in Illinois by 1987 so I have to take his "I was an atheist" claim with a large bag of salt. Sounds like the typical bullshit we get from the occasional moron who shows up and tries it here.
His "Case for Christ" has been refuted by Earl Doherty and Robert Price among others. As noted, the problem with it is that Stroebel interviews a bunch of apologist asswipes and writes their opinions down as if they are fact. There is no balance in the book and no hard evidence.
By way of comparison imagine walking into a mosque in Mecca and asking everyone you saw if the Koran was real. That's sort of what Stroebel tried to pull.
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 2:03 pm
(This post was last modified: December 13, 2011 at 2:04 pm by Voltair.)
.... that settles it I am convinced then! The reason is goddidit be ye saved from this perverse generation!
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RE: Lee Strobel?
December 13, 2011 at 2:59 pm
Minimalist said: His "Case for Christ" has been refuted by Earl Doherty and Robert Price among others. As noted, the problem with it is that Stroebel interviews a bunch of apologist asswipes and writes their opinions down as if they are fact. There is no balance in the book and no hard evidence.
Namely The Case Against The Case For Christ by Robert Price, Challenging The Verdict: A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel's "The Case For Christ by Earl Doherty. I actually tried to read Strobel's book but didn't make it out of the first chapter before I saw how biased it was so I decided to watch the painful one hour documentary based on the book of the same title. I've thoroughly read and examined the two books I mentioned above and find the case against Christ more compelling. I am one of those atheists that even questions the very historicity of Christ due to the lack of evidence of his existence but that is a different topic altogether.
