Cold-Case Christianity

[Pat Mustard]

Has anyone read this book by J. Warner Wallace?  I have a former HS friend turned religious fundie who is hell bent on converting me, and in the interest of a fair debate I told him I’d read it. I’m expecting the usual apologetics rundown of lowering the standards for evidence so we can include alleged eyewitness testimony, but I was just curious if anyone here had suffered through it so I can prepare myself for the pain. Thanks, loves! ❤️

Yeah, I read about 2/3 of it a while back on the request of a relative.

Same old arguments and fallacies we've all heard a thousand times. Since it was written by a former police homicide officer, theists think it has some added credibility, I guess.

Steve Shives does a pretty thorough refutation of it on 9 videos.

**It looks like wyzas beat me to it on post #15 above.


 

Twas me Simon, me!

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Peter was executed but we have no transcripts from that.  Tradition holds that he was fleeing and then Jesus appeared to him and told him to turn himself in. But even then, how do we know how the interrogation went?  Instead of the ol' Christian wet dream, "Deny Christ and go free, or you will die," it very well could've been more like, "You are guilty of sedition and we will torture you until you admit it." And then if Peter proclaims his Christianity and is executed, that looks great for Christians. Or who knows, maybe he denied Christ. Wouldn't be the first time Peter did that anyway.  We simply don't know, and apologists disguise their speculation as fact.

The reality is that Peter was most likely executed by Nero as a token gesture to appease the people because he blamed Christians for the fire of Rome.

Did Peter even exist? Also, Nero killed no christians during his reign, mainly because the groupings which eventually became christian were still fringe jewish cults.