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Lee Strobel?
#11
RE: Lee Strobel?
My experience reading Stroebel is that his bias is blatant and his case is based on one-sided reporting. I presume he was as bad a reporter as he is an apologist, although possibly he just shut down the side of his brain that appreciates objectivity when he got religion.
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#12
RE: Lee Strobel?
(December 13, 2011 at 6:16 am)elly Wrote: 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 often quoted apologists like Lee Strobel in my own book. Usually the subheading that introduced the quotation was along the lines of "Lee Strobel Tries to Explain".

Needless to say, the "explanations" often rivel Maxwell Smart as he prefaced his statements with "would you believe...?" When I read "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith", I found them so underwhelming that they really shouldn't need a response at all.

In general, this is Strobel's approach:

Step 1: Play up the "hard nosed investigative reporting" schtick (as much an act as the "I'm an ex-atheist, no really" schtick).

Step 2: Present some total nerfball objections to Christianity that allegedly come from unnamed "skeptics". Play up these nerfball questions as if they're so deeply troubling to matters of faith.

Step 3: Interview some lauded Christian apologist who knocks down the strawman skeptic objection.

Step 4: Avoid interviewing any skeptic for rebuttal or for a real objection that would be hard for the apologist to answer.

Repeat as necessary.

Quote:I presume he was as bad a reporter as he is an apologist

On what basis would we evaluate the quality of an apologist, considering they all use the same canned rehashed arguments?
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
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#13
RE: Lee Strobel?
(December 13, 2011 at 9:38 am)chatpilot Wrote: 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.

When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought. Don't point fingers without pointing to yourself.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
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#14
RE: Lee Strobel?
Sure I do GC, they didn't have any evidence and so I call bullshit. Unless you have to know a secret handshake before they fork over the goods? You're in the business of making excuses for professional excuse makers now?
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#15
RE: Lee Strobel?
Quote:When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought.


Of course not. They are as fucked up as you are. The difference is they make a lucrative living selling bullshit to gullible fools.
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#16
RE: Lee Strobel?
(December 16, 2011 at 12:02 am)Godschild Wrote: When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought. Don't point fingers without pointing to yourself.

Actually, I did. In my book, I often quoted apologists and Bible "scholars". Their own arguments are so ridiculous that they almost pwn themselves.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
...      -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
...       -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
Reply
#17
RE: Lee Strobel?
I still need to get a copy of your book. I've always meant to but life keeps getting in the way.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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#18
RE: Lee Strobel?
(December 16, 2011 at 10:25 am)DeistPaladin Wrote:
(December 16, 2011 at 12:02 am)Godschild Wrote: When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought. Don't point fingers without pointing to yourself.

Actually, I did. In my book, I often quoted apologists and Bible "scholars". Their own arguments are so ridiculous that they almost pwn themselves.

They almost pwn themselves..hahaah could not agree more. I actually read The Case For Christ during my doubting days, as a last ditch effort to convince myself that what I had believed was actually true. Needless to say this didn't work, and even though I still considered myself a Christian at the time, I found the arguments he presented to be incredibly flimsy. I'm actually not familiar with the book the Case For Faith. The one I have been coming up against lately is his newer book, The Case for a Creator. According to a relative of mine, it put all his worries about God to rest. That is what makes me so angry, that a christian who is doubting can be encouraged to ignore his doubts by reading these books.

"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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#19
RE: Lee Strobel?
(December 16, 2011 at 11:40 am)elly Wrote:
(December 16, 2011 at 10:25 am)DeistPaladin Wrote:
(December 16, 2011 at 12:02 am)Godschild Wrote: When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought. Don't point fingers without pointing to yourself.

Actually, I did. In my book, I often quoted apologists and Bible "scholars". Their own arguments are so ridiculous that they almost pwn themselves.

They almost pwn themselves..hahaah could not agree more. I actually read The Case For Christ during my doubting days, as a last ditch effort to convince myself that what I had believed was actually true. Needless to say this didn't work, and even though I still considered myself a Christian at the time, I found the arguments he presented to be incredibly flimsy. I'm actually not familiar with the book the Case For Faith. The one I have been coming up against lately is his newer book, The Case for a Creator. According to a relative of mine, it put all his worries about God to rest. That is what makes me so angry, that a christian who is doubting can be encouraged to ignore his doubts by reading these books.

It could be that your relative did not ignore the doubts, it could be that he saw his doubts as not worthy of worry anymore.

(December 16, 2011 at 10:25 am)DeistPaladin Wrote:
(December 16, 2011 at 12:02 am)Godschild Wrote: When you try to discredit christianity you never go to the Bible scholars who believe in Christ and the salvation he brought. Don't point fingers without pointing to yourself.

Actually, I did. In my book, I often quoted apologists and Bible "scholars". Their own arguments are so ridiculous that they almost pwn themselves.

The name of your book and where can I find it.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.
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#20
RE: Lee Strobel?
"God vs. the Bible"

http://www.amazon.com/God-vs-Bible-John-...B00262U3LG

You're welcome.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist.  This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair.  Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second.  That means there's a situation vacant.'
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