Doctor X

You may then find the story of Gerd Ludemann interesting. I do not know how much interest you have in biblical scholarship, but he is a professor at the University of Gottingen. He was Professor of New Testament.

Whilst dabbling through references on child sacrifice in the OT, I found his book, The Unholy in Holy Scripture referenced for details on the practice of the herem or "ban" or the requirement to "dedicate" an entire people to your god.

It seems that over the nineties he moved from a position of Christian to non-Christian. This book is sort of in the transition--he is very unhappy with what the OT and NT say and does try to affect an apology. However, his other books, which deny a physical resurrection, and further work have led him to condemn "liberal Christianity" as a fraud and declare himself a non-Christian.

This would result in him losing his NT professorship and cause a stir in academic circles. Anyways, his book seems very well done, but you can see some of the apology in it. You might find his stuggle interesting.

He brings up a problem many biblical scholars face: if these stories are not "true" what is the basis for faith?

--J.D.

Beleg_Strongbow

My mom took the Alpha course a while back. It was nothing but Bible study, and "proofs" for jebus, but I think she got a kick out of it. Or maybe she just wanted the free dinner.

The church also had a program called "Quest" for teenagers. It was supposed to be a program to help you choose a religion, but it was nothing but Christian propaganda. All they did was show you some really bad videos (made specifically for the program) that were supposed to look cool, but were really just full of so much bad camera shots and cinematography that they were painful to watch. I also met some of the dumbest kids that I've ever heard of there. Afterward, there was supposed to be a "discussion" of the video, but I was pretty much the only person who talked, except for some kids who just parroted "Jesus loves me". I went to one program, then decided to stay home and watch movies with my boyfriend on Sunday night instead.

Starboy

You know what would be cool? To have honesty in advertising applied to religion. Require mass marketed religions to make available statistics on effectiveness and harmfulness. Something like, “Warning, this religion may cause death anxiety.” Or “Warning, this religion may destroy your ability to separated reality from fantasy.” It's all fine and good to go around telling everyone that you got the answers, but without some requirements to demonstrate that you do indeed have the answers you could be causing great harm and no one could stop you till it was way too late.

Starboy

muon

Alpha has been discussed here before:

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.p...threadid=72253

Short summary: it's a program designed mostly to turn apathetic Christians into hardcore believers. Some of the techniques used are sophisticated emotional manipulation. I'd just as soon volunteer to go to a North Korean reeducation center as to attend an Alpha course.

Simiangrunt

Very interesting. I'll try to look it up!

Isn't faith something that requires one to keep it, in light of contrary evidence or at the minimum, attacks towards the faith?

Simiangrunt

haha

Thanks for sharing!

btw why do people call "Jesus" "Jeebus" around here?

Simiangrunt

Maybe we can report them to the better business bureau?

If they advertised their belief truthfully, they'd just say "Believe or go to hell. Literally."

Simiangrunt

thanks!

Steven Carr

I went to the first evening an Alpha course, where it was said it would be 'immoral' if I went to the second evening.

http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk/alpha.htm

Layman

Yes, I participated in a small Alpha Course in Tucson, Arizona. I thought it was great, actually. Contrary to what some have said here, there was a strong focus on keeping the ratio of Christians no higher than 50%. That was how it started, but as some of the nonbelievers lost interest, the ration obviously shifted in favor of the Christians.

None of the nonChristians in the course expressed any sense of being mislead by anyone. It was put forward as a straightforward Christian event, but with a focus on having time set aside for a very open forum for discussion. No limits. It was interesting, b/c different people had different concerns and questions, whether it was Christian exclusivity, the problem of evil, the relationship between science and religion, the historicity of the Bible. It was also interesting that different Christians were better equipped to deal with different questions and in different ways. I thought that was the strength of the program as a tool of Christian evangelism. Matching the questioner to the answerer, rather than relying on one guy or gal or book to answer all the questions.

Obviously, it is not an apologetics course or a biblical criticism class.

Interestinly enough, I recently had the occasion to visit the Church in London that started Alpha--Holy Trinity Brompton--, as well as the pastor who is featured most prominently in the actual Alpha tapes--Nicky Gumbel. Nice folks.

Was there any other questions I could answer for you?