Reading path
The skeptic's path
You have read Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens. You are willing to be moved by evidence. You want the philosophy first, then the history.
The site's case is not "trust us." It is a chain of inferences, each defensible on its own evidence. This path walks the chain from the most general (does theism even make sense) to the most specific (did Jesus rise) and gives the strongest engagement with the contemporary skeptical position at each step.
- 01
Section · Section 01
A universe rather than nothing
The philosophical case for theism, briefly. Cosmological, fine tuning, moral, consciousness.
- 02
Note
Sean Carroll and poetic naturalism
The strongest contemporary naturalist alternative engaged on its merits.
- 03
Note
Lemaître and the Christian origin of the Big Bang
Christianity and modern science are not opposed. The Big Bang was proposed by a Catholic priest.
- 04
Section · Section 02
Three things a monotheism has to do
Among monotheisms, the Christian conception solves problems strict unitarianism leaves open.
- 05
Section · Section 03
5,800 manuscripts
The textual base. 5,800 Greek manuscripts, the best attested in antiquity.
- 06
Section · Section 04
5 years, not 500
Composition dates. 1 Cor 15 creed within 5 years of crucifixion.
- 07
Note
The Bauckham eyewitness chain
The Gospels as eyewitness testimony, not late legend.
- 08
Section · Section 09
Six pillars
Six historical facts accepted by >95% of working scholars.
- 09
Section · Section 10
Pull a pillar, the roof falls
Every naturalistic alternative, engaged.
- 10
Note
Dale Allison's vision theory and its limits
The most sophisticated current naturalistic alternative, and where it underexplains the data.
- 11
Note
Mythicism in detail (Carrier and Price)
The Carrier and Price position, and why no professional NT historian holds it.
- 12
Section · Section 17
The case is the case
The closing.