REASONS

Changes

2010-01-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

I will no longer be blogging here on Reasons. To touch base with me or to see what I'm up to, please visit my YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChadTheBerean

Thanks,

Chad

01-06-2009

Question from a Jehovah's Witness

2009-11-01T07:43:00.000-08:00

Posted by Chad Dulaney

Question:

How can I be part of a religion that I no longer believe to be right? I wish my religion would stop beating me down with doctrine and rules and preach love and how to live in a way that brings Honor to God. I was raised to believe that the Jehovah's Witnesses was
the only true religion and was Gods visible organization. I thought i could just be part of the social group. I shut the whole world out and all my friends and now all my friends are witnesses. If i leave i will loose all my friends.

Answer:

My dear friend, you don't have to be part of it. You have seen a poor representation of God through the Watchtower. The truth is that God loves you. I mean He cares about you deeply, which is why He is speaking to your heart through the Holy Spirit revealing to you that what you've been taught is incorrect.

Let this invitation of Jesus Christ settle into your soul, bring you comfort, peace, and truth:

"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

You find fault because there are faults. You've been serving an organization that uses mind control tactics which have been proven by Psychological and Psychiatric doctors. An organization who has twisted the Holy Scriptures to fit their doctrine.
You're not allowed to use any commentary but theirs, you're not to become close to anyone outside the organization, your told you cannot study and understand the Bible without their guidance, you're told you cannot confirm salvation without works, etc., etc., etc.

My dear, dear friend... none of the above is Biblical. I don't know you, but I can honestly say that I love you because my feelings literally hurt for you right now. If you ever need to talk, let off steam, vent it out, have questions or anything I am here. You don't have to be a Christian to be my friend. You don't have to be perfect to be my friend. You're human.

Please feel absolutely free to shoot me an email at anytime regarding anything. I am praying for you.

Your bro,
Chad

***UPDATE***
Thank you for your help. I feel better not being alone in this fight. I do feel like I asked God to show me the way and He has shown me it is not there way. It is hard to leave what you have known for so long. I must now learn to control my anger toward the the Watchtower.

Would you DIE for a LIE?

2009-09-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

If you were spreading a lie and were about to be killed for it, and all you had to do was confess the truth to live... would you?

OR

Would you choose to be fed to lions in a stadium for all to see? For a lie...

Or choose rather to have your head sliced off your shoulders? For a lie...

Why did most of Jesus' disciples die for their belief in Him? All they had to do was recant His name and they could have lived. But they didn't. They went to their death instead. Could it be because what they claimed and believed wasn't a lie, but was true?

What if you knew a man who claimed to be the only way to God? This man performed miracles, raised deceased people from the dead right in front of your eyes, healed the sick, etc. Then this man was killed, you watched him die. But days later he was raised from the dead, and you saw him! Along with 500 other eye witnesses! Chances are, you would probably believe he was really who he claimed to be.

The disciples as well as an estimated 70 million other Christians throughout the last 2000 years went to their death for believing in Jesus. They refused to deny Him, no matter what the cost. Why? Because they knew He was who He said He was. So, the question is... would all these men have died for what they knew was a lie?

Peter, crucified upside-down in Rome circa 64 A.D.
James, son of Zebedee was beheaded in 44 A.D.
Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified upon a diagonal cross.
Phillip was crucified in54 A.D.
Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel) was flayed alive (skinned) and then beheaded.
Matthew, killed by a halberd in 60 A.D.
Thomas was killed by a spear in Mylapore, Madras, India in AD 72.
James, son of Alphaeus, beaten to death with a club after being crucified and stoned.
Jude was crucified.
Simon the Zealot was crucified in 74 A.D.
Matthias (Judas' replacement), was stoned and beheaded.

Question from an atheist...

2009-07-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Question:
The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike. How do you differentiate? Carl Sagan said "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Wouldn't you agree that God is an extraordinary claim?

Answer:
1.) Thanks for your question! Things invisible can be revealed through senses and observation other than vision. Example, we cannot see the wind, but through other senses and observation we know it exists. For evidence that points to the existence of God, please see my previous post titled "Does God Exist?".

2.) The non-existent does not exist, therefor cannot be acknowledged in any way.

3.) Carl Sagan -
In reply to a direct question in 1996 about his religious beliefs, Sagan gave a direct answer: "I'm agnostic." Sagan argued that the idea of a Creator of the Universe was difficult to disprove unless we obtained conceivable scientific discovery of an infinitely old universe. As most scientists in Astronomy & Astrophysics agree, the universe is finite & had a beginning. So, according to Sagan's own words, it is very difficult to disprove that there is a Creator of the universe.

I also agree that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. To claim that the universe popped into existence uncaused & out of nothing seems to be a far out extraordinary claim to me. I propose that this requires some serious extraordinary evidence.

Thanks,
Chad Dulaney

Jesus vs. Horus

2009-04-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

In his film Religulous, Bill Maher claims that the story of Jesus is not authentic and is borrowed from the Egyptian god Horus. Lets take a look at these and see how they really match up.

Claim #1-Horus and Jesus are born from a virgin.

Horus’s mother is Isis. Isis was married to Osiris. We do not know for what length of time, but presumably the marriage was consummated. Whether it was or wasn’t doesn’t matter though. After Osiris is killed, Isis puts him back together again (he was hacked into 14 pieces) except for his penis which was tossed in a river or a lake. Iris fashions a substitute penis for him, has sex with him and out comes Horus. There is nothing virginal about that.

Claim #2-Both Horus and Jesus were born to a Mary and Joseph (Seb).

As noted Isis is Horus’s mother’s name not Mary. In addition, Seb is not Horus’s father, Osiris is. Seb is Osiris’s father. Further, Seb is a distinct name from Joseph. Putting them side by side does not make them synonyms, and that appears to be what was done here.

Claim #3-Both were born of royal descent.

This is accurate.

Claim #4-Both births were announced by angels and witnessed by shepherds.

I can find nothing that mentions that the birth of Horus was announced by an angel or witnessed by shepherds. I have found that Horus was born in a swamp, which is a pretty unlikely place for shepherds.

Claim #5-Both were heralded by stars and angels.

There is no star that heralded Horus’s birth nor is there any angel announcing it. In the writings "The Origins of Christianity" they indicate that that there are three stars named the three kings in Orion and then relate this to the birth of Jesus. When we look to the stories regarding Horus, we find no star or angel announcing his birth.

Claim #6-Both had later visitors (Horus-3 deities and Jesus-3 wisemen.)

There is no indication that there ever were 3 wisemen. The bible never even mentions the number of wisemen, nor is there any document that reflects 3 deities at the birth of Horus.

Claim #7-Both had murder plots against them.

There is mention that Seth did want to kill Horus, and Herod wanted to kill Jesus. so this is accurate.

Claim#8-Both came of age at 12, were baptized and their baptizers were executed.

There is no indication that Horus was preaching in a temple when he was 12. In fact, Horus the child was depicted as a “weakling.” That doesn’t jive with story of Jesus preaching in the temple.
Horus was never baptized in any of the Horus stories.

Claim #9-Both had 12 disciples.

According to the Horus accounts, Horus had four semi-gods that were followers. There is some indication of 16 human followers and an unknown number of blacksmiths that went into battle with him. Horus did not have 12 disciples. Jesus reportedly did.

Claim #10-Both walked on water.

Horus didn’t, or at least there is no record that I can find that he did. This came about from the story of fish man, Oannes, not Horus.

Claim #11-Both performed miracles.

This is true although the miracles were different in scope and nature.

Claim #12 Both exorcised demons and raised Lazarus.

The actual claim is that Horus raised Osiris from the dead and that the name Osiris morphed to Lazarus. It doesn’t matter because Horus did not bring Osiris back to life. There is no mention of this in any document regarding the story. Horus did avenge Osiris’s death, but that did not raise Osiris from the dead.

Claim #13-Both held a Sermon on the Mount; both were transfigured on a mountain, died by crucifixion along with two thieves and were buried in tombs where they paid a quick visit to Hell and then rose from the dead after 3 days time, both resurrections were witness by women, and both will supposedly reign for 1,000 years in the Millennium.

I can locate none of this. No sermon, no transfiguration, certainly no crucifixion w/ two thieves, no trip to hell and no resurrection. There was an incident in which Horus was torn to pieces and Iris requested the crocodile god to fish him out of the water he was tossed into, which was done, but that’s it.

So, as we can plainly see, the story of Jesus vs. Horus in the film Religulous is inaccurate. This story has been evolved over time in an effort to water down the story of Jesus Christ.

Does God Exist? (Re-cap of 04/02/09 home study)

2009-04-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Does it make a difference? Three reasons it does...

1.) If God does not exist, life is ultimately meaningless. If your life is doomed to end in death, then ultimately it does not matter how you live. In the end it makes no ultimate difference whether you existed or not. Sure, you might have influenced others or affected the course of history. But ultimately mankind is doomed to perish in the heat death of the universe.

2.)If God does not exist, then we must ultimately live without hope. If there is no God, then there is ultimately no hope. (Life after death, overcoming evil, etc.)

3.)On the other hand, if God does exist, then there is meaning and hope.

None of this shows that God exists. But it does show that it makes a tremendous difference whether or not He does.

Lets look at four good reasons to believe God does exist.

1.) God makes sense of the origin of the universe.
Scientists in Astronomy & Astrophysics universally agree that the universe is finite & had a beginning (Big Bang). However, there is no explanation for the cause. Most agree that anything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist, therefore the universe has a cause. Logic also tells us that out of nothing, nothing comes. How is it that the universe popped into being out of nothing & uncaused?

2.) God makes sense of the fine tuning of the universe.
Our survival is balanced on a knife's edge. The chances of our universe being able to support life are so astronomical that scientists can't put a number on it. Mathematically speaking, we shouldn't be here. How is it that the universe is kept so finely tuned?

3.) God makes sense of objective moral values.
Most of us agree that there is a moral system in place. For example, most of us would agree that the rape & torture of a child is wrong. But where do these morals come from? The Bible says that God has written his moral law in the hearts of men. If morals are a byproduct of how we are raised, then when one rapes & tortures a child there is nothing wrong with it, it just goes against his parents values. If morals are a social byproduct of evolution, then the rape & torture of a child is simply an antisocial act. By default these two examples show that there is really nothing wrong with the rape & torture of a child, it's just left to our opinion. But I think that most sane people would agree that there is something wrong with it, regardless if Joe down the street thinks otherwise. This would be an objective moral value. A moral law that seems to exist showing us right from wrong. If God doesn't exist, what is the explanation for these moral values?

4.) Additionally, God can be experienced personally.
This isn't so much an argument, but rather a claim that He can be experienced on a personal level. If what I have experienced in the last 3 years is in my head, & God doesn't exist, then I am delusional.

Religulous Review

2009-03-22T10:35:00.001-07:00

My wife Rachel and I decided to sit down and watch Bill Maher in his recent movie "Religulous". As a former Catholic, stand up comedian and host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher", he has done a great job in making anyone who believes in God look like an idiot. Throughout the film he consistently criticizes and makes fun of religion. Although he claims that "he doesn't know" if God exists or not, he makes a statement that has been popularized by Richard Dawkins in his book "The God Delusion", stating that in order for the human race to prosper we need to rid it of religion and that people who believe in God have a neurological disorder.

However, after watching this film I am very confident in saying that it does not in any way pose a threat to any one's faith, whether Christian, Catholic, Muslim, etc. In fact, it is obvious that Bill is uneducated when it comes to the doctrine of these religions, and offers no intellectual arguments against any of them. Rather, he simply makes fun of them.

While watching the movie I took notes, and would like to share my "top 10" statements and questions Bill uses in the film to try and belittle Christianity.

#1.) Bill makes fun of "drinking the blood of a 2000 year old Man/God". First, God doesn't claim to be 2000 years old, He is eternal. Second, this is a practice of the Catholic Communion, not Christianity in general. Third, this in no way has anything to do with God being real or not. As Christians we partake in communion as a way of reflecting on what Christ did for us. He gave His body and shed His blood for the remission of sins. We eat bread and drink wine (or grape juice) as a symbolic action.

#2.) Bill claims that the Virgin Birth is a man made story and dismisses it because it is only in two of the Gospels. Here you see the ignorance of Bill's theology. Obviously he has never studied the New Testament documents, their context, and the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. The fact that Jesus' birth is recorded in Matthew and Luke's Gospel and not in Mark's and John's in no way dismisses it's truth. If one man documents his experience in Vietnam beginning with how the war started, and another man in the same platoon documents his experience starting with when he arrived there 3 years after the war started, does this show that we cannot trust how the war started? Or that it's false? Not at all. This is just pure speculation by Bill, nothing more.

#3.) Bill claims that none of the New Testament writers were eye witnesses to the life of Jesus. This particular statement must be embarrassing. Again, with all do respect to Bill Maher, this just shows his ignorance of the New Testament documents. Matthew, John, Peter, James, and Jude were all eye witnesses to Jesus.

#4.) Bill claims Jesus might not be an actual historical person. Scholars across the board all agree that there was a Jesus of Nazareth. The evidence of this is very hard to deny. For example, the historian Will Durant (non-Christian), the Roman historian Tacitus, the Jewish historian Josephus, Plinius Secundus (the Governor of Bithnyia in Asia Minor), and Lucian all wrote about Jesus of Nazareth outside of the Bible.

#5.) Bill uses the story of "Lot offering his daughters sexually to protect angels" against God and the Bible. Is this the best he could do? Why not use David's adultery and murder, or Peter's denial of Christ. We all know the Bible is full of dysfunctional people who make stupid decisions. This is consistent with the nature of man, it shows nothing about the nature of God, except that He loves us even though we do stupid things and mess up all the time.

#6.) Bill argues with a Pastor about homosexuals being born gay. He bounces around like a ping pong ball searching for proof from this Pastor but offers none himself!

#7.) Bill compares God to Santa Claus. This one was so absurd to me. God and Santa are on totally different levels.

#8.) Bill makes a statement to a Politician in Arkansas that he is "concerned that people running our Country believe in talking snakes". LOL! I thought this one was funny. We don't believe in a talking snake, we believe in an Almighty God.

#9.) Bill asks a question at the "Holy Land Experience" in Florida saying "What is God waiting for?" in reference to terminating evil and restoring all things. Bill's very question is not valid. God cannot "wait", God is eternal. He exists outside of time. Besides that, what if in two days from now more people become saved?

#10.) Bill compares the Egyptian god Horus to Jesus regarding a virgin birth, death by crucifixion, resurrection three days later, raising a man from the dead, etc. Giving the impression that the early Christians adopted these myths and applied them to Jesus Christ. For the sake of time as well as your eyes, I will go into great detail about this in a separate post. But in short, Horus was none of the above. You can do the research yourself.

In summary, Bill Maher travels the world, picking non-intellectual, televangelist, uneducated, religious people to interview and totally bashes them in an attempt to make religion look stupid. I personally would like to see him do a sequel to the film interviewing people such as Dr. William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, Ben Witherington, Chuck Missler, Lee Strobel and other qualified Scholarly believers in God. I think then the tables would be turned, and Bill would be the one tucking his tail, walking away, and feeling like an ignorant fool who's belief's are a product of neurological condition.

Chad Dulaney

How can the Bible be accurate?

2009-02-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the telephone game? One person starts a sentence, then that sentence gets passed on person by person. By the time it gets to about the tenth person the sentence is twisted out of context and sometimes isn't even close to what it originally was! Many have claimed that the Bible cannot be accurate for this very reason. How could it be passed down for thousands of years and still be accurate? Surely after just 100 years or so it would change. Well, between the years of 1947 - 1956, roughly 900 documents dating between 150 B.C. - 70 A.D. were found in eleven different caves in the Qumran region of the Dead Sea. In the picture is a 2,100 year old scroll of Isaiah, a book in the old testament. 21 of these particular scrolls were found. Of the 166 Hebrew words in Isaiah 53, only seventeen letters in Dead Sea Scroll differ our Text.

10 letters = spelling differences

4 letters = stylistic changes

3 letters = added word for “light” (vs. 11)

______________________________________
17 letters = no affect on biblical teaching

What does this tell us? That when matching up our modern day book of Isaiah with a 2,100 year old scroll of Isaiah they are astoundingly the same! Which in turn proves that the "telephone game" does not apply to the Bible. So, when reading from scripture you can be confident that what you're reading is accurate and true.

How did we get here?

2009-02-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

Why are we here... living on a spec of dust that rotates around a ball of burning gases (sun), which is so small, it cannot be seen while viewing our Milky Way Galaxy as a whole? Not to mention, our Galaxy is only one among billions of others occupying this vast nothingness we call "space". What is our purpose? How did we get here? Was it by accidental chance? Mathematically, most scientists and scholars (atheist and theist alike) agree that the chance of the universe supporting life is astronomical. Most I've found claim that the chance is 1 in 10 to the 92nd power (that's the number 1 followed by 92 zeros). What does that look like? It's 1 in 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000
00000000000. Lets put this into a percentage. Well, when trying to use multiple calculators, the answers were all the same = NaN%. At first, I didn't know what that meant, so I googled it and come to find out it means "Not a Number".

So, the chances of you being able to live and read this blog are so small it cannot be calculated as a number. Would it be safe to say that it's practically 0%? How then, are you living and breathing to read this? Could it be that there is an Intelligent Designer behind our existence? Did some being create existence? If so, who is this being?