Thursday, October 10, 2013

William Lane Craig vs. Reza Aslan on the Historical Jesus

Reza Aslan claims to be a scholar of religion, yet he is completely out of touch with anything remotely resembling Historical Jesus scholarship. Nevertheless, his ignorance of the field didn't stop him from writing a book on the life of Jesus (which ranks alongside Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code in its scholarly prowess). William Lane Craig (an actual Historical Jesus scholar) responds to Aslan in the following video. If Aslan ever responds, I suspect he'll use his favorite tactic: Calling everyone who disagrees with him a "bigot."

17 comments:

Unknown said...

If I were a Muslim, I wouldn't dare make the claims about the Gospels that Reza Aslan makes. This is mainly because of passages like Surah 3:3-4, 10:94, 5:47, 6:115, etc.

Anonymous said...

So Reza Aslan wrote a book explaining that Jesus was not the son of god, not a prophet but a mere run-of-the-mill regular human revolutionary radical and that he was crucified for it.

Why do i have the feeling that if an atheist wrote such a book we'd have muslims rioting over the world claiming their religion was under attack?

Tom ta tum Tom said...

BY ALLAHU OHYNKSMORR! The major FAILURE of Reza Asslan is NOT that he has incorrectly treated the historical evidence regarding Jesus of Nazareth but the larger failure is rather is that Asslan has COMPLETELY bypassed his own duty to point out how very UN-ISLAMIC was this very "JEWISH" Rabbi, Healer and Prophet!

Dr. Craig has been FAR too kind to Reza and if the Apusstle of Allahu Ohynksmorr were alive today he would be DEMANDING: "Who will stuff a baloney sandwich down the gullet of this Asslan for me?"

It is WELL KNOWN that Jesus of Nazareth was a JEW - and a descendant of JEWS! But does Reza point this out? NooOOOOooo! Jesus Mother and Father were BOTH Jews - and may Reza be stricken by the jinn if he didn't fail to note that Jesus Mother was NEVER MARRIED before her Ninth birthday! HOW UN-ISLAMIC!! THEY WERE JEWS, I tell you!

Jesus disciples? JEWISH! The Apostle Paul? JEWISH! The authors of the Old and New Testaments? JEWISH! JEWISH! JEWISH! But does Reza Asslan - in his trashy little anti-Muslim book point to this glaringly UN-ISLAMIC fact? Hardly - if at all! Has Reza capitulated to Judaism? Has he become a ZIONIST?

NO WHERE is there any evidence that Jesus or ANY of his disciples ever answered the prayer-call or prayed - even ONCE - to Allahu Ohynksmorr! ISLAMOPHOBES - the LOT of them! Nor did ANY of them confess that Mohammed was the seal of the prophets!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3zgCEvMQZA (Listen please, for the prayer-call: "The most beautiful sound I've ever heard...")

The fact is that Reza Asslan *must* have become a collaborator with Israel! Reza REFUSES to articulate that Jesus and His followers probably would have thought of Mohammed as a FALSE PROPHET and LIAR and these JEWISH worshipers of the Only Living Eternal God would have DISRESPECTED the true religion of Islam as SATAN WORSHIP!!

A true Muslim would be crying, "OUTRAGE! BIGOTRY! BLASPHEMY! HYPOCRISY! SHIRK!"

I hope the money being paid to Mr. Asslan by his Zionist publishers will make him happy. What's waiting for him on the other side of his recompense from Mr. Obama's Muslim Brothers will make him wonder if he shouldn't have dealt more honestly with the bigoted, Islamophobic TRUTH of history!

ALLAHU OHYNKSMORR!
ALLAHU OHYNKSMORR!

;-) KAFIR AND PROUD!!

Anonymous said...

Reza Aslan is a heretical Muslim, he talks of Jesus being a revolutionary who WAS CRUCIFIED, which is completely against the Muslim faith, his religious beliefs are more of to his own tailoring and a result of his own confusion about which faith if any is actually correct.

Altogether, people like Dan Brown and Reza Aslan really can't be taken all that seriously, ofcourse neither can the mainstream Islamic view either, but in the latter case at least there's a good reason for debunking muslim arguments by showing them the truth.

I see Aslan as more of a ultra-liberal muslim who probably wouldn't last to long in an Islamic country, especially since he states that Jesus was crucified..

Not even a real Muslim, we got the pizza guy as Christian_Prince would say.

contineo said...

I think you are doing a great job
:)

Black Mountain said...

Hi David, do you know anything about this site?

http://covertmessiah.com/

Haecceitas said...

"Reza Aslan is a heretical Muslim, he talks of Jesus being a revolutionary who WAS CRUCIFIED, which is completely against the Muslim faith, his religious beliefs are more of to his own tailoring and a result of his own confusion about which faith if any is actually correct."

I don't know much about Reza Aslan but I suppose it's at least possible that he just chooses to play by the rules of historical scholarship and tries to suspend his Muslim convictions while doing research on this subject. With such approach he would rightly conclude that the crucifixion of Jesus is a historical fact.

But apparently he does try to sneak some Muslim ideas into his picture of Jesus, so he's probably not consistent in applying the aforementioned principle even if that's what he tries to do.

Anonymous said...

Is Craig a "historical Jesus scholar" I know his area his philosophy. What credentials does he have that makes him a scholar on the historical Jesus?

David Wood said...

Craig has a Doctor of Theology from the University of Munich in historical Jesus studies.

Anonymous said...

David, can you provide an official link to this info? Thanks.

David Wood said...

What info?

Anonymous said...

The info that states what his doctorate is in. It's not that I think you're lying or a bad dude. I just want to see it for myself. Thanks.

David Wood said...

Can't you just Google it instead of having me do it? Everyone familiar with Craig knows that he received a doctorate from the University of Munich, where he completed his thesis (on the historical evidence for Jesus' resurrection) working under the German theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg.

Anonymous said...

Well, actually I did google it and I came up with the same result you did. The reason I asked you to provide a link was because there's little to nothing that I see that would make Craig a scholar on the historical jesus. An apologist for evangelical Christianity? Yes, there's plenty of evidence for that. A scholar on the historical jesus? Not so much.

David Wood said...

Wow. So completing a dissertation at the extraordinarily liberal University of Munich on the HISTORICAL evidence for the resurrection of JESUS doesn't qualify one as a historical Jesus scholar??? Well then, what would qualify? Apparently nothing, since Craig is a Christian, and all Christians are non-scholars according to you. I'm guessing that Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne aren't philosophers, according to you.

You bring new meaning to the word "troll." Go somewhere else.

Unknown said...

Dear Mike, this information can be found on his book, "On Guard" (as well). Please get one copy since you don't have it. If you would have had it, you would have not asked this.

Lalo said...

I'm an atheist, but honestly, I find Aslan's approach so damn dishonest and so full of lack of real solid reassoning that it's infuriating. And things get worse when we see all these leftist hordes applauding him like seals.

Kudos to William Lane Craig for destroying this guy's arguments up to the bone.

I'd love to see him debate Aslan live on this same subject.