DEBATE: Does Religion Have to be Factual to be True?
Hello everybody. Graham Pemberton has kindly come out of Medium retirement to have a debate on the question of whether we can maintain a unified spiritual Christianity if we have rejected its actual truth claims such as a historical Jesus. I am advocating for a Christianity rooted in historical facts about the first century, he for a perennial spirituality that views these claims only as pure myths. We both naturally got a little carried away with our word restrictions so the end result is quite long, but hopefully you find it worthwhile, as we both believe this is a subject of great importance to our world in this current moment. Enjoy.
Matthew opening statement:
The question of whether a historical Jesus lived, died and was resurrected in the first century Middle East is today a subject of little interest to most people. While there may be some resurgence of fundamentalist Christianity in America they are no more interested in serious scholarly or critical debate on the subject than they are on Noah’s flood, and any apologetics is simply designed to confirm what they have already believed.
However our age is not so much one of atheism but apathy in regard to these kinds of questions. Many are tired of the Answers…
