Extreme Theology

Flying Spaghetti Monster Exposes Intellectual Dishonesty

They say that the truth is stranger than fiction. It seems that, the truth is now reaching new heights of strangeness. Case in point…

The BoingBoing website is offering one million dollars to anyone who can provide empirical evidence that Jesus Christ isn’t the son of “The Flying Spaghetti Monster”. What’s that you ask? The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the “parody god” of the “parody religion” called Pastafarianism. This new cult was created by a group of liberal bloggers who are protesting the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow “Intelligent Design” to be taught in science classes.

The secondary agenda, and the more important one, by these liberal bloggers is to ridicule Christians and make them look like a bunch of brainless neophytes who are attempting to pass off their absurd religious rantings as ‘the truth’. You could sum up their position this way, “Believing that Jesus is the Son of God is as stupid as believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in fact, just to prove our point, we are going to create a new stupid religion that worships the Flying Spaghetti Monster and no one can prove it’s not true.”

What I find ironic about this tactic is that many of the people supporting the Flying Spaghetti Monster are outspoken supporters of free speech on the web. However, this particular tactic that they are employing, rather than promoting free speech, dialogue and open debate, is instead designed to silence debate and speech by ridicule and mockery.

The Pastafarians have taken the position that they are intellectually superior to Christians and supporters of Intelligent Design. So let’s look at their challenge to see if they truly are as intellectually superior as their attitude and actions suggest.

As it turns out, the idea to offer money for evidence was plagiarized by the Pastafarians. They stole the idea from Dr. Kent Hovind, a noted scientist, Born Again Christian and ardent advocate of Intelligent Design who is offering a $250,000 reward to anyone who can provide empirical evidence that supports evolution.

The Pastafarians, however, have raised the stakes and are offering one million dollars to the person who can disprove their claim. The major problem with their tactic is that they are asking people to prove a negative claim. Dr. Hovind’s challenge on the other hand, requires evolutionists to prove a positive claim.

What difference does it make? Well, a big one indeed! The rules of evidence make it clear that the burden of proof always lies with the person making the claim. This is the main reason why our legal system assumes that a person is innocent until proven guilty and why the threshold for conviction is “beyond a reasonable doubt’. If the state brings criminal charges against a person, then it is the state’s responsibility to prove their claim.

Imagine what our criminal justice system would be like if you were considered ‘guilty until proven innocent’. Defendants would then have to prove that they ‘didn’t commit a crime’. That sounds a lot like the justice system of that old ‘Liberal Mecca’ known as the Soviet Union. We all know how “fair and just” the Soviets were.

Dr. Kent Hovind, however, understands the rules of evidence. That is why he is offering a reward for evolutionary proof. It is the evolutionists who have made the claim that humans descended from apes. Therefore, the burden of proof rests on them to provide evidence that their claims are true. If they cannot provide evidence, then their claims are suspect. I should note that Dr. Hovind’s $250,000 is resting comfortably in his bank account.

BoingBoing and the Pastafarians, on the other hand, have issued a challenge that requires a person to prove a negative claim. But, asking someone to prove that Jesus isn’t the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is as underhanded and dubious as making a person prove that they didn’t commit a crime.

The Pastafarians got it wrong! The burden of proof is on them to show that this airborne carbo menace is the father of Jesus. It’s neither my responsibility, nor any other Bible believing Christian’s responsibility to prove that he isn’t.

The nature of their challenge exposes the Pastafarian’s intellectual dishonesty and lack of interest in real debate. If they were honest, then they would have nothing to fear from a real examination of the evidence. After all, if Christianity is only for the intellectually dull, then they could easily demonstrate this fact in a real debate. In fact, I would love an opportunity to debate a Pastafarian regarding the claim that Jesus of Nazareth is God in Human Flesh. We could live stream the debate over the web, podcast the event for posterity and just to make things interesting, the Pastafarians chould offer their one million dollars to the winner of the debate.

Since, Christians are intellectually inferior to Pastafarians, they should have no fear of losing this debate, unless their arrogance has caused them to grossly misjudge the facts of the case.

If Christ Has Not Been Raised...

What if Jesus never rose from the dead? What if his bones were still somewhere in Palestine waiting for an archaeology grad-student to dig up? How would that impact your faith? This edition of the Extreme Theology Podcast tackles these questions through a sermon preached by the Rev. William Cwirla of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Hacienda Heights, California entitled "If Christ is Not Risen".

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The Means of Grace

Water + the Promises of God = Baptism. A quick Sunday School lesson from Capo Valley Church, San Juan Capistrano, California on the Means of Grace.

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Baptism Quiz

Many American Christians believe that Baptism is merely an outward sign to the world that a person has accepted Jesus as their Savior.

Although, there is no denying that a baptism, especially if performed in a large church, is a very public profession of one’s faith, still the question needs to be asked, “Is that all there is to baptism or does scripture tell us that there is more to this “bath” than meets the eye?”

I am always amazed that American Christians emphasize the obedience of the one being baptized, yet they are almost absolutely silent regarding God’s role in baptism. Some of you reading this may be shocked to here that God actually has role in baptism. This is a tragedy because scripture tells us that God is VERY active during baptism and that HE has attached some very powerful promises to the waters of baptism.

Don’t believe me? Below you will find the “Baptism Quiz”. Each question in the quiz sites a passage of scripture then asks some questions. In order to get the questions ‘correct’ you will have to answer each question based on what the Bible says. Some may have a strong urge to add to these passages or explain away the simple meaning by regurgitating what they may have been taught by their denomination or a respected pastor. However, doing this will only cause you to get the question wrong and thus rob yourself of the powerful promises attached to baptism.

Question 1

Acts 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

• According to this text, what is the purpose of this baptism?

• How can water do such great things?

Question 2

Rom. 6:3-4 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

• According to this text, what were we baptized into when we were baptized?

• What other verb is applied to Baptism?

Question 3

Gal. 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

• According to this text, what were we clothed with when we were baptized?

Question 4

Col. 2:11-12 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

• According to this text, what is Baptism equated with?

• Who is doing the circumcising?

• What verbs in the text are attached to Baptism?

Question 5

Acts 8:26-39 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road — the desert road — that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.

• How many people were present for this Baptism?

• What was the purpose of this Baptism?

Question 6

Acts 16:25-34 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family.

• What was the ‘time’ when this baptism occurred?

• What was the purpose of this Baptism?

Final Question

The Modern American Evangelical view of Baptism is that it is something Christians do in order to show the world that they have accepted Jesus.

• Is this what these scriptures have shown?

• If not, what have they shown?

The Church in Genesis

What is the Church and can we see it in the book of Genesis? The Sunday School lesson from Capo Valley Church, San Juan Capistrano, California for September 18th, 2005.

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Saving Faith in Action

What is saving faith? The devil believes in God, does that mean he is saved?
The Sunday School lesson from Capo Valley Church, San Juan Capistrano, California for September 11, 2005.

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What's Extreme Theology

This blog is dedicated to the proclamation and defense of the most outrageous and extreme religious claim of all time; that Jesus of Nazareth IS the one true God in human flesh.

The blog itself will deal with all things Christian and Biblical.

The blog's author, Chris Rosebrough, has a degree in Religious Studies and Biblical Languages from Concordia University, Irvine and currently teaches at Capo Valley Church in San Juan Capistrano, California.

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Chris' no longer teaches at Capo Valley Church

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