scholarly footing with the traditional Christian faith.
Nevertheless, this “60’s geek” professor with his persuasive words is able to shake the faith of some young Christian students. A careful student who takes some time to do some research will see through the “strawman” the professor has set up.
The “strawman” tactic is commonly used in debates and lectures. It consists of distorting Christianity into a strawman of inaccuracies and contradictions and then attacking the strawman and giving the impression that Christianity has been disproven.
Let me give a thumbnail sketch of early church history. The religion of the ancient Greeks was Olympianism which is similar to the Hinduism of present day India. The Romans essentially adopted Olympianism but referred to the various gods by Latin instead of Greek names.
Hindus believe that the material world is “Maya” which means illusion. The Hindus essentially believe that material objects don’t really exist. The ancient Greek Olympians similarly had a disdain for the material world.
To them, anything physical or material was lower than the realm of spirit and was corrupt. This is why many people of the ancient world had a hard time accepting the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.
The incarnation is the Christian doctrine that Jesus, Himself being divine, was born as a baby and grew to manhood. In other words God took on human flesh and dwelt among us.
The Olympian, Hindu-like religion dominated the thinking of the Pagans of the ancient world. It is from this soil that Gnosticism grew. Gnosticism was a syncretism (mixture) of Christianity and Olympianism. Full blown Gnosticism