I've started reading a book from Gary Habermas and Mike Licona called The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. I'm planning to write a few posts commenting on some of the arguments as I go through them, then perhaps writing a more comprehensive review at a later stage summarizing those comments in one single more extensive review of the entire book.
Licona and Habermas seem to both be pretty sharp guys. Robert Price has good things to say about Habermas. I purchased a DVD that contained a series of debates from Mike Licona and I was pretty impressed with him. The DVD contained his debates with Shabir Ally, Dan Barker, and Richard Carrier. All participants did well. (The debate with Carrier is available here. I don't see that the DVD I got from Licona is available anymore.)
So I expect this book from Licona and Habermas to be decent. So far it appears to be somewhat of a surface level treatment of the issues. I'd say this is intended to be a handbook of introductory arguments that are intended to rebut the lay skeptic. Maybe like somebody you'd meet at the cafeteria where you work. In terms of its intended purpose, this tool would successfully rebut a typical ignorant layman.
It suspect it wouldn't work on a person that is more informed on these issues. I can't say for certain, because I've just started it, but I am confident this is how it will work. The arguments so far are made in such a way that they take a lot of key assumptions for granted. The skeptical position is misrepresented. I'll begin exposing some of these issues in subsequent posts.
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