Well, this is turning out to be enjoyable. You want to say you have a checkmate, but you don't. I have an ace up my sleeve (no game has a standard deck of cards and a chess board--maybe I'll invent it lol. The ace up my sleeve is allowed because we are using an analogy.) My ace is a mathematical equation that I derived from two of Einstein's equations and an equation that is a definition in physics. I won't show the derivation here as I have done in some articles on Medium, and both Bard and ChatGPT-4 have both derived equivalent equations to it and agreed that my equation is correct.
Now, I won't even display the full equation as that isn't important. But, what is important is the following simpler equation:
Power = mass x stuff
The "stuff" is rather convoluted, but it isn't necessary to use here. It is important if you want to see the "proof" of this equation's validity.
Here comes the checkmate now, so don't miss it. The Kalam Cosmological Argument is the foundation for the something from nothing argument prominent theists like William Lane Craig uses (and a number of other Christian Apologists, among them Frank Turek.). From this they get that the only way to get something from nothing is the God created the universe. And, God must be beyond the natural world, which means He must be timeless, spaceless, immaterial, and a number of other things. The most important one for this checkmate is that He is immaterial--i.e. no material. No material means no mass. Thus, God's mass is zero is what we would say in scientific terms.
Now, plug zero in for mass in the simplified equation:
Power = mass x stuff
Power = zero x stuff
Power = 0
Thus, this immaterial God has zero power in our universe. Zero power means He can't do anything. He can't move anything. To say he is the Prime Mover or the Uncaused Cause is not consistent with the physics at play here.
Now, one can say God is not part of space and time. That's fine. But, our universe IS part of space and time. Thus, God--if He exists--is beyond space and time, which means He is outside of our universe.
Jesus was a man just like you and me. He died as a man on the cross after nine hours, according to the accounts. It is immaterial if he was in a tomb or not. But, I will grant you an empty tomb. This does not make Jesus, as the son of God, able to raise himself from the dead because God has zero power. The father of Jesus is truly an impotent being having exactly zero power. At least Jesus was real and had the power of an actual man, which is certainly more than zero.
Now, we don't know what happened to make the tomb empty. There is some evidence that someone came and paid the guards to look the other way. That was probably when they took the body.
As for the witnesses who saw Jesus, I have seen videos on this, and the number of actual witnesses that can be confirmed is very few indeed.
I asked ChatGPT-4 this question:
Tony:
Hey Buddy, I am in a debate. How many confirmed eye witnesses were there that saw the resurrected Jesus?
ChatGPT
The number of eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen the resurrected Jesus is a matter of religious belief and historical interpretation, particularly within Christian tradition. According to the New Testament of the Bible:
1. Mary Magdalene is often mentioned as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection (John 20:11-18).
2. Other Women at the Tomb: The Gospels of Matthew (28:9-10) and Mark (16:1-8) suggest that a group of women, including Mary Magdalene, saw Jesus.
3. The Disciples: The Gospels recount various appearances of Jesus to his disciples, including the famous instance of "Doubting Thomas" (John 20:24-29).
4. The Emmaus Disciples: Luke 24:13-35 describes Jesus appearing to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
5. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time, most of whom Paul claims were still alive at the time of his writing.
6. James and Others: 1 Corinthians 15:7 also mentions appearances to James and "all the apostles."
The actual historicity of these accounts is subject to debate among scholars and theologians. Some view these accounts as literal historical events, while others interpret them symbolically or metaphorically. The exact number of eyewitnesses, therefore, varies according to different interpretations of these texts.
So, there is my checkmate to you. Both ChatGPT-4 and Bard had to accept that God had zero power. They could find no way around this conclusion. Maybe you can. If you can show God has some power (even if it isn't infinite power), I will cede the entire argument to you and become a Christian again.
Peace
