Writings

When I first began examining the claims of the Book of Mormon, I was an atheist who had just become interested in the person of Jesus. As a skeptic, I understood the importance of corroborative evidence when trying to determine if a witness statement is reliable. I began looking for …

I’ve learned to test witnesses in my criminal investigations before trusting their testimony, and I evaluate them with the template we typically use in jury trials. One dimension of this template is corroboration: Is there any verifying evidence supporting the claims of the eyewitness? Corroborative evidence is what I refer to as “touch point” evidence. …

A recent Washington Post article celebrated the naming of Lucas Warren as the 2018 Gerber baby. Every year, the Gerber Products Company selects an infant “who best exemplifies Gerber’s long-standing heritage of recognizing that every baby is a Gerber baby.” What makes Lucas unusual and particularly news-worthy is the fact …

At the age of thirty-five, I was a skeptical detective at a large municipal police agency in Los Angeles County. I was also a committed atheist. I accepted several historical facts about Jesus of Nazareth – that he lived in the first century, preached sermons, was crucified by the Romans, …

Homicide detectives are perhaps the least trusting people in the country. My own experience investigating murders has taught me to consider everyone a liar – until, at least, I have good reason to believe otherwise. I know that sounds pessimistic, but I learned a long time ago that mysteries don’t …

Homicide detectives see a lot of dead people. I certainly saw my share, investigating murders in Los Angeles County for nearly two decades. For much of that time, I was a committed atheist, and I rejected the Easter claims related to the Resurrection of Jesus. Dead people, in my experience, …

My cold cases are typically built on circumstantial evidence. Cumulative circumstantial cases are incredibly powerful when considered in their totality; the more diverse the forms of evidence (and the more abundant their existence), the more reasonable the conclusion. As jurors consider these large collections of evidence implicating a particular suspect, …

I must confess that I empathized with Joy Behar (co-host of ABC’s The View) when she recently expressed concern about a claim that Vice President (and Christian believer) Mike Pence has heard the voice of Jesus on occasion. I didn’t become a Christian until the age of thirty-five, and prior …

When I first started investigating the reliability of the New Testament Gospels, I was fascinated by the ancient non-Canonical stories and legends related to Jesus. While they were written too late to be legitimate eyewitness accounts, they were built on the core truths of Gospels (albeit altered and embellished by …

As an early investigator of Christianity, I was interested in everything ever written in antiquity about Jesus. One day, while searching the religion section of a local bookstore, I discovered a book entitled, The Lost Books of the Bible. I purchased it immediately, expecting to find evidence our current understanding …