How do you explain David's graphic portrayal of Jesus' death by crucifixion (Psalm 22) 1000 years before Christ lived?
This is very unconvincing. Much of what is in the chapter is very non-specific and could be applied to thousands of victims of crucification or other sorts of executions through the years. It is not clear if much of the chapter is literal or figurative even.About the only bit of specific unusual information (the casting lots of the garments) could have been simply recorded ficitionally for Jesus' case, or potentially even arranged by followers. Certainly this is very far from any sort of convincing proof of Jesus divinity.
How do you account for the odds (1 in 10 to the 157th power) that even just 48 (of 300) Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ?
Lets assume for a moment that these prophecies actually were fulfilled. Before that assumption note it is a terrible one. Many of the prophecies are absurdly ambiguous. The fulfillments are completely unverifiable, in many cases being "recorded" by non-eye witnesses decades after they happened!
Ok, that assumption aside, how in the world do assign probabilities to some of these prophecies. What is the probability of being pierced, for example? How do you account for the conditional probabilities? The probability of a person being a Jew is small. The probability of being a Jew given they fulfilled the prophecy of being being born in Bethlehem is 100%. Add to that the fact that a so-called Messiah would be aware of some of the mroe obvious prophecies and he and his followers would be readily be able to arrange for some of the prophecies to be fulfilled. So the probabilities are absurd to say you can "calculate" them in any meaningful way.
In what sense was Jesus a "good man" if He was lying in His claim to be God?
An irrelevant question. Speaking to ex-JWs you should know many people here never believed the Bible claims he did claim to be God. Philosophically, people lie to themselves all the time: that doesn't mean they are not sincere in misbelief or inelligible to be considered "good".
If Jesus' resurrection was faked, why would twelve intelligent men (Jesus' disciples) have died for what they knew to be a lie?
If fundamentalist Islam is not the truth, why would 19 hi-jackers give their life to its cause on September 11th?
How can something as small as a brain understand extremely complicated aspects of the universe, even though it is (supposedly) just a bunch of chemical reactions and electrical signals? But at the same time, this brain can’t create another brain like itself, so how can nature, that has no brain, create a brain?
Well we know how that works, don't we? How can nature create stars and galaxies and other massively impressive things in the universe. Science will pretty much tell you how it is done. How can something infnitely more complicated than a brain, have no creator (a more difficult question than your relatively simple brain being created by nothing btw).
Why can't this brain even create a simple living twig?
Who says a simple living twig is simple?
Why is the simple cell likened to the complexity of large functioning city by experts?
Same as above.
Is it absolutely true that "truth is not absolute" or only relatively true that "all things are relative?"
Not really relevant.
What do you say about the hundreds of scholarly books that carefully document the veracity and reliability of the Bible?
What books and which parts of the Bible. The Bible has many aspects and people who are historical, which are then mixed with unverifiable events and people and events that are verifiably false. For example, list the scholarly / scientific books that document the veracity of the flood.
Have you ever considered the fact that Christianity is the only religion whose leader is said to have risen from the dead?
Have you ever considered that Islam is the only religion whose primary prophet flew to heaven on a winged steed?
Why don't non-believers refer to Jesus as the late Jesus Christ?
There is no such thing as a stupid question. But some questions are close.
If the authorities stole Jesus' body, why?
*IF*. Not verifiable at all.
Why would they have perpetrated the very scenario that they most wanted to prevent?
See above. BTW, I dont' see stealing Jesus body as all that unusual anyway. People took relics very seriously then and perhaps they didn't want his tomb becoming a rallying point of a movement. Last person I remember authorities esentially doing this to was Osama Bin Laden.
If Jesus merely resuscitated in the tomb, how did He deal with the Roman guard posted just outside its entrance?
Not verifiable or really relevant.
How can one realistically discount the testimony of over 500 witnesses to a living Jesus following His crucifixion (see 1 Corinthians 15:6)?
Someone writing that there were eyewitnesses does not mean there were. There are 500 eyewitnesses in my office right now who have seen me turn my printer into gold. Care to believe that too?
What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?
Mankind has created religions where-ever they have gone. Guess how many of those religions its adherents believe to be false?
If every effect has a cause, then what or who caused the universe?
An excellent scientific question that scientists are working on right now. Just like ancient questions like "why does the sun rise every morning" or "why does the earth tremble sometimes" or "what causes a rainbow", one day we can assuredly have the answers.
How do you explain the thousands of people who have experienced heaven or hell and have come back to tell us about it?
Yes, every religion in the world has people with experiences that prove their religion. No one in India or China sees the Virgin Mary though. No one in Brazil feels they were reincarnated. Its amazing how segmented these experiences are. You know what "other-worldly" experience is common throughout the world? Seeing or being abducted by aliens. Yea, people are uniformly crazy.
How do you explain the cosmological constant?
The Anthropic Principle
Is it wrong to ask such questions? Why?
It is wrong only if you have predetermined that your desired answers to them are correct.