2008-05-23

Fraudulent history of Intelligent Design

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

A wonderful little videoclip exposing the fraudulent history of Intelligent Design has been picked up on Exploring Our Matrix.

It shows how subpoenaed drafts of an Intelligent Design text clearly demonstrate a direct re-writing of Creationist material.

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"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

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This is superb work, Neil, and reminds me of Albert Schweitzer’s work from a century ago. . . . .

I commend you for being the first to even TRY to translate Bruno Bauer’s brilliant Kritik der Evangelien und Geschichte ihres Ursprungs, which is now more than 150 years old.

. . . . .Thank you for your historic effort.

-- Paul Trejo, M.A., - November 2022
Editor, An English Edition of Bruno Bauer’s 1843 Christianity Exposed
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
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— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

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-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

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"Neil, in my mature judgement (I am now an old man), this fine 4-part study is a brilliant reworking, an instructive restatement of Hayden White’s Metahistory (and his subsequent writings). Your critique of certain historiographic representations as imbedded in the case study of the “scientistic”, “empirical” Richard Carrier provides a solid starting point for the more honest “fictive” reading of the New Testament that you encourage. Your last paragraph is a very intelligent call to sensitive readers of these texts. I suspect a whole generation of biblical students has been educated without the insights provided by the incomparable White. Bravo!"

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"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

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It is worth saying another word of appreciation here for Neil Godfrey's effort to make Bruno Bauer accessible in English.

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— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
"Note that I do not use the term ‘amateur’ pejoratively. . . . In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention."

Raphael Lataster - August 2019

Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “But “truth” for Josephus meant that Vespasian was the world ruler to come out of Judea, not Jesus. Yes, and…” Jun 26, 01:21
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “Since posting I have inserted this afterthought: Josephus boasted that the Judean nation observed their holy laws “with pleasure” throughout…” Jun 26, 01:15
Stephen on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 3 – “received with pleasure”: “In the TF, Jesus is said to be a sophos aner (a wise man). In War 2.17.8 Judas of Galilee…” Jun 25, 23:48
Stephen on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: “The reason I apply the “world ruler” interpretation to the TF is because Josephus would have known that “Christ” or…” Jun 25, 11:45
Thomas Worthington on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: “I find it hard to understand why there is an obsession with Josephus at all. How can someone born after…” Jun 25, 09:40
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: “Schmidt describes as “new evidence” a hypothetical source behind two or so specific witnesses of the TF in late antiquity/early…” Jun 24, 23:56
Stephen on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: ““and not even their calamities [The Jewish War] opened their eyes to the truth” of this ambiguous prophecy applying to…” Jun 24, 23:38
Stephen on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: “I think Josephus may be saying the ambiguous prophecy of a world ruler coming out of Judea was true (truth)…” Jun 24, 23:27
Neil Godfrey on “Josephus and Jesus, New Evidence” – Review 2 – ‘a teacher of . . . truisms’: “ἀρετή is not the word being discussed here. I want to keep the focus on what Schmidt himself is arguing.” Jun 24, 21:39

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