Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
David Hackett Fischer back in 1970 in his Historian’s Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought, discussed this fallacy one sometimes encounters in discussions of the history of early Christian origins and biblical studies. It refers to using widespread opinion as a method of verification. Often I’ve noticed this coupled with an argument “from authority” … Continue reading “The fallacy of the prevalent proof”
Many have attempted to establish a doubtful question by a phrase such as most historians agree . . . it is the consensus of scholarly opinion that . . . in the judgment of all serious students of this problem . . . The fallacy of the prevalent proof makes mass opinion into a method … Continue reading “The Fallacy Few Historians Have Avoided”
Professor of History, David Hackett Fischer, has long been known for his book, Historians’ Fallacies, in which he amasses copious examples of fallacious historical analysis and argument committed (at least on occasion) even by otherwise highly reputable historians. Unfortunately, critical fallacies that he identifies as periodic blights on the work of his peers are standard … Continue reading “Theologians’ Miracle: Turning Fallacy into Proof”
Tim O’Neill has given up much of his time to write a detailed post (over 8,700 words) as a guide for non-historians to find their way through the mass of nonsense on the web about Jesus never having existed. Tim is responding to posts by biologist PZ Myers who is asking questions of a “professional … Continue reading “A constructive exchange with Tim O’Neill on the question of the historicity of Jesus”
This post continues my assessment of the claims made in a doctoral dissertation by Michael Zolondek (supervised by Larry Hurtado and Helen Bond of the University of Edinburgh) that Jesus scholars use the same methods as historians of other fields. The sorts of methods he is addressing are specifically the “criteria of authenticity”. Though challenged … Continue reading “Part 2 of Testing the Claim that Jesus Scholars Use the Methods of Other Historians”
One of the purposes of Vridar is to share what its authors have found of interest in biblical scholarship that unfortunately tends not to be easily accessible to the wider lay public. (Of course, our interests extend into political, science and other topics, too. For further background see the authors’ profiles and the explanations linked … Continue reading “Reply to Larry Hurtado: “Why the “Mythical Jesus” Claim Has No Traction with Scholars””
Who told us that Christian mobs were responsible for destroying the Great Library of Alexandria? I had long thought it was true. I must have heard or read it somewhere, sometime when I was still a Christian. Such a factoid made no difference to my faith, no doubt, if only because I had long known that … Continue reading “Why Do We Think That? (That = Christian Mobs Destroyed the Library of Alexandria)”