Vridar

2009-03-08

top ten atheist blogs

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by Neil Godfrey

how nice, my blog gets an entry among the top ten atheist blogs in common sense atheism! 🙂

2008-10-22

While I’ve been waylaid by real life from getting to my blog as often as I would like a new blog has since emerged covering in depth the sorts of issues I would have loved to have written up first, but it’s great to see them addressed as extensively as Tom has on his Musings blog.

2008-07-13

old and new updates

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by Neil Godfrey

Have added a few more links that should have been added long ago I’m sure to my to rationalist-atheist and blogroll sections – – – –

Of special note is NT Wrong’s blog (“Hi, I’m NT Wrong, the Free Universalist Interfaith Bishop of Durham, North Carolina”) in the Blogroll

2008-07-02

Vridar makes it to the God Fearin’ Forum

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

by Neil Godfrey

As an atheist and social-political activist I’ve long had a soft spot for Catholics when it comes to social justice causes, so it was a flattering surprise to see a nice commendation of my recent series on Luke-Acts in relation to Marcionism in the Patristic Carnival XIII section of The God Fearin’ Forum [scroll over the blog page to restore colour settings for a readable page], a blog for Catholic theology, philosophy and apologetics etc.

A companion recommendation listed with mine is Ben C. Smith’s commencement of “a thought provoking thread on the same subject: Which Came First, the Gospel of Luke or that of Marcion?” — The iidb/frdb discussion is attached below….. Continue reading “Vridar makes it to the God Fearin’ Forum”

2008-05-15

Creative Commons Licence

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

by Neil Godfrey

Have recently noticed that some users have copied entire posts of mine without attribution and some partial posts in contexts I am not comfortable with. That’s the internet I guess, but I’d prefer anyone wishing to copy in whole or part to do so in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons licence I have just taken out for this site.

Vridar by Neil Godfrey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at vridar.org.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at /permissions/.

Thanks

2006-12-06

absent with leave

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

by Neil Godfrey

for a few days at a work retreat. Continuing to add the We-passages segments will have to wait for resumption till next week it seems.

It’s nice to be able to share a few of the things I’ve read and learned from others the last few years. A damn shame that so much of this sort of scholarship rarely reaches the mainstream. At least the new web can begin to make some inroads in that direction. Sad to see some of the prominent biblical scholars reacting to this with expressions of disgust, intellectual bullying and with one even asserting online that those not schooled in their ways should not even be allowed to read some of their books!

2006-12-03

Web 2.0 booklinks used in this blog

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

by Neil Godfrey

I have added LibraryThing links to the books referred to in this blog. These links are not just links to Amazon, but will take you directly to my LibraryThing holding of the book, which will enable you to:

search for the book in a library (hopefully near you!)
followup Library of Congress subject headings linked to the book
consult library quality bibliographic details of the book
check web tags others have attached to this book
check for online discussions other readers of this book may have held
see who else owns this book and what they might have said about it
maybe even borrow it from them if you’re really lucky (I lend nuthin’ though!)
check its availability and cost across a range of online suppliers (not only Amazon)

LibraryThing is great! If you don’t already know about it check it out and add your own collection there too.

Neil Godfrey
Australia

Technorati Tags:
librarything

"I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed!"

-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"Neil, for what it is worth it is obvious to me that if you had earlier in life tracked into a graduate program at one of the world’s leading research universities you would be one of the world’s formidable ones. You are doing essentially the same quality now (apart from the philology and languages) except mostly sticking to commenting on others’ work as informed comment/discussion."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"I’ve even been cited by atheists with approval (which I really don’t know how to take, so thanks, I think, but I’m not sure, Vrider (even though I feel like I need to take a shower now))."

-- Jim West, – September 2010
"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jim’s review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due."

— Earl Doherty, June 2011
"I want to say here that this site is so resourceful and highly on top of the most modern scholarship in the areas discussed here. . . I know of no other site which offers a wide range of topics related to careful critical analysis of historically and scripturally related issues."

-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"I think you have a high quality blog that provides a positive public service by discussing academic topics within a wider audience."

— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016
"For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isn’t a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfrey’s work posted on the website vridar.org."

— Tom Dykstra, – JOCABS 2015
"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."

— Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email)
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

-- Enrico Tuccinardi, - October 2022
"Fantastic. I’m so glad you’re helping to spread these ideas!"

Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
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
"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

— John Moles, September 2011 (personal email)
"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."

— Richard Carrier, – March 2014
"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

-- Emanuel Pfoh - August 2020
"Vridar is consistently thought-provoking, well-informed, and asking the right questions. There are intelligent, thoughtful comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion. Books and publications are covered with a range of perspectives with attempts at fair and accurate representation of others’ arguments and content (where there are occasional and inevitable missteps on that I notice Neil making corrections and apologies where warranted, which wins points with me). Please carry on."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
It is worth saying another word of appreciation here for Neil Godfrey's effort to make Bruno Bauer accessible in English.

-- Peter Kirby, - May 2023
"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
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
Congratulations, Vridar, . . . I declare, Vridar, your own hard work translating Bruno Bauer will make a major difference in future studies of Bruno Bauer and the evolution of Hegel’s philosophy of religion.

-- Paul Trejo, - April 2023
"Thanks for this detailed interaction! I’ll try to offer something more substantial than 'Thank you' in response at some point, but I didn’t want to wait . . . to express appreciation for your detailed interaction with what I’ve written!"

— James McGrath, – June 2009
"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

— Eva Mroczek, – June 2017
"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"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"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)
"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)

Clarke W Owens on Comments on Eric Zuesse’s Christ’s Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity: “I’d be interested to know what assumptions follow from this or that conclusion about Paul. For example, if we accept…” Apr 25, 13:50
Steve Ruis on Questioning the Hellenistic Date for the Hebrew Bible: Circular Argument: “It is sad, but true . . . in the hard sciences, also.” Apr 25, 13:18
Gordon Rouse on Origin of the Cyrus-Messiah Myth: “What do you make of the Servant songs (Question to Russell and/or Neil)? Is the Cyrus passage considered one of…” Apr 25, 06:31
ABuddhist on Comments on Eric Zuesse’s Christ’s Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity: “I, and I assume other people, would be fascinated to read a blog post from you describing how Paul’s letters…” Apr 25, 01:04
Tony on Dear Bart Ehrman, Others are noticing that you have not been on the top of your game lately . . .: “Ad hominem arguments are lazy, hack and slapdash don’t give a counter argument that one can weigh their views against.…” Apr 25, 00:23
Neil Godfrey on Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Invalidate a Hellenistic Origin of the Hebrew Books of the Bible?: “Someone just pointed out to me that Stephen Goranson on another forum was announcing that I “refused” to post his…” Apr 24, 23:55
Neil Godfrey on Origin of the Cyrus-Messiah Myth: “In that context and with respect to your recent comment on Aaron’s rod, I have to ask if you have…” Apr 24, 18:50
Russell Gmirkin on Origin of the Cyrus-Messiah Myth: “Another possible indication of the late date of the Cyrus prophecy is that it appears in Isa. 44-45. Second Isaiah…” Apr 24, 11:15
Neil Godfrey on Comments on Eric Zuesse’s Christ’s Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity: “I am more of a “purist” with respect to historical evidence than is Carrier. I want to see clear signs…” Apr 24, 09:39

Category: Vridar

2009-03-08

top ten atheist blogs

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

by Neil Godfrey

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2008-10-22

Musings of Tom Verenna

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by Neil Godfrey

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2008-07-13

old and new updates

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by Neil Godfrey

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2008-07-02

Vridar makes it to the God Fearin’ Forum

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

by Neil Godfrey

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2008-05-15

Creative Commons Licence

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

by Neil Godfrey

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2006-12-06

absent with leave

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by Neil Godfrey

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2006-12-03

Web 2.0 booklinks used in this blog

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by Neil Godfrey

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