Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
I have been posting on the works of several scholars who argue that the Old Testament scriptures were composed much later than traditionally thought (Thompson, Davies, Lemche, Wesselius, Wajdenbaum) but there remains much more to be written about their arguments, and more published scholars to draw into the same net (Nielsen and Gmirkin are two … Continue reading “The Books of Moses — Unknown 300 years Before Christ?”
Richard Dawkins is confronted with all the hard questions and criticisms he has raised with his book The God Delusion in an interview on Al Jazeera — with an otherwise very intelligent interviewer who, it turns out, believes Mohammed flew to heaven on a winged horse! The questions he faces pull no punches and I … Continue reading “Richard Dawkins’ Al Jazeera Interview on Religion”
From the International Humanist and Ethical Union website: New global report on discrimination against the nonreligious From the site: The International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) has produced the first report focusing on how countries around the world discriminate against non-religious people. Freedom of Thought 2012: A Global Report on Discrimination Against Humanists, Atheists and … Continue reading “Global Report on Discrimination Against Humanists, Atheists and the Nonreligious”
Updated with mostly typo corrections, 6:30 am, 8th Dec. 2012. Perhaps many readers of Bart Ehrman are impressed enough with his public reputation to be confident that when they read his book on mythicism, Did Jesus Exist? (DJE?), they are reading yet another fine, erudite, devastating critique by a scholar who knows what he is … Continue reading “Emperor Ehrman Walks Naked Through a Storyland Nazareth 4000 Years Old”
Slightly revised R.S’s. parenthesis [That’s illogical . . . facts unfettered], 6:00 am, 4th December, 2012 NOTE: See Rene’s comment #5 below, titled “Clarification by Dr Avalos” for corrections to some of the detail in this post: René Salm has posted the following: I discovered Ehrman’s blog yesterday (http://ehrmanblog.org/rene-salm-at-the-society-of-biblical-literature-meeting/) and found that he and his … Continue reading “More SBL Fallout from René Salm’s paper”
This post continues my series on Philippe Wajdenbaum’s doctoral thesis adapted for publication as Argonauts of the Desert: Structural Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. For the previous post see Collapse of the Documentary Hypothesis (1) & Comparing the Bible with Classical Greek Literature. I begin here with my concluding lines from that post: We will … Continue reading “Biblical Scholars, Symbolic Violence, and the Modern Version of an Ancient Myth”
This continues my posts engaging with The Christ Conspiracy (CC) by Acharya S/D. M. Murdock. I have had quite a few responses from strong supporters of the astrotheology view argued in this book, all of them hostile, one even threatening legal action. These reactions have all reminded me vividly of my experiences in leaving a … Continue reading ““Christ Conspiracy” chapter 3: The Holy Forgery Mill”
I recently posted on Eric Zuesse’s Christ’s Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity with a link to David Hamilton’s views of the book. The book also comes with nice endorsements from Richard Dawkins and James Crossley and others. The author had sought a similar endorsement from me and I sent him my conclusion of his … Continue reading “Comments on Eric Zuesse’s Christ’s Ventriloquists: The Event that Created Christianity”
This post recapitulates earlier posts on the Documentary Hypothesis and introduces Philippe Wajdenbaum’s case for comparing the Bible with Classical Greek literature and finding the biblical author’s (sic) sources of inspiration there. Late last year I wrote Who Wrote the Bible? Rise of the Documentary Hypothesis. That post outlined the milestones towards the DH as … Continue reading “Collapse of the Documentary Hypothesis (1) & Comparing the Bible with Classical Greek Literature”
My last post in this series ended with Thomas Brodie’s question: On what basis, then, is it possible to go on claiming oral tradition? Brodie asked this after surveying how Hermann Gunkel’s paradigm of oral tradition came to dominate biblical, and especially New Testament, studies, while at the same time pointing out the logical fallacies … Continue reading “Oral Tradition is Unfounded: from Kelber to Koester”
I decided to review this book after encountering commenters on this blog strongly asserting that Christian origins must be found in “astrotheology”. I had to confess I had never read Acharya S’s or D. M. Murdock’s book arguing for this position, The Christ Conspiracy, completely from cover to cover. I did, however, attempt to point … Continue reading “Part 3: Review of Acharya S’s “The Christ Conspiracy””
Recently I have been chastised by Acharya S (D. M. Murdock) and some of her followers for failing to give the attention and prominence (one of them wanted to do a guest post on my blog) to their views that they demand they deserve. This followed recent posts and comments of mine in which I … Continue reading “Review of Acharya S’s “The Christ Conspiracy” part 1″
Revised 23rd May 2016 Jens Schröter writes what in many respects is an admirable lesson for scholars of Christian origins on how really to do history. I can only spot what I believe is one oversight in his lesson where one suddenly hears in his words echoes of apologists and fundamentalists. This post concludes my … Continue reading “Confusing “Narrative Voice” of Gospels with “Historical Truth Claims”. . . . Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity, ch. 2 final”
I touched on one brief passage in the chapter by Jens Schröter in my recent post, Historical Jesus Studies ARE Different Methodologically from Other Historical Studies, and it’s now time to return to his chapter from Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity [JCDA] in more depth. Jens Schröter appears at several points to come … Continue reading “Historical Method Versus Jesus Research. Chapter 2 of Jesus, Criteria, and the Demise of Authenticity”