Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
I was disappointed, and for some reason even a little surprised, to read Jerry Coyne’s response, Islamophobia again, to my recent post and see that he chose not to deal with the key points I raised. In fact, he merely repeated his own arguments as if my own rebuttal of them was nowhere on record. … Continue reading “Jerry Coyne’s reply, Bangladeshi Muslim Demonstrators, and Atheist Bloggers”
Bart Ehrman has stridently insisted he really did read the mythicist works he reviewed in Did Jesus Exit? (DJE?) so we must take him at his word. And being a scholar we know he is a gentleman and therefore honest, so we must conclude, I think, that he was very tired or unwell and badly … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman’s “unture” claims about the Nazareth arguments”
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″
From René Salm, author of The Myth of Nazareth and the Nazareth Myth website . . . . . Last week I received via snail mail (from a contact in Israel) a just-published book entitled “Nazareth: Archaeology, History and Cultural Heritage” (Nazareth Municipality, 2012). On glossy paper, with color photos, bound with thread, it’s a … Continue reading “Nazareth Boondoggle”
Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and no doubt many other atheists have landed especially hard blows against the Muslim religion recently, prompted specifically by the recent wave of deadly protests over the trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. So here are my two bits. Sam Harris dismisses the idea that murderous violence of Muslim rioters … Continue reading “All this Muslim business”
Niels Peter Lemche is the author of the fourth chapter of ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’, “The Grand Inquisitor and Christ: Why the Church Does Not Want Jesus”. He frames his case around the parable in Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Brothers Karamazov, that tells of Christ being arrested on his return to earth in the time … Continue reading “Why the Church Does Not Want Jesus — ‘Is This Not the Carpenter?’ chapter 4”
* Ehrman’s Conclusion . COVERED IN THIS POST: Are humanists and atheists engaged in a religious exercise? Humanist and atheist activism against religion The humanist self-definition Going against received wisdom The Jesus “problem” for historicists Replacing all the fantasy Jesuses with the ‘real’ one Is the mythicist agenda anti-religion and anti-Christian? Ehrman’s and traditional agendas … Continue reading “Jesus and the Mythicists: Earl Doherty’s Concluding Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Part 34”
Larry Hurtado’s initial response to my post did not offer any expectation that he might engage with the larger argument I made. I was surprised to find him refer to it as a post about him (personally) and mystified as to how he could interpret my reference to “some scholars” engaging in insult and ridicule … Continue reading “Larry Hurtado’s Wearying (and Irresponsible?) Encore”
Anyone who has read the works of Earl Doherty, Robert M. Price and others (even my own posts) knows that our blogger Maurice Casey’s attempts to critique them are unbearably lightweight — except for the unbearably depressing personal vitriol. My guess is that for most part he is reading selections fed to him by a … Continue reading “Concluding Response of Blogger Neil Godfrey to Blogger Maurice Casey of TJP®©™”
* Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism – Pt.7 Telling the Gospels Like It Is . COVERED IN THIS POST: Should “faith documents” be treated as legitimate historical sources? Are the Gospels independently based on oral tradition? Matthew and Luke’s story is Mark’s story Hearing about Nazareth and Jesus Should we trust … Continue reading “7. Earl Doherty’s Response to Bart Ehrman’s Case Against Mythicism: Telling the Gospels Like It Is”
Here they come. The advance warning was R. Joseph Hoffmann‘s Mythtic Pizza and Cold-cocked Scholars. He promises that within a week (apocalypse coming!) we will see on his blog “three essay-length responses to Richard C. Carrier’s ideas: The first by [R. Joseph Hoffmann], the second by Professor Maurice Casey of the University of Nottingham, and … Continue reading “Fight Club! Historical Jesus Scholars Take On the Christ Mythicists!”
What we can and cannot know I confess I have often shown little patience for people who hide behind the label of agnosticism when asked whether they believe in God. It smacks of evasion, since it answers a question concerning belief with an assertion about the state of knowledge. That is, it redirects our attention … Continue reading “Jesus Agnosticism: Believing vs. Knowing”
Edited an hour or so after original posting to add: And any reading of the broader content would have made clear to Ehrman that Doherty addresses a wide range of ancient world views; and much later, added a longer paragraph by Ehrman demonstrating his persistent misreading of Doherty’s words. I don’t know how to portray … Continue reading “Bart Ehrman’s false or careless assertions and quotations concerning Earl Doherty”
Accommodating the unaccommodatable I was taken aback when I saw that the pingback on my previous post, Miracles and Historical Method, was from the Doctor of Whoville. Since we know McGrath doesn’t read Vridar, somebody must have told him about it. I kid. We love the good doctor. Salt of the earth and all that. … Continue reading “Leap of Faith or Failure of Reason?”