Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
Over the summer and autumn of 2020, I’ve been catching up and rereading several important books on the New Testament, especially those that have approached their subjects from a sociological standpoint. Those works led me to others (sometimes the bibliography is more worthwhile than the book itself), and so on. I remember reading Jonathan Z. … Continue reading “Did Jonathan Z. Smith Really Not Understand Ideal Types? (Part 1)”
At about 57 mins of the MythVision podcast O’Neill underscores the importance of Paul’s claim to have met James the “brother of the Lord”. Not only is Paul’s claim from a contemporary of Jesus but it is even from one who is opposed to his source: Paul is saying, says O’Neill, “Yeh, I have met … Continue reading “Bad History for Atheists (3) — Proof-texting, Circularity, Fake Facts, Insults”
First, there was this call to Trump from Roger Stone: During his September 10 appearance on The Alex Jones Show, [Roger] Stone declared that the only legitimate outcome to the 2020 election would be a Trump victory. He made this assertion on the basis of his entirely unfounded claim that early voting has been marred … Continue reading ““I’m fearful of violence in a way that I was not in 2000””
When I was a dedicated member of Herbert Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God cult I was aware of the existence of “dissident” literature that had led a few fellow members to “fall away” into the clutches of Satan. I had no desire to seek it out and read it because I “knew” it would be … Continue reading “Essential Reading for Trump Supporters”
This post follows on from Historical Background to President Trump – the Republican Party’s Shift . . . Enter the Christian Right The Christian right . . . . . . was the term widely used during the 1980s to describe a religious social movement, while today the operative term in both self-presentation and in … Continue reading “The Historical Road Leading Fundamentalist Christians to Trump”
This post is based on some of the citations in the early pages of Hercules-Christus, a 1947 article by Dutch Radical Critic Gustaaf Adolf van den Bergh van Eysinga, translated into German by Frans-Joris Fabri and posted on Hermann Detering’s RadikalKritik webpage. I have supplemented some of van Eysinga’s references in places. Other posts addressing … Continue reading “Hercules, a Fitting Substitute for Jesus Christ”
Yes, we know that suicide terrorists regularly announce that they are killing in the name of Allah and they quote the Koran to justify what they are doing. And, of course we should, must, listen to what they say and take it seriously. Far from denying any of that, I think it is all necessary … Continue reading “Why Blaming Islam for Terrorism is Misguided”
An interesting article appears in the current issue of Translational Issues in Psychological Science: it describes research (based on analysis of inaugural addresses, presidential documents, State of the Union Addresses, and general election debates) into the level of analytical thinking among United States presidents from Washington to Trump. (H/T Alternet) The article, The exception or the rule: … Continue reading “The Decline in Analytic Thinking among U.S. Presidents and the Rise of Propaganda”
Nazi ideology was set out by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, Communism was explained for all by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto, and radical Islamism was planted with Sayyid Qutb‘s Milestones. Qutb was hanged in 1966 for involvement in a plot to assassinate Egypt’s President Gamal Abdul Nasser. Qutb’s ideas appear to have been … Continue reading “The Founder of Islamist Extremism and Terrorism”
Previous posts in this series: Sam Harris: Wrong (again) about Religion and Radicalization Religion: It’s more than we often think Was Religion Invented to Explain Things — or to Compound Mystery? . . . Or. . . ? Since we tend to take it for granted that beliefs in spirit beings and associated myths were invented … Continue reading “Where Religious Beliefs Come From”
The Judaism prior to the destruction of the temple in 70 CE and that was the Judaism known to those responsible for the birth of Christianity was not the rabbinic Judaism that emerged in ensuing centuries. In recent years scholars Hurtado and Bauckham have attempted to defend the historical roots of contemporary Christian orthodoxy in … Continue reading “When God Commanded the Worship of Adam”
Tim linked to some background info on the reported discovery of the new fragment of the Gospel of Mark. Here is some further discussion that might be of interest: By Roger Pearse (creator of the Tertullian Project website and the Additional Fathers collection) A first century fragment of Mark’s gospel? Some thoughts by an outsider Covers … Continue reading “What they’re saying about The New Gospel of Mark Fragment”
This post is based on the theme of a chapter in St. Paul versus St. Peter: A Tale of Two Missions by Michael Goulder. I depart from Goulder’s own presentation in one significant respect: Goulder wrote as if 2 Thessalonians were a genuine letter by Paul (in which Paul writes about the future in a way he was … Continue reading “How a Spurious Letter “From Paul” Inspired the End Time Prophecies of the New Testament”
The title was a tweet by Sam Harris: https://twitter.com/samharrisorg/status/337313832814919680 in response to the horrific terrorist murder of Lee Rigby in London. I told someone in a recent comment that I would do a post explaining my perspective on what lies behind Harris’s response. (In that same comment thread one can see a video in which … Continue reading “Someone get Scott Atran to tell us which soccer club these guys belonged to. — Tweet from Sam Harris”