archaeology Exodus Sidebar: Sargon and Moses - the Final Word...? There has been a back and forth between myself and Catholic apologist (with a bent for biblical literalism) Dave Armstrong on the subject of the Exodus account from the Bible, and specifically recently on Moses' birth story and its dependence on the pre-existing Sargon birth myth (in itself, a
Biblical Exegesis What Is the Evidence for Jesus? I am presently grappling with Jesus mythicism. I am, at present, a historicist in terms of whether Jesus existed or not. My evaluation is somewhat intuitive, believing to the confidence of about two-thirds that a real Jesus existed under all the mythological overlay as opposed to one-third confidence in a
Biblical Exegesis What's More Likely: Snake or Stake? A recent comment by WCB on a thread today reminded me of the Exodus claim of Moses' staff: The Staff of Moses is a staff mentioned in the Bible and Quran as a walking stick used by Moses. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, the staff
archaeology Exodus Sidebar: More on Moses and Sargon I think that Dave Armstrong believes that the purpose of my existence is merely to answer his articles that he writes against me. I hate to burst his bubble, but I have other things to do with my life that take something of a priority over responding to him. On
Bart Ehrman Who Was Nicodemus? In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to
archaeology Exodus Sidebar: Refuting Armstrong's "Refutation" on Pitch (but Oddly Not Sargon...) Oh David, David, David. David "I love science as much as any atheist" Armstrong likes to see himself as the white knight, tackling my "screeds" articles and refuting them. Except, this is rarely what actually happens. He recently claimed to have refuted me on camels but
Biblical Exegesis Quote of the Day: Jesus, the Gospels, Paul and His Letters, and so on... Here is a comment to get your teeth into from the other day. The article was about the minimal facts thesis concerning the Resurrection accounts of Jesus. They come from commenter BensNewLogin: The following may not be as linear as I would like. Please bear with me. There was a
atonement Carrier's Mythicism Is a Win-Win Jesus scholarship is often... “a disguise to do theology and call it history, do autobiography and call it biography, do Christian apologetics and call it academic scholarship.” John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography I've read a lot of Richard Carrier's work, but very little on
Biblical Exegesis Debunking the Exodus V: Moses' Birth The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the Exodus never happened because of both historical issues and theological/philosophical ones by
Biblical Exegesis Goodacre on Markan Priority and the Gospel Datings I listened to some Mark Goodacre some years ago and have referred to him in my own texts, and it was great to watch him here. I loved this talk. I got a lot out of this especially the talk of the destruction of the Temple and the so-called prophecies,
2020 Election Trumpian Conspiracy Theories Fuelling Insane Republican Big Lie Advocacy As I discussed the other day, things are getting progressively worse in the US as half of the country are happy to let it slide towards fascism, and the other half appear powerless to stop it from doing so. Insane conspiracy theories are being used to fuel dangerous voter suppression
Biblical Exegesis The “Real” “Minimal Facts” about Jesus In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is another one - thanks muchly to
democracy The GOP Sustained Assault on Democracy There are some really terrible moves being made by the GOP at all levels of politics in the US. This has arguably been going on for decades, but most pointedly so since Trump's election in 2016. There is a very good case to suggest that the GOP is
equality Gender Identity Debated I have listened to the first speaker in this debate so far but will continue to watch the whole thing. But I just thought I'd share a couple of early thoughts. First, this is why debates about conceptual nominalism and realism are important. Once you understand the distinction,
biblical contradictions Irreconcilable Resurrection Differences In the closing stages of writing my latest book, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK], I had a few test readers. One was David Austin, down in Australia, who has provided a few guest articles for your delectation. Here is one - thanks muchly to him:
conceptual nominalism Responding to Breuer on Conceptual Nominalism Luke Breuer kindly responded to my request and provided a critique of my position of conceptual nominalism recently. I hope to look at his claims and analyse them in my reply here today. I have a forthcoming book that sets out my position with a lot more depth and clarity
AHA Humanists Raise Awareness of the Nonreligious Latinx Community This is from the American Humanist Association: Today, the Latinx Humanist Alliance (LHA) officially launches the 1 in 5 campaign, which strives to raise awareness of the growing nonreligious Latinx population in the US. This marks the second year of this campaign, which initially launched in 2019 upon the creation
Did God Create the Universe from Nothing? Carrier's Anti-Kalam Book Endorsement! Apologies for my absence - half term, and kids, and all that. Dr Richard Carrier was very generous indeed with his time and effort on my recent book The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK]. I was very much indebted to him for his extensive blog entry
reason Taking Feser to Task on Human Intellect Here is a guest post from author Gunther Laird, who takes aim at Edward Feser and his Thomistic philosophy. Please grab Laird's excellent book that takes Feser head on. In the meantime: The fact that so many intellectuals don’t share their peculiar ideas has been a thorn
conceptual nominalism Luke Breuer Takes on Conceptual Nominalism I have a long history in my writing and philosophy here and elsewhere of adhering to a position called "conceptual nominalism". If you want more details, check out: * Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #2 - Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism * The Pertinence of Nominalism to Religious and Philosophical Debates
Biblical Exegesis Debunking the Exodus IV: Hardening of Hearts The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the Exodus never happened because of both historical issues and theological/philosophical ones by
Book Reviews Reviews I've said this a number of times before... My books are generally niche. They don't sell a lot. At all. So they don't get many reviews. So when a Christian comes along and nebulously slams one of my books, as follows, it affects my
Jesus My Interview on the Resurrection with Harmonic Atheist I've done a few interviews with Tim Mills/Harmonic Atheist and I love them. Here is a great chat about my latest book - The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] - and one that, though long, only skimmed the surface, looking really at my
General What We've Been Watching Just to take a break from arguing the ta's pretty much everything, since the discussion boards have been getting into some kind of frenzy, I thought I would talk about something completely different today. And, hopefully, something that won't cause such overt argument. However, I can
COVID crisis Open Satan Statue Season in Greene's Georgia Majorie Taylor Greene is never far away from controversy, never far from rank hypocrisy, utter stupidity and vile immorality. No wonder some of the commenters here like her. Another embarrassing video has emerged whereby she would not demand that a hypothetical statue of Hitler or Satan be taken down. They
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