Biblical Exegesis

A collection of 283 posts

Biblical Exegesis

Supernaturalism

I posted the other day about motivated reasoning and eric commented as follows: It's possible to 'dispassionately argue' but still be engaging in motivated reasoning. I just don't think that's really the case here. What that would look like is: let'

Biblical Exegesis

The Huge Importance of the Empty Tomb to Christians

We know from Paul's writings and from pretty much every other mainstream Christian that the Resurrection is massively important to anyone professing faith in Christianity. Without belief in the death and rising of Jesus, you get no atonement and no real point to Jesus living, and therefore to

Biblical Exegesis

More on Josephus on Jesus

In my ongoing conversation with Christin commenter Jayman, where I wrote "The Resurrection, Fideism and Circularity" to which he replied on his own blog and I returned with "Josephus on Jesus", I thought I would add a Quote of the Day, from a commenter here (who

Biblical Exegesis

Josephus on Jesus

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece titled "The Resurrection, Fideism and Circularity", to which regular Christian commenter Jayman responded to here. Please read both to get a sense of the conversation. I will now react to only a couple of his claims in this article before continuing

Biblical Exegesis

The Problem with Prophecies and Foreknowledge

In order for God to need to send Jesus down for our salvation, we needed to be pretty sinful. So, at the time of, say, Daniel (who prophesied Jesus), or Psalm 22, some 600 years before Jesus came, we had prophecies dictating that Jesus was to come and rebuild Israel

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection, Fideism and Circularity

The few times that New Testament claims intersect with history – namely, the Nativity accounts, and to a lesser degree, the Resurrection accounts – the claims fail, historically speaking. What epistemic right does the Christian then have for believing in Jesus, for being a Christian? If you ask the Christian “Why do

Biblical Exegesis

Is Gnosticism a Thing?

Here's another nice quick Dana Horton guest post. Enjoy: Is Gnosticism a Thing? (4 minute read) What is it? Gnosticism is a collection of belief systems that arose in the 1st and 2nd century among Christian sects. In this context, it is separate from the idea of being

Biblical Exegesis

"Historical" Bookends to a Historically Vacuous Life

This is an early draft section for one of the first chapters in my new book-in-the-writing, The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story: The birth and death of Jesus are historical bookends to the life of Jesus, obviously, even if the theology continues in Acts and the Epistles

Biblical Exegesis

That's Alotta book!

In writing my book The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story that I hope to be the sister publication to my title on the Nativity, I am obviously using a number of sources to pull together so many threads. One of the most comprehensive resources I am dipping

Biblical Exegesis

Was Cain a Bad Man?

After I put out a call for help, a few people have stepped up to show their mettle in the intellectual cage fight that is ATP.  Please welcome Dana Horton who will be sharing some of his thoughts with us. And they most probably won't be as lengthy

Biblical Exegesis

Using Common Sense to Not See God: Christianity vs Mormonism

Bob Seidensticker, of Cross Examined here at Patheos, contributed a chapter to the recent book Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century. In his piece, he joins a few of us in the first section who look to philosophically dismantle the notion of God. The book is set into

bible

Using Common Sense to Not See God

Bob Seidensticker, of Cross Examined here at Patheos, contributed a chapter to the recent book Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century. In his piece, he joins a few of us in the first section who look to philosophically dismantle the notion of God. The book is set into

Biblical Exegesis

Pearced Off! #6 - Circularity of Believing the New Testament

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection: A Critical Examination

Here is the online talk I gave last night, hosted by Skeptic in the Hub and Atheist Alliance International, on the Resurrection. Check it out - it went well!   Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also buy me a cuppa. Please... It

Biblical Exegesis

Being Skeptical of the Resurrection Accounts; An Online Easter Talk, Tonight

Tonight, I am giving a talk that will be jointly hosted for two different skeptical organisations here and here at 8pm UK time. My talk will be a tough one to squeeze into the allotted time, so I will be rattling through it at a rate of knots, no doubt.

Biblical Exegesis

Online Talk on the Resurrection, Wednesday Night BST

I am giving a talk on the historicity of the Resurrection accounts on Wednesday night, BST, to Skeptics in the Hub. The details are here. Tune in and hang out. After all, you've got bugger all else do to. Well, most of you. I am hoping I can

Biblical Exegesis

Christianity Is Elitist

This is one of those arguments that I have long maintained but have never got round to putting into writing. I can't tell you the number of hours I have spent either talking directly to Christians, including very close friends in the Tippling Philosophers, or talking online or

Biblical Exegesis

Mental Contortions Required of Christians to Believe the Nativity Accounts

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Biblical Exegesis

Why Noah's Flood Is Utter Nonsense

I figure that, today, I will return to something a little more regular in terms of critically analysing religious claims. Let us look at Noah's Flood. I have long maintained that this is a ridiculous story at even the most superficial of analyses. The theology behind the flight

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: Daniel's Magi

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Biblical Exegesis

Debunking the Nativity: A Christmas Round-Up

[caption id="attachment_6023" align="alignleft" width="113"] My book. Dig it.[/caption] It's that time of year again. I have, at different Christmases, run some series debunking the historical claims within the Bible (specifically the Gospels of Matthew and Luke) to

Biblical Exegesis

Americans and Their Knowledge of Religion

Polling website FiveThirtyEight recently released a piece reporting on the Pew Research Center survey on Americ's knowledge of religion, one that always throws up interesting results. It's a questionnaire of 32 multiple-choice questions about religion and spirituality, a quiz that you can still take. FiveThirtyEight summarised:

Adam and Eve

Not Seeing OmniGod through Philosophy and Logic: Adam & Eve

Introductory spiel: One of my more recent books, Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century (UK), has a plethora of gems in it for the reader and a smorgasbord of variety. It was a labour of love and was particularly rewarding due to the fact that so many great

Biblical Exegesis

God Hates His Own Designed Creations: Animals

God appears to really hate non-human animals. Which is an odd thing considering he designed and created them. We know that he hated animals because he pretty much told us so and acted with utmost contempt for their existence. Let me remind you of the famous case of Noah'

Biblical Exegesis

The Credibility and Number of Resurrection Witnesses

As I have previously said in my Resurrection series, starting off with looking at the contradictions within the Gospel accounts: The question then becomes, are these contradictions better explained, and are the claims themselves, better explained by an ultimate truth in them, or by an alternative theory? We know from