Reading Time: 4 minutes A recent podcast spent an hour responding to Dan Savage’s well-publicized public spanking of the Bible. The podcast says that Savage’s claim, that the Bible is “radically pro-slavery” is hopelessly wrong, but the Bible itself disagrees. (Part 2 of 3)
History
Exploring history and prehistory from a secular, nonreligious perspective.
Posted inHistory, Science
Word of the Day: Argument from Authority (and How Consensus Fits In)
Reading Time: 3 minutes The claim “That’s an Argument from Authority Fallacy!” is common. But when is it actually a fallacy? And when can the Argument from Authority be valid?
Posted inHistory
The Bible’s Dark Ages
Reading Time: 5 minutes What happened during the Bible’s Dark Ages, the period from the original documents to our oldest manuscripts? What kinds of monkey business happened during these centuries of turmoil in the early church? We have every reason to suspect that changes happened that we simply have no way of undoing.
Posted inHistory
What Did the Original Books of the Bible Say? (Part 2)
Reading Time: 3 minutes What do we do with the contradictory passages in our thousands of copies of New Testament manuscripts? Historians have some inventive approaches to finding the most reliable copies, but there’s plenty of room for error.
Posted inHistory
Contradictions in the Resurrection Account
Reading Time: 4 minutes How many days did Jesus teach after his resurrection? Was it 40 days as Acts says or less than one as Luke says? Matthew writes about an earthquake that opened graves and sent reanimated corpses walking around Jerusalem. Why didn’t the other gospels write about this remarkable event? These and many more contradictions make us wonder if the gospel account is history or merely legend.
Posted inHistory
Word of the Day: Bronze Age Collapse
Reading Time: 2 minutes The medieval Dark Ages in Europe aren’t history’s only dark ages. The great civilizations of the Ancient Near East mysteriously collapsed about 3200 years ago.
Posted inHistory
1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire
Reading Time: < 1 minute The San Francisco earthquake was predicted by the Azusa Street church in Los Angeles. This remarkable event is true story that inspired my book, Cross Examined.
Posted inHistory
10 Reasons to Just Say Nay to the Naysayer Hypothesis
Reading Time: 4 minutes We’re told that the gospel story must be true because, if it weren’t, eyewitnesses at the time would correct it. In fact, it doesn’t work that way. Here are 10 reasons why this naysayer hypothesis is nonsense.
Posted inHistory
End of the World (Again)
Reading Time: 2 minutes I’ve enjoyed it, but this is the last day for this blog. That’s because this is the last day for everything. Yes, today is another in a long list of dates for the end of the world. But remember: celebrate sensibly! (Because tomorrow just might come after all …)
Posted inHistory
Contradictions in the Resurrection Account
Reading Time: 4 minutes How many days did Jesus teach after his resurrection? Was it 40 days as Acts says or less than one as Luke says? Matthew writes about an earthquake that opened graves and sent reanimated corpses walking around Jerusalem. Why didn’t the other gospels write about this remarkable event? These and many more contradictions make us wonder if the gospel account is history or merely legend.