Tag Archives: the Bible

Epidurals and Pains in Childbirth: Why Do Arguments Start and Stop Where They Do?

Posted on June 11, 2015 by

People often claim that they’re appealing to reason in argumentation, but the way they reason frequently reveals more about them than the truth. Put another way, an argument often says more about your inward passions, sensibilities, and imaginative world than … Continue reading →

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Buzz: Stephen Greenblatt’s Adam And Eve Book Coming Soon?

Posted on May 25, 2015 by

I don’t see the book listed at Amazon yet, but in an interview last year, Harvard’s Stephen Greenblatt, an atheist, said his next book would be on Adam and Eve. He’s also been teaching a course on Adam and Eve at … Continue reading →

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Edward Feser Thinks God Flashed Fire Upon Elijah’s Sacrifice

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

Given the level of sophistication that the philosopher Edward Feser brings to his defense of medieval Thomism, I was somewhat taken aback recently to see him write at his blog the following: I think a divine cause was the source … Continue reading →

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Does the Truth Matter or Not?

Posted on April 24, 2014 by

Catholic Andrew Sullivan, in the context of reading the biblical scholar Bart Erhman’s new book, How Jesus Became God (Harper 2014), makes a crisp and refreshingly direct statement to his fellow biblical religionists who ignore expert consensus and the general … Continue reading →

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Bill Maher on Noah’s Ark and the New Noah’s Ark Movie

Posted on March 18, 2014 by

The subject is Noah’s ark and the new Noah’s ark movie. Bill Maher engaging in some sustained and gleeful–and very, very funny–blasphemy. (That is, if God and biblical literalists can take a joke.)

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Does God Love Uganda?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by

American evangelicals certainly think so, and a new documentary, God Loves Uganda, tells the story of their interaction with the country, and how that interaction is impacting cultural politics there (most especially in relation to a new death penalty law … Continue reading →

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Does the Bible Advocate Book Burning?

Posted on June 18, 2013 by

It appears so. After Paul preached the gospel in Ephesus, and won numerous converts, the Book of Acts says, with approval, that there was a book burning (19:19-20 KJV): Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books … Continue reading →

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Pushback against Biblical Literalism Directed at Homosexuals

Posted on April 7, 2013 by

John Corvino provides some pushback to biblical literalists on the subject of homosexuality: __________ And Marc Ambinder recently wrote a moving reflection on how difficult it still is for young gay teens: Since moving to Los Angeles, I’ve met a lot … Continue reading →

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The Bible Verse Reinhold Niebuhr Chose As Most Essential

Posted on March 26, 2013 by

If but one Bible verse survived after a global cataclysm, what verse would you hope got preserved? The famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was asked this question in 1954 of a magazine editor, and here was his response: The passage of … Continue reading →

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The Human Lowdown

Posted on January 31, 2013 by

Here’s our basic human story based on genetics. 60,000 years ago there was drought in Africa brought on by an ice age to its north. The human species lived only in Africa and had dwindled to perhaps 2,000 individuals. They looked like … Continue reading →

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Darwin, Lucretius, and End Times Hysteria

Posted on December 20, 2012 by

Regarding doomsday today, December 21, 2012, the calamity has already arrived: the comet hit in 1859 when Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species. I’m referring, of course, to the death of God. Since the Italian Renaissance and Anglo-French Enlightenment, … Continue reading →

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Louis CK Does a Close Reading of the Story of Abraham and Isaac

Posted on August 30, 2012 by
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Are the Following Verses in the Quran?

Posted on May 7, 2012 by

Nope. They’re in the Bible (Deuteronomy 22:20-21, KJV): 20 But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: 21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and … Continue reading →

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Quote of the Day: Bertrand Russell on What the World Needs Now

Posted on April 2, 2012 by

The following was spoken by Bertrand Russell in a lecture he gave on March 6, 1927. It seems in need of being said again today: “A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering … Continue reading →

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Atheist David Silverman to Tim Tebow: Read Matthew 6:5

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

Why does it take an atheist to point out that Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, a “Christian,” in making flamboyant displays of public prayer, is actually not following Jesus’s explicit admonition in the Sermon on the Mount not to do … Continue reading →

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Jerry Coyne vs. Ross Douthat: Why the Bible Persuades So Many (Even as Atheist Arguments Against It Don’t)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by

In thinking about the dust-up between Jerry Coyne and Ross Douthat over whether the miraculous stories in the Bible actually happened, and whether it matters (Coyne says yes, Douthat says no), it occurs to me that both of them are … Continue reading →

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Tim Minchin’s “Woody Allen Jesus” Christmas Song

Posted on December 23, 2011 by

The best new Christmas song of the year (by Tim Minchin): —- Unfortunately, though Tim Minchin’s segment was taped for the Jonathan Ross Show, it didn’t actually air. It was nixed as too controversial. But Minchin, given a copy of … Continue reading →

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Michelle Bachmann Conflates the Bible with the Constitution

Posted on November 24, 2011 by

In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Michelle Bachmann dodged a tricky question embedded in a larger question by conflating the Bible with the Constitution. Here was the tricky question: If the people want government to do something that goes … Continue reading →

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Judge William Adams Alludes to the Bible as He Beats His Daughter, Hallie

Posted on November 3, 2011 by

The below video shows Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge, William Adams of Texas, reminding his 16-year-old daughter, Hallie, of the apostle Paul’s commandment to obey your father and mother (see 4:20 in the clip) as he beats the living shit out of her for downloading … Continue reading →

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Father Knows Best: Charles Sanders Peirce on Using Authority to Fix Belief

Posted on October 14, 2011 by

In 1877 the great scientist and logician, Charles Sanders Peirce, wrote a mercifully short, but not simplistic, essay for Popular Science Monthly titled, “The Fixation of Belief.” It’s a stunner. I stumbled across it in a 1964 anthology of philosophy essays, … Continue reading →

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