Using some strong and surprising language, biblical scholar Bart Ehrman has called out his peers for using the term “pseudepigrapha” when referring to books of the bible that were written by people claiming to be apostles but who obviously were not:
[G]ood Christian scholars of the Bible, including the top Protestant and Catholic scholars of America, [...]
Tags:Bart Ehrman·bible·biblical authorship·biblical literalism·Christianity·Christians·exegesis·Forged·identity theft·pseudepigrapha
Over at The Economist, our correspondent reports that “religion got it right: pain seems to assuage guilt.” This conclusion is based on an Australian study that primed the usual guinea pigs (undergraduates) with guilt by having them write about something “immoral” or “unethical” they had done. Compared to a non-primed group who wrote about cupcakes [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·atonement·Australia·Brock Bastian·catharsis·Christians·control·ethics·flagellants·Francisco de Goya·George Catlin·guilt·Mandans·morals·pain·penitence·punishment·ritualized pain·rituals·shame·spirits·visions
In a series of just published articles not so subtly titled Murderers and Martyrs: The Difficult Struggle of Christians in the Orient, the German newsmagazine Spiegel details the sorry plight of Christians in Egypt and Pakistan. Although the facts and reporting are unfortunately accurate, this is sure to ratchet up the already considerable levels of [...]
Tags:Bernard Lewis·Christians·colonialism·Coptic Christians·Copts·Edward Said·Egypt·essentializing·Germany·imperialism·Murderers and Martyrs·Muslims·Orient·orientalism·Pakistan·persecution·radical Islam·Spiegel
“Prepare to believe”! This is the injunction found underneath the Creation Museum’s logo, helpfully reminding us that credulity is more important than fact. What are we supposed to believe? That the biblical creation story is literally true and explains everything:
The state-of-the-art 70,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life, casting its [...]
Tags:Abraham·Adam·Answers in Genesis·Ark Encounter·Bedrock City·biblical literalism·Brontosaurus ribs·Christians·creation·Creation Museum·creationists·Custer·dinosaurs·Eve·evolution·Flintstones·Garden of Eden·incest·Muslims·Noah's ark·Paleolithic·separation of church and state·South Dakota·theme park·Tower of Babel·young earth
Anyone interested in the history of religions will inevitably become familiar with all manner of truly fantastic stories and beliefs. Whether we are talking about the soul flights and death duels of shamans, the avatars and exploits of Vishnu, or the appearance of Moroni and golden tablets of Joseph Smith, all religious traditions have their [...]
Tags:Adam·apple·avatars·bizarre theology·Christianity·Christians·Eve·golden tablets·Jesus·Jewish·Joseph Smith·Moroni·Satan·Scientology·shamans·sin·strange doctrine·thetans·Vishnu
Provocative and thoughtful as he usually is, Hitchens opines on anti-semitism for The Atlantic:
There is, probably first and certainly foremost, religious anti-Semitism. Unlike other nations or peoples, Jews were among the witnesses to the alleged lives and preachings of Jesus and Muhammad, and turned away from men they deemed false Messiahs. It is inconceivable that [...]
Tags:anti-semitism·Christians·Christopher Hitchens·false messiahs·false prophets·Jesus·Muhammad·Muslims
Over at HuffPo Religion, John Whitehead has penned a high-minded piece taking Christians to task for failing to understand they are major contributors — given their high divorce rates — to the perceived breakdown of the “traditional” family. I have bracketed “traditional” in the same manner that we should bracket “natural” — these are historical [...]
Tags:Christians·D.H. Lawrence·democracy·divorce·epochs·extended family·family·foragers·freedom·human history·John Whitehead·kinship·marriage bond·mystification·Naturalization·Neolithic Revolution·nuclear family·pair bonding·pre-state societies·Roman history·social construction·The Breakdown of the Traditional Family·traditional family
When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method. So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality. We can therefore trace the history of the [...]
Tags:Assyria·Assyrian Empire·Aztec sacrifice·Babylolian captivity·Catholicism·Christians·demographics·demography·early Christianity·Egyptian captivity·fertility·group size·Hebrews·homosexuality·India's sacred cow·Jewish diaspora·Jews·Judaism·Levant·Lost Tribes of Judah·marriage·Marvin Harris·Mesopotamia·Michael Harner·Mormons·natural law·persecution·pork eating proscription·procreation·prohibition against homosexuality·Ralph Tanner·ritual regulations·same-sex preference·sin of sodomy·slavery·sodomy·taboo·taboos·The Social Ecology of Religion·Vernon Reynolds·warfare
Having long been interested in art and aesthetics, I must confess to a morbid fascination with Thomas Kinkade’s paintings. Most are portrayals of settings that are utterly unreal, sort as if Maxwell Parrish visited Middle Earth while wearing rose-colored glasses and then decided to paint quaint little cottages in the Shire.
At other times I’ve thought [...]
Tags:aesthetics·angels·art·Christians·Currier & Ives·Freud·halos·heaven·luminosity·Maxwell Parrish·Middle Earth·painter of light·religious environment·The Shire·Thomas Kinkade·wish fulfillment
