Yesterday, I appeared back on the Atheist Edge YouTube Channel to debrief my recent debate with Richard Carrier. The host Kaz brought a range of questions and arguments to the discussion. ?
hermeneutics
Did God Command Genocide? An Interview on Capturing Christianity
Delighted to appear on Capturing Christianity today to talk about the problem of biblical genocide.
Do All Atheists Suppress Knowledge of God?
In this short interview with The Analytic Christian I discuss Romans 1 and atheism. ?
Speaking to Abraham’s Silence: A Review
J. Richard Middleton. Abraham’s Silence: The Binding of Isaac, the Suffering of Job, and How to Talk Back to God. Baker Academic, 2021. The binding (Aqedah) of Isaac is one of the most troubling stories in all Scripture. And it is not hard to see why. The story depicts God commanding a father to butcher […]
The Problem with Young Earth Creationism in One AiG Tweet
There are a lot of problems with young earth creationism. Most people are well versed in the scientific problems. But no less daunting are the hermeneutical problems as helpfully summarized in this AiG tweet: God’s Word makes it clear that he created everything in six literal days (as plainly defined per the Hebrew word for […]
Why God Did Not Command the Slaughter of the Canaanites, Briefly Explained
This article provides a brief synopsis of a case explaining why God did not command the slaughter of the Canaanites. It is based on a debate opening statement that I gave last year. And it provides an introduction to some of the arguments I develop at length in Jesus Loves Canaanites. “Slaughter” is defined as the […]
The Limits of Defending Biblical Violence By Appealing to a Big, Wild, and Dangerous God
Over the years, I have seen many Christians attempt to address problems of divinely sanctioned biblical violence by reframing them as virtues: in short, the bug is a feature. How so? On this re-narration, the problem of biblical violence should remind us that God is big and wild and dangerous. This offers an essential chastening […]
Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible: A Review
Michael Bird. Seven Things I Wish Every Christian Knew About the Bible. Zondervan, 2021. Seven Things is an introduction to the Bible written by Anglican priest and New Testament scholar Michael Bird. The book is written in seven chapters addressing origins (chapter 1), inspiration and inerrancy (chapter 2), authority (chapter 3), the cultural distance between the biblical […]
What if God is Dreadful?
In his book A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis sets aside the task of theodicy that he shouldered in The Problem of Pain in favor of a searing personal account of pain and loss centered on the death of his beloved wife Joy. At one point in the book, he reflects, “Not that I am (I […]
Would Jesus have endorsed gay marriage?
Jesus never talks about same-sex relationships, but he does talk about marriage (e.g. Matthew 19:1-10, Mark 10:1-12). And when he describes marriage, he always does so within the context of an indissoluble male/female covenantal bond. His understanding of the indissolubility aspect is an important topic in the conversation, But here I want to focus on […]
Fundamentalist Bible Reading and Literally False Descriptions of God
In this video, I explain how a passage like Exodus 32 forces fundamentalist Christians to abandon their “literalist” approach to Bible reading or face stark theological consequences. ?
How Professional Wrestling can Help Us Understand the Bible
In this video, I argue that in the same way that we can appreciate professional wrestling as performance even if it is not a conventional sport, so we can appreciate non-historical aspects of the biblical narrative even if they are not literally true. ?
Biblical Violence and Epistemology: A Conversation with Counter Apologist
In this video, I have a conversation with atheist blogger Counter Apologist over biblical violence and epistemology in conversation with my book “Jesus Loves Canaanites.” ?
The Bible, Divinely Commanded Violence, and Inspiration: My Opening Statement
In May 2021, I debated John Loftus on Modern Day Debate. The debate resolution was “The Bible, with its divinely commanded violence, wasn’t inspired by a perfect God.” Here is my opening statement in full. Thanks to Modern Day Debate for the invitation to debate and to John Loftus for agreeing to participate. I’d like to […]
