Many people are aware that Josephus, a Jewish historian from the late first century, mentions Jesus Christ. In fact, it's often used as evidence that Jesus really existed. Of course, many of those same people are also aware that Josephus's most detailed mention of Jesus, called the Testimonium Flavianum, has been embellished by a later… Continue reading Some Thoughts on Josephus, Jesus, and John the Baptist
Category: Bible Study
The Book of Job: Serious or Satire?
I'll let you know up front that this is a longer than normal post, but there was no good way to break it up. Hopefully, you'll find the time it takes to read it well spent. I'm a big fan of Seth Andrews and his podcast The Thinking Atheist. A week or two ago, I… Continue reading The Book of Job: Serious or Satire?
PolitiFact Misses the Mark on Jesus
I love PolitiFact. I follow them on Facebook, and I always appreciate the fact-checking they do every time a politician makes a claim. Last week, they had an article that caught my eye, titled "Jesus was an 'undocumented immigrant,' ordained minister says." The minister, Ryan Eller, is the executive director of a group that works… Continue reading PolitiFact Misses the Mark on Jesus
“Times of Ignorance”
There's a passage in the Bible that has long stood out to me. When I was a Christian, I found it comforting; now, I just find it perplexing. In Acts 17 (beginning in verse 16), Paul is visiting Athens. Since it was a hub of philosophy and culture, it had temples and altars to a… Continue reading “Times of Ignorance”
Skeptical Bible Study: Tower of Babel
I was listening to a recent speech that Matt Dillahunty gave in Australia (listen here if you're interested), and in part of it he brought up the story of the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11. It's a story I've thought about several times since leaving Christianity. I don't recall everything Matt said about… Continue reading Skeptical Bible Study: Tower of Babel
My Recent Field Trip
Last night, my friend Matt and I had an opportunity to go to one of the church services that I talked about in my last post. As I mentioned there, this is a series of lessons surrounding the topic "Can We Believe the Bible?" by an evangelist / college professor / apologist that I corresponded… Continue reading My Recent Field Trip
Frustration
Sigh... So here's what's been going on lately. Most of you who read this blog already know that when my wife and I left Christianity, it wrecked most of our family relationships. My wife's parents and siblings, as well as my own, felt that they could no longer interact with us socially after our deconversion.… Continue reading Frustration
Public Office and Political Activism Just Don’t Mix
As I've mentioned before, my home state of Alabama has recently been wrangling over the subject of gay marriage. A federal judge in the city of Mobile ruled that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, which made us the 37th state legalizing it. Even though the state was dragged into this position, I couldn't… Continue reading Public Office and Political Activism Just Don’t Mix
Does God Change from the Old Testament to the New?
I started to leave this post as a comment on ratamacue0's recent post, What Started My Questioning? but decided to post it instead. Fellow blogger (and friend) unkleE left this comment as part of a conversation that he and ratamacue0 were having: ...most non-believers seem not to recognise that there isn’t one consistent portrait of… Continue reading Does God Change from the Old Testament to the New?
An Examination of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Tyre: Part 5
Now that we've actually covered Ezekiel's prophecy of Tyre in detail, I'd like to make some closing observations. The Track Record For a moment, let's consider the way the Old Testament god operates. He does nothing halfway. One of the examples that really stands out to me is the story of Elijah versus the 450… Continue reading An Examination of Ezekiel’s Prophecy of Tyre: Part 5
Finding Truth 