The Secular Frontier

Reactions have certainly not all been positive: How will history judge him? ... Read Article

No, as near as we can figure Jesus taught forgiveness did not come through sacrificial payment, but rather repentance that then resulted in God forgiving. Ehrman will deal with this in his upcoming book and briefly outlines the issue here (SEE TIME 23:48-27:46): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0aCD4lXm0 I have tried to delve into the details of this issue in two previous essays, and hopefully will do so again in future work: (1) A Critique Of Penal Substitution (2) Penal Substitution And Christ Mythicism ... Read Article

Conservative Christians may tell you the bible is inerrant, and cite as a proof text 4 Timothy 3:16-76: 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. But, as Ehrman points out, scripture here refers to the Old Testament, not the new, and the key word here "inspired" literally means "God-breathed," and so doesn't suggest ideas of inerrancy later debated in the 19th century and beyond. Check out Ehrman's discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0aCD4lXm0 ... Read Article

THE CORE ARGUMENT FOR OBJECTION #5 As we saw in Part 14 of this series, the core argument for Objection #5 against the Swoon Theory has two premises: E. IF the Swoon Theory is true, THEN sometime after Jesus had been crucified, the eleven remaining disciples each had experiences that they believed were experiences of seeing a living and physically embodied Jesus in which Jesus appeared to those disciples to be a half-dead, staggering sick man who was badly in need of a doctor. D. It is NOT the case that sometime after Jesus had been crucified, the eleven remaining disciples each had experiences that they believed were experiences of seeing a living and physically embodied Jesus in which Jesus appeared to be a half-dead, staggering sick man who was badly in need of a doctor. THEREFORE: A. The Swoon Theory is FALSE. There are sub-arguments supporting each of the two premises of this core argument. WHERE WE ARE In Part 14 of this series, I presented a careful ana ... Read Article

New documentary out about the Roman influence creating Christianity featuring Robert Price and Robert Eisenman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHOK66qj9xc&t Relatedly, check out my essay on the Noble Lie Theory of Christian Origins ... Read Article

I just wanted to share this Mythvision interview from yesterday with Dr. Richard C. Miller.  It raises the interesting point that the mythicism of Price and Carrier isn't even given a seat at the table by most scholars when discussing Christian origins, which is hardly fair:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTM-BdAjetc&t    I've long thought about this as we have an embarrassment of riches in proposed Christian Origins portraits of Jesus, so the fact that mythicism is simply dismissed out of hand is odd.  Wikipedia notes: The portraits of Jesus that have been constructed through history using these processes have often differed from each other, and from the image portrayed in the gospel accounts. Such portraits include that of Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, charismatic healer, Cynic philosopher, Jewish messiah, prophet of social change, and rabbi There is little scholarly agreement on a single portrait, nor the methods needed to construct it, but there are overlapping att ... Read Article

If any of you are suspecting speaking in tongues is a little crazy, please do watch this and alleviate all doubt, lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6HVSyxIIE If you are insight impatient like me start watching at 11:21ff and see how conservative evangelical christianity quickly snowballs into a batshit asylum of mindlessness. ... Read Article

THE CORE ARGUMENT FOR OBJECTION #5 As we saw in Part 14 of this series, the core argument for Objection #5 against the Swoon Theory has two premises: E. IF the Swoon Theory is true, THEN sometime after Jesus had been crucified, the eleven remaining disciples each had experiences that they believed were experiences of seeing a living and physically embodied Jesus in which Jesus appeared to those disciples to be a half-dead, staggering sick man who was badly in need of a doctor. D. It is NOT the case that sometime after Jesus had been crucified, the eleven remaining disciples each had experiences that they believed were experiences of seeing a living and physically embodied Jesus in which Jesus appeared to be a half-dead, staggering sick man who was badly in need of a doctor. THEREFORE: A. The Swoon Theory is FALSE. There are sub-arguments supporting each of the two premises of this core argument. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE KEY PREMISE (D) In this post, I will begin ... Read Article

This is an interesting video by Rationality Rules pointing out it's unclear why Ayaan converted and even what she thinks Christianity means ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COfOeYq-Ln0 ... Read Article

When we look at the gospels, we see that Mark was written first and Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source. However, there is also material common to Matthew and Luke that does not come from Mark, and so scholars usually suppose there was another now lost source "Q" that Matthew and Luke both used. A minority of scholars reject the Q hypothesis, like Goodacre and Carrier, and think instead Luke used Matthew as a source. This latter interpretation has difficulties. For example, Philosopher John Watson notes: Matthew isn't comfortable with the disciples being like "what a silly question" and so removes that part. Luke also seems uncomfortable with the disciples asking jesus why he would ask who is touching him since he is being pressed by a crowd but he deals with this differently than matthew if luke is using matthew then why would he avoid matthew's solution? It is interpretive reasoning such as this that has led the majority of scholars to think Matthew and Luke used a now lost "Q" ... Read Article

Robyn Faith Walsh's proposal of the dependance of Mark on Paul and the Pauline origin of the Last Supper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjRUy4TncYo&t For more on Mark's use of Paul, see: https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/15934 ... Read Article

The Hidden Brain Connections Between Our Hands and Tongues: Sticking out your tongue while doing delicate work with your hands reveals a history of evolutionary relationships. From the article: Where did this coordination come from? It likely originated in our ancient ancestors’ hand-to-mouth feeding movements and their development of language, because spoken language is typically accompanied by automatic hand movements. Presumably, hand gestures were the first type of communication to evolve, and they gradually blended with appropriate syllabic utterances — mouth sounds — that allowed for language. Indeed, functional brain imaging studies show that specific tongue and hand movements activate the same region of the brain in the premotor cortex (the F5 region). Furthermore, the same neurons in the premotor area fire when a monkey grasps an object with its mouth or its hand. Electrical stimulation of this same area triggers a monkey’s hand to make a grip motion while its mouth opens, and its ... Read Article

Maybe not. Dan McClellan @maklelan is a PhD in theology & religion (University of Exeter), honorary fellow, University of Birmingham's Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion. He posted this helpful Tik Tok video on the question: https://www.tiktok.com/@maklelan/video/7303190283917856031?_r=1&_t=8hUhbvMwqsB ... Read Article

OBJECTION #5: THE SICKLY JESUS OBJECTION Here is the fifth objection by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli against the Swoon Theory: The post-resurrection appearances convinced the disciples, even “doubting Thomas,” that Jesus was gloriously alive (Jn 20:19-29). It is psychologically impossible for the disciples to have been so transformed and confident if Jesus had merely struggled out of a swoon, badly in need of a doctor. A half-dead, staggering sick man who has just had a narrow escape is not worshiped fearlessly as divine lord and conqueror of death.            (HCA, p. 183) Kreeft and Tacelli say more about the alleged transformation of Jesus' disciples when they discuss the Conspiracy Theory: ...Their [Jesus' disciples'] sincerity is proved by their words and deeds.  They preached a resurrected Christ and they lived a resurrected Christ.  They willingly died for their "conspiracy." Nothing proves sincerity like martyrdom. ... Read Article

A second Trump term would be a watershed in a way the first was not. Victory would confirm his most destructive instincts about power. His plans would encounter less resistance. And because America will have voted him in while knowing the worst, its moral authority would decline. The election will be decided by tens of thousands of voters in just a handful of states. In 2024 the fate of the world will depend on their ballots. Read the article here. ... Read Article