The Secular Frontier

Bart provided an overview for the kinds of things that will be found in the conference presentations, and I would like to share a couple of these as background on Paul, and propose some questions that these ideas raise for me. God had made a covenant with the Jews and the Jews kept their part of the bargain by keeping God’s law.  It was thought that bad things happened like the Jews repeatedly being conquered because they were breaking the law and that was God’s punishment.  Around 200 years before Jesus, some Jewish thinkers started to think that evil forces were controlling people and opposing believers by preventing them from keeping the law, and that is why bad things were happening.  Though the world looks like God isn’t in control, apocalyptic thinking is that God will soon destroy these evil forces and set up a utopian world like Eden was. Paul and Jesus were apocalyptic thinkers. Paul was a highly religious Greek-speaking Jew who was a scholar of scripture.  In his ea ... Read Article

I'm excited to share that I will be reporting for The Secular Web/Internet Infidels on Bart Ehrman's conference this weekend on the apostle Paul. My hope is to share a few gems from each presenter that will encourage my reader to sign up for the conference themself and watch a replay. The apostle Paul is one of the most influential writers in history and so is important to study, even if you are a secularism activist like me. Paul was an apocalyptic thinker who believed the end of the age had begun and would be realized in his lifetime. He called the resurrected Jesus the "first fruits (1 Cor 15:23)" of the general end-time harvest of souls that was underway. He was also an apostle of the cross, saying he resolved to know nothing among his readers but Christ and him crucified, and quoted the creed/poetry that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Why, then, does Paul say if the resurrection is not true then the cross is of no effect? ("If Christ has not been raised, your faith ... Read Article

Richest man in the world and Trump sycophant Elon Musk shared his thoughts on atheism: Notice he doesn't raise the issue of whether religion is true, just that it's (in his interpretation) pleasant. Why would a billionaire support Trump ... ? lol. ... Read Article

"Kelly and I are departing Mar-a-Lago, where we just spent a few hours with President Trump and are thanking God for protecting him today—once again. No leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient. He is unstoppable. (Speaker Mike Johnson)" It's amazing how people will insert God into anything that shows Him in a rosy light, though never blame God for things like childhood cancer. A favorite place theists love to insert God into is the beginning of space/time. What they neglect to tell you is even if some entity authored all reality, this doesn't in any way increase the likelihood that Christianity or Islam etc. is true. ... Read Article

After getting his clock cleaned in the first debate according to every credible poll and source (including RFK jr!), Trump apparently wants no part of another match with Kamala Harris. Trump spun it in this way: ... Read Article

I've talked a lot about how Trump has positioned himself for the argument that a vote against him is a vote against God. RFK Jr has just come out with an ad claiming that joining forces with Trump was a religious-based decision. He said: "For 19 years, I prayed every morning that God would put me in a position to end this calamity. This is a spiritual journey for me. I reached my decision through deep prayer." -@RobertKennedyJr It never ceases to amaze me how celebrating one's thoroughgoing superstitious approach to life is respected and celebrated in the modern world. ... Read Article

In Chapter 7 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I critically examine some objections against the Swoon Theory by various Christian apologists. The Swoon Theory claims (roughly) that Jesus survived his crucifixion and this led his disciples to mistakenly conclude that God had raised Jesus from the dead. One of the objections against the Swoon Theory that I examine in Chapter 7 of my book points to alleged ancient historical references to Jesus' death by crucifixion as evidence for the claim that Jesus died on the cross (which would mean the Swoon Theory is wrong). This objection is presented by the Christian apologists Norman Geisler and Frank Turek in their book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (see page 306). I call this objection: Objection #13: Non-Christian Writers. In this post, I will examine one of the examples given by Geisler and Turek of an alleged ancient historical reference to Jesus' ... Read Article

See the previous post in this 2 part mini-series on the Antichrist HERE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g The presence of the antichrist spirit in the Christian narrative as the ultimate danger primarily means we are not considering an outside oppositional force but rather that Christianity contains within itself the loose thread of its own potential unraveling, the Jenga piece that once removed self-deconstructs the entire tower.  The Christ of faith is lost in the search for the Jesus of history, the antichrist lampooning the unhistorical Christ. We saw this last time with how Mark cleverly inserts narrative elements that contradict the crucifixion/resurrection salvation guiding theme of his gospel.  And, Mark playfully alerts the sophisticated reader to this right from the beginning having Jesus preach repentance and the kingdom of God, not himself and salvation through crucifixion/resurrection like what we see Paul emphasizes. We sometimes forget in our interpretations that focus o ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga146HLIzN8 What is the "Again" MAGA wants us to return to? Trump says a big part of this is returning to God. Trump: "Our country is missing a lot of religion. I think it really was a much better place with religion…Without religion, there's no real guardrails. I'd love to see us get back to more religion in this country." (Because, you know, Trump's life is such a shining example of godliness, lol). ... Read Article

Donald Trump says he thinks God saved him from assassin's bullet to help fix country's problems. In other words, if you vote against Trump you're voting against God. See the video HERE! ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 7 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I argue that an objection by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona to the Swoon Theory FAILS. The Swoon Theory is, roughly, the skeptical view that Jesus survived his crucifixion and that this led to his disciples mistakenly believing that God had raised Jesus from the dead. One objection by Habermas and Licona asserts that the religious experience that resulted in Paul's conversion to Christianity raises a serious problem for the Swoon Theory. I refer to this as Objection #12 (Paul's Conversion). Here is a part of their argument for this objection: 2a. Paul claimed that his conversion to Christianity was the result of Paul clearly SEEING with his own eyes (on the road to Damascus sometime after the crucifixion of Jesus) the face and body of the risen Jesus who had a glorious (i.e. bright and radiant) appearance. A1. IF Paul claimed that his conv ... Read Article

(see Part 2 of this blog post HERE) (The Devil whispers to the Antichrist; detail from Sermons and Deeds of the Antichrist, Luca Signorelli, 1501, Orvieto Cathedral.  Wiki) The word "antichrist" is used only in the Epistles of John, although a similar idea of "pseudochrist" ("false messiah") is used by Jesus in  Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22.  In John’s epistles the term seems to alternate between a person antichrist and a group of people identified as antichrists. Church father Polycarp understood the word as a group.  2 Thessalonians, a letter that is in dispute as to whether it is Paul’s or a later follower, identifies a man of sin traditionally understood to be the antichrist who was a real existential threat to deceiving the believer because the time of the end was imminent in Paul’s mind (the resurrected Christ being the "first fruits" of the end time harvest of souls).  This figure is more fully explored in Revelation as the Beast of the Sea. The notion of � ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 6 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I argue that William Craig's objections to the Swoon Theory FAIL. One of Craig's objections asserts that Jewish Thought in the first century would have prevented Jesus' disciples from mistakenly believing that a Jesus who had survived crucifixion had been raised from the dead by God. I refer to this as Objection #10 (Jewish Thought). Here is a part of Craig's argument for this objection: 3a. Seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion (around 30 CE) would lead the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus to believe that Jesus had not died on the cross, not that Jesus was…gloriously risen from the dead. A. According to non-conspiratorial versions of the Swoon Theory, the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus came to believe that Jesus was gloriously risen from the dead as a result of the eleven remaining disciples seeing Jesus alive after his cru ... Read Article

In the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory) I examine several objections to the Swoon Theory (roughly the skeptical view that Jesus was crucified but survived his crucifixion and that this led to the belief that God raised Jesus from the dead). One of those objections is Objection #11 "Deceptive Jesus". According to this objection presented by the Christian apologist William Craig, the Swoon Theory implies that Jesus was a deceiver and a charlatan. A key premise of this argument is this: Jesus was a deeply religious person. This premise is used to argue against the idea that Jesus was a deceiver or charlatan. Contrary to the thinking involved in Objection #11, I argue (in Chapter 6 of my book) that even deeply religious persons can be deceivers. In this post, I will consider one likely response to my critique of Objection #11. DOESN’T THE BIBLE TEACH THAT DISHONESTY AND DECEPTION ARE WRONG? It might be obje ... Read Article

Former President Donald Trump tells NBC News Correspondent Dasha Burns that Florida's six-week abortion law is "too short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ot95upckLY That was yesterday. Today, he came out as a critic of the Florida abortion expansion proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZag7Scq28 So what is going on with this? Trump is trying to keep the pro life wing of his party satisfied but while still promoting reproductive rights because he is polling so poorly among women. Unfortunately for Trump this isn't an issue that he can a play on both sides simultaneously, so in the end he seems to have committed to a position on pro choice abortion beyond the six week limit, but we'll see. We've seen the movie, lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AALREbJZEZk ... Read Article