Doubts Aloud Podcast

Show NotesMerry Christmas one and all and what could be more festive than digging into the historical reliability of that Census? The one Luke uses to set up his nativity narrative. We make our case as to why this matters, after all, Luke is said to be a great historian by many. Then we get to it dealing with the 3 main historical issues with the census as presented by Luke:he says it covered the entire Roman world but there is no record of it elsewhere,he presents this strange idea of ‘everyone’ going to their ancestral home to register andhe that it took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria which was about 10 years after Herod died, but Luke (and Matthew) also place the narrative in Herod’s reign.Of course we dig into the better defenses apologists and bible scholars have proposed. Links etc:Read the key parts of the narrative: Luke1v5, v26-7 then Lk2v1-8 and then v22 and v39. A simple Uni Idaho link we used to start our researchhttps://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/census.htm

Show NotesIn this episode Andrew shares his research on the origins of the Book of Mormon and the early roots of the Mormon church. This includes discussing the belief that gold plates were discoverd near New York in the early 19th century that gave the purported story of jews emigrating from the holy land to the americas in around 600 BC. Andrew also covers aspects of the character and background of the founder of the Mormon church, Joseph Smith. Also discussed is the cultural context and setting with the probable sources that influenced the formation of the book of Mormon. We also discuss the very facinating succesors to the Jospeth Smith, Brigham Young and also his rival, a certain James Strang and his very facinating story. For the hosts of this podcast we cannot help but see so many parallels with Mormonism and evangelical christianity. The many schisms, the fundamentalist and progressive divide, the apologetic strategies, prophecies that were unfullfilled and the pure devotion and passion for the book o

Show NotesAndrew has been following a story about a ‘Curse Tablet’ found at an archaeological site in Israel which proponents claim should up-end Biblical Archaeology in such a way as to confirm the conservative evangelical view of the Torah – the first five books of the OT. We look into it and hear from both sides.This led on to Ed introducing the chapter in the ‘50 Arguments for God’ book on Biblical Archaeology. It concentrated on the NT and we picked up especially on one claim in the chapter, that the archaeology concerning 1stC tombs around Jerusalem helped confirm the gospel account. After some digging (yes, a pun) we think that we unearthed (sorry) a different story.Links:Link for apologists making hay on Curse Tablet: Sean McDowel with the main proponenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEVEKX_0x08And after the push back, another episode with a Christian scholar who dismissed the Curse Tablethttps://youtu.be/SBmuNw59AOgResponses from academic, Dr. Robert Cargillhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkBByBE2OU

This episodes is Part 2 of a 2 part show with just with Andrew on his own and and he recounts in detail his own de-conversion story.

This episodes is Part 1 of a 2 part show with just with Andrew on his own and and he recounts in detail his own de-conversion story.

Show NotesWe continued our discussion with friend of ours Josh Parikh - a Christian Apologist who has always thought deeply about the issues and maintained intellectual integrity.There were two Old Testament case studies that Josh included in his talk “A Tumultuous Period in Apologetics?” to the Discussion Group in London, and we were keen not to miss these out: the famous story of bears mauling 42 children and the patriarchy with misogamy in both the narratives and especially in prophets Hosea 2, Nahum 3 and most horrifyingly in Ezekiel 16. We also covered some feedback on Part 1 concerning the American church and apologetics scene ... we gave the UK view on it and feedback from US listeners would be great. Links:“God: An Anatomy” by Francesca Stavrokopoulou“Raw Revelation: The Bible They Never Tell You About” by Mark Roncace“The Violence of God and the War on Terror” by Jeremy Young Doubts Aloud Links:Please give feedback and ask questions using: doubtsaloud@gmail.com

Show NotesJosh Parikh is an old friend of ours having contributed to our Discussion Groups over many years as a Christian Apologist who has always thought deeply about the issues and maintained intellectual integrity. He has been on a journey, especially having engaged with Biblical scholarship. This has overlapped with his time at Oxford University and continued since graduating. Like many, he has remained a Christian and has moved in a ‘progressive’ direction. Josh recently gave a talk “A Tumultuous Period in Apologetics?” to the “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in London, and we were eager to have him share that material on the show. Josh sees a crisis not just in the scandals such as with Ravi Zacharias but at a root conflict between the aims of apologetics in conservative Christianity and the commitments involved in genuine scholarship. We had so much to talk about that we will need 2 shows to benefit fully from Josh’s wisdom. Links:We strongly recommended this podcast: “The Ri

Show NotesFor Part 2 of our discussion of same-sex relationships, sexual practice and the Bible, we start with background and origins for the OT Law (we covered its interpretation in Part 1). One scholar has identified an evolution in the laws in Leviticus from a more lenient view to the harsh one found in the final text.Frances has researched reactions to these laws in Jewish writings and that led to a wider ‘world tour’ or religious treatment of the issues.Links:See pp 291 & 292 here for ANE backgroundhttps://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/325479/EBR_Homosexuality.pdf?sequence=1And here for the possible evolution in the laws in Leviticus by Idan Dershowitz https://www.academia.edu/37294841/The_Secret_History_of_Leviticus_New_York_TimesHere is Dr Michael Brown’s commentaryhttps://archive.askdrbrown.org/library/creating-new-version-leviticus-support-gay-sexLinks for mediaeval and modern Jewish thoughthttps://www.myjewishlearning.com/2013/04/19/to-plant-or-not-to-plant-seed-the-truth-of-homosexua

Show NotesWe do a tour of the Bible and its material on same-sex relationships and sexual practice. We find that the story of Sodom isn’t the place to start and the OT Law has issues with interpretation. Jesus didn’t directly teach on the subject and so we spend more time with the references to it by Paul, in a long passage in Romans 1 (v 18-32) and a shorter one in 1Corinthians6v9. 1Tim1v10 is similar to the Corinthians one. Can we see Paul as condemning all same-sex practice?How this works out in Christian teaching and attitudes and the lack of a consistency was also worth pursuing. Next time we’ll carry on with material from Frances on the details of the Leviticus verses and the history behind them.Links:Was 1Corinthians6v9 just speaking of older men and teenage boys?https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/bsac/homosexuality_corinthians6.pdfThe married couple on the England women’s cricket team:https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/cricket/64665943 The recent Unbelievable Show “Twoviews on LGBT and the Church - Andrew

Episode 61 – Show NotesOccam’s Razor shows us how simple explanations are superior to complex ones and so simplicity is a concept that might lead us to believe in God as this one simple concept – a supernatural personal agent – can explain all the complexities of the world. We try to assess this line of thinking, especially using the work of the Oxford Christian philosopher Richard Swinburne who favours the approach. This then leads into the doctrine of Divine Simplicity which was prominent in the Medieval church (eg Aquinas). Of course Andrew brings us down to earth with what the Bible says about God and his simplicity. Links:BBC In Our Time podcast on Occamhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m0w4Learned articles on Occam:https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/simplicity/... and on Divine Simplicityhttps://plato.stanford.edu/entries/divine-simplicity/To find a place where Swinburne’s ideas that Ed describes are set out without reading his book:https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/Start well

Episode 60– Show NotesJohn Nelson returned as our guest to start off 2023. He’s been monitoring the debate about what literary genre we should consider the gospels to be and what the implications would be if they are taken as biography in the Greek & Roman tradition. The question fits with his studies for his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in Christian Origins. John maintains that understanding biography allows us to avoid the crass literalism of fundamentalism (and its attendant overconfidence in our ability to recover the historical Jesus), on the one hand, and an equally flat dismissal of its historicity on the other. We chat about the different ways both apologists and counter-apologists misuse ancient biography for their historicising or mythologising agendas. I.e. we’re very much the pupils this episode. Links:The Unbelievable? Show which sets up this discussion (With Mike Licona and Richard Burridge)It’s the episode of 16 June 2017 ‘Why are there differences in Gospels?’ Also find these in your

Episode 59– Show NotesWe had a great time with our guest Paul Thompson of the Skepticule Podcast. Paul has done a lot of research on St Nicolas and his afterlife as Santa Claus which we enjoyed. He also researched scams as part of the UK sceptical community and gave us the benefits by leading us through The Perfect Scam. So all good fun and games for the Christmas season.Links:The Unbelievable? Shows on which Paul has been a guest:20 Nov 2010 – with Philip Yancey on "What Good is God?"29 Jan 2011 – Human Value & Subversive StoriesFind the Skepticule Podcast in iTunes etc but sadly they are no longer producing new episodes.To reach out to Paul, ask us by gmail or find him on the official Unbelievable? Facebook discussion group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/unbelievablejb(you will find Frances and Ed fairly active there too) Doubts Aloud Links:Please give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.com Join the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/ Meet u

Episode 58– Show Notes Andrew is on a roll again, reporting his research into flat earth beliefs in the Bible. Actually, it is just a component in a whole cosmology of how the ‘heavens’, earth and under the earth fit together. Spoiler – no turtles. This eventually moves on to Ed getting excited over whether Jesus was a flat earther. We can’t help but see how this leads to literalist Bible interpreters becoming flat earthers - as in members of the modern conspiracy theory – and how important they were in the rise of that movement.Links:The link with the picture that Andrew mentioned early onhttps://pursuingveritas.com/2014/05/14/ancient-hebrew-cosmology/ The Dr Heiser 20 min video lecture that’s really helpfulhttps://youtu.be/CGQDa9Ojk64 Another discussion from 2 evangelicals if you want it“Heaven & Earth • Episode 1 - What is the Old Testament referring to as "Heaven"?”https://bibleproject.com/podcast/heaven-earth-part-1/ We mentioned Skydive Phil debating on this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6e

Episode 57– Show Notes We start with methodological naturalism and whether rejecting can be scientifically legitimate, as this is the next chapter in our 50 Arguments for God book. Chapter title: “The Scientific Status of Design Inferences”. We discuss the argument in the chapter for rejecting methodological naturalism when it comes to the ‘science’ of Intelligent Design. For us the boundaries of this ‘methodological naturalism free-zone’ is the problem.This leads us on to considering if methodological naturalism doesn’t apply in science or in life. God is seen as intervening in the Bible. What are the implications? Is this what we see in the world? What about the idea that we might have heard in school assembly - we are God’s or Jesus’s hands and feet?Links:The book by Thom Stark that we mentioned: “The Human Faces of God” by Thom Stark and John Collinshttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Thom-Stark/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AThom+Stark And “Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Ph

Episode 56– Show NotesWe’re delighted to welcome SkyDive Phil back on the show. Not on vegetarianism as we’d trailed (please be patient) but on his recent work on the Kalam Cosmological Argument. The most prominent form of the argument, as defended by Christian apologist and philosopher William Lane Craig, states the Kalam cosmological argument as the following syllogism: Everything that begins to exist has a cause.The universe began to exist.Therefore, the universe has a cause. The conclusion is then used to fit God to that cause. Phil has released a long video based on interviews with scientists, philosophers and mathematicians. It covered various ways the premises have been defended. Craig subsequently responded to the video using his podcast YouTube outlet and then Phil prepared a second video to reply to William Craig. Here’s the links to the Phil videos: https://youtu.be/pGKe6YzHiMEandhttps://youtu.be/femxJFszbo8 This was a massive amount of work by Phil and his team and the results are brilliantl

Episode 55 - Title Suggestions1. God’s Body2. Does God have a Body?3. God really has a Body and we’re not joking4. The one where God has a body Episode 55– Show NotesThe idea we explore is that the Old Testament authors all thought that God had a body. For them He wasn’t an ethereal unembodied universal Being. We look at the evidence for this view and the reasons it seems so contrarian a view to take. There is wonderful history here hidden in the Old Testament and in the story of how views have developed since. Frances shared an infamous legal case from the 19thC. Please see this link which includes a copy of the cartoon she describes:https://www.secularism.org.uk/the-freethinker-blasphemy-trials.html As is often the case we (well Frances & Ed, Andrew seems to know it already) gained immensely from “The Bible for Normal People” podcast. In this case episode 147. Here’s the YouTube version:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aFnRpNQFhI Doubts Alou

Resurrection interview with Mathew Hartke

Episode 53– Show NotesWe start with an argument from our series on 50 Arguments for God’s Existence. This time“The Argument from Degrees of Perfection” by Catholic philosopher Peter Freeft. The following link gives a summary.https://peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-existence.htm#4We try our best to do the argument justice while discussing how it doesn’t work for us.Somehow we drifted into mentioning the recent debate “Theism vs Atheism” between Jonathan McLatchie and Alex O’Connor. Here’s the link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnIQFI1pYLM This idea of God’s Perfection led us on to this pair of questions:1) Would a perfect God create a perfect world?2) Is this world perfect? It opened up what the Bible says on God being perfect, which is not just Jesus’s words in Matthew 5v48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The Old Testament Yahweh doesn’t come across as perfect. We enjoyed the anger management in Exodus 33v3The classic Christian response to why our world isn’t p

Episode 52– Show NotesAndrew’s daughter, Jahannah, has a YouTube channel and she takes seriously the possibility of Atlantis being more than a myth. They held a debate together on her channel which Andrew needed to prepare for with a heap of research and reading. The parallels with research into ancient history of relevance to Hebrew and Christian beliefs made this exercise a great window onto the issues our podcast covers, and so we get stuck in. This drifts in eventually to a brief chat about the ‘curse tablet’ that may be a significant find to add evidence for an early date for the name Yahweh. Jahannah’s channel is FunnyOldWorld:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN2Z_nuG5XtVnE998unA3PAAnd their debate is called “Dad Debates Atlantis Part 1” (with the 2nd one coming later):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaVl1CORQDY The Premier Christianity article on the ‘curse tablet’ which gives both sides:https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/is-this-biblical-curse-tablet-the-most-significant-discovery-in-recent