Tag: Bible

Does the New Testament contain forgeries, or other books that shouldn’t be there?

Before we read a book, we will often want to know who wrote it and whether we can trust them to give us accurate information. It is therefore understandable that people might wonder who wrote the 27 books of the New Testament. Last post I discussed the writings of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. One […]

Bart Ehrman, New Testament scholar and agent provocateur

Bart Ehrman is an eminent New Testament scholar, a successful writer and a thorn in the side of conservative christians. I have been reading a few more of his books lately (those shown in the picture above), to see what makes him simultaneously so popular and unpopular. Some clear themes emerge, and I think they […]

Jesus, modern historical scholarship, and sceptics

Evidence and conflict resolution It is no secret that believers and unbelievers argue a lot on the internet. But it is helpful to consider the nature of the disagreement. Experts on conflict resolution have identified a number of different sources of conflict, one of which is a “data conflict”, that is, a disagreement about the […]

Too many preconceptions about the Bible?

We all have different experiences of life and form different views about everything we think about. We bring these perspectives to different questions and challenges we are confronted with – our thinking is, the psychologists tell us, more subjective than we’d like to believe. These presuppositions and biases can’t help but affect our conclusions. Different […]

The Messiah, Isaiah and the Sydney Opera House

I’m more or less a musical Philistine so I don’t listen to much classical music. But last weekend I went along to the Sydney Opera House to listen to a performance of Handel’s Messiah. It was an excellent afternoon.

The science of Genesis?

About 6 years ago, on another blog, I did a post about a rising young evolutionary biologist who wrote a book based on accepted evolutionary science, but which related the science to the Bible’s account of creation in Genesis. He was soundly lambasted for his temerity. Now a young astrophysicist has dared to do a […]

The resurrection of Jesus – a reason to believe?

The resurrection is obviously a central part of christian belief – some say it is the amazing event that explains everything else, others that it is an impossible to believe event. So is it something that makes christianity harder to believe, or easier?

Bart Ehrman on Nazareth

I don’t think he read my recent post 🙂 but Bart Ehrman has also posted on the evidence for Nazareth existing at the time of Jesus. Bart has several advantages over me. Not only is he a professional working full time in this field, but he is able, because of his position, to have personal […]

Indigenous Australians, climate change and the New Testament gospels

How could indigenous Australians, climate change and the New Testament gospels possibly be connected? But there really is a connection. So please read on!

Shock! Horror! Turn off the Xmas lights! We shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas at all!