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 Notes

We 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: [email protected]

Show Notes
Josh 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 Rise & Fall of Mars Hill”

Randal Rauser books in conversation with atheists:
“God or Godless?: One Atheist. One Christian. Twenty Controversial Questions.” by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser 2013
“An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar: Talking about God, the Universe, and Everything” by Randal Rauser and Justin Schieber 2019

Josh recommends: “The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son – the Transformation of Child Sacrifice and Christianity: The Transformation of Child Sacrifice in Judaism and Christianity” 1995 by Jon D Levenson

YouTube clips :
The film Andrew mentioned -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLbDSxTUuIo
The apologist who previously was hot on resolving contradictions -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1cPnnz-Go

Doubts Aloud Links:
Please give feedback and ask questions using: [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person again at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Show Notes

For 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 background
https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/325479/EBR_Homosexuality.pdf?sequence=1
And 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_Times
Here is Dr Michael Brown’s commentary
https://archive.askdrbrown.org/library/creating-new-version-leviticus-support-gay-sex

Links for mediaeval and modern Jewish thought
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/2013/04/19/to-plant-or-not-to-plant-seed-the-truth-of-homosexuality-in-the-bible/
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/orthodox-judaism-and-lgbtq-issues/

Links used for the ‘world tour’ –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_mythology
On Natural Law ethics the Reasonable Doubts episode was #61:
“The Curious Case of Robert P. George”.

Doubts Aloud Links:
Please give feedback and ask questions using: [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person again at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 61 – Show Notes
Occam’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 Occam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007m0w4

Learned articles on Occam:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/simplicity/
... and on Divine Simplicity
https://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 down where it says “In place of a deductive argument, Swinburne develops .....”


The Unbelievable? Show which has Swinburne discussing with Bart Ehrman on suffering
https://www.premierunbelievable.com/unbelievable/unbelievable-10-jan-2009-the-problem-of-suffering-ehrman-and-swinburne/11625.article

Doubts Aloud Links:
Please give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person again at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 59– Show Notes

We 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 Stories
Find 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 : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person again at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London