Doubts Aloud Podcast

Show Notes

We start from an informative update on the Flat Earth movement. Their model for the earth usually includes a wall of ice round the rim – Anarctica, that implies the 24 hour sunshine in the Anarctica summer is impossible and their claims often include that it does not occur.  So what happens when a group of prominent Flat Earth advocates are paid to visit Anarctica during its summer? That happened this month.
 
For the rest of the show we discuss another story doing the rounds. It is prompted by the Museum of the Bible putting on display a mosaic from Israel which was uncovered in 2005 and was discussed back then. It dates to around 230AD and includes the phrase “God Jesus Christ” in one of its inscriptions. We deal with the context both in terms of the developing doctrine of the Trinity and in terms of apologists jumping on the latest ‘thing’.  
Links:
 
A full video on the update on a Flat Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEc86p1vgLM
 
Short one:
https://youtube.com/shorts/HTSvI--ZVYg?si=jsEoFYmlLpHIzdXc
 
CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc) on the ‘Jesus Mosaic’:
https://youtu.be/C_fTfAsJ5Lc?si=KdeNMfBMspCUfHfh
 
Cameron’ Capturing Christianity video
https://youtu.be/zFPHoLFijUs?si=oKxGbVKKRK3REwnY
 
A qualified academic Professor Christopher Rollston is Sean McDowell’s guest here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4lme5eLmA
 
And here is a blog by Prof Rollston of George Washington University
http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=1004
 
Past excitements:
Curse Tablet – our episode 68
 
First-century fragment of Mark
Wallace’s online announcement
https://danielbwallace.com/2012/03/22/first-century-fragment-of-marks-gospel-found/
His apology blog:
https://danielbwallace.com/2018/05/23/first-century-mark-fragment-update/
The Wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_137
 
The mummy mask papyrus, Craig Evans:

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/21/living/gospel-mummy-mask/

https://www.northridgerochester.com/theology-1/mummy-mask-may-reveal-oldest-fragment-of-the-gospel-of-mark

Piece by Richard Carrier
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13935

Claims of it being a front for getting fragments without need for provenance
https://art-crime.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-gospel-truth-how-laundering-of.html
 
Searches for Noah's Ark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searches_for_Noah%27s_Ark
 
Egyptian Chariot Wheels in the Red Sea
https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2018/10/11/fake-news-in-biblical-archaeology/
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
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Show Notes
We start with the recent UK Parliament decision in favour of assisted dying and the religion and secular division that it brought out. Then we enjoy discussing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at length.  There’s a debate among academics on whether it is a fully secular story, or if it is a Christian allegory.  We wade in.  The question on what Dickens’ own beliefs were has relevance and it seems that he had a “works not faith” view of Christianity, especially with reference to A Christmas Carol (or in Ed’s words “a wishy washy Anglican”). We see a message similar to Jesus’ in Luke’s gospel in particular as well as the synoptics in general, which is in conflict with material in the rest of the NT.
 
Links:
The BBC documentary on assisted dying “Better Off Dead?” with actress Liz Carr
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z8wc
 
A short academic resource on Dickens and Christianity
https://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/religion.html
 
We recommend the wikipedia page on the novella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
 
And the Melvin Bragg BBC Radio 4 “In Our Time” episode on it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012fl5
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
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Show Notes
We start with the next chapter selected by the randomiser in our 50 Arguments for God book.  “Can We Be Certain That Jesus Died on a Cross? A Look at the Ancient Practice of Crucifixion” We agree that the answer is Yes, and enjoy ourselves on the way.  Then we move on to another random chapter which is on how our planet is ideal for doing astronomy – “Designed for Discovery”.  This leads to a wider discussion on Design Arguments. We look at their history and cover Aquinas, Hume and Paley, but run out of time at the start of the 19thC.
 
Links:
 
The 50 Arguments for Faith book: “Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy and Science” by Mike Licona and William Dembski.  (It can be found on Amazon.)
 
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Hume and The Argument from Design:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/#ArgDes
And on Design Arguments generally:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/#Int
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
Please give feedback and ask questions using:  [email protected]
 

Show Notes
Ed continues relating the history of the remote isolated Scottish island of St Kilda and its amazing community.  We had finished Part 1 at about 1700 AD with a kind of Utopia and a gentle folksy religion.  Here we discuss its decline (our take) into a harsh, puritan, rule-bound and Calvinist kind of religion. And we ask how it could have happened and whether it’s a case of Hitchen’s “Religion poisons everything”.
 
Links:
 
That key book:
Tom Steel, The life and death of St Kilda, 1975, Fontana. 
 
French website on St Kilda translated –
www.kildaprojet.com

 
That Napier Commission on the Outer Hebrides – interviews:
https://napier-outerhebrides.blogspot.com/2010/05/st-kilda-2-june-1883-i.html

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

Show Notes

Ed shares from his longstanding interest in the remote isolated Scottish island of St Kilda and its amazing community that survived for 1000s of years up to 1930.  In part 1 we cover its geography, community structure and social conditions, and then its religious history finishing around 1700 which was when outsiders began worrying about their souls.  How did a small isolated community work in beliefs, morals and even economic arrangements?
 
Links:
 
Do a google-images on “St Kilda Scotland”
 
That key book:
Tom Steel, The life and death of St Kilda, 1975, Fontana. 
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
Please give feedback and ask questions using:  [email protected]
 

Show Notes

We covered the book of Daniel in episode 44 explaining it’s likely ‘forgery’ status and we briefly discussed his 70 Weeks prophecy in that episode.  Here Andrew leads us into a deep dive, plunging the murky waters.  Indeed, studying the prophecy has been called a ‘dismal swamp’. We discuss how all approaches, apologetic or scholarly, lead to difficulties making “Daniel’s” weird maths fit with historical dates. Needless to say, apologetic claims that the fulfilled prophecy of the 70 Weeks are amazing, arresting and should convert an open minded sceptic don’t convince us.
 
At the start of the episode we discuss the prophecy made in April 2024 of the near-miss shooting of Donald Trump. In some respects, this is a good match to the church’s treatment of the 70 weeks prophecy.
 
Links:
 
Richard Carrier on Daniel (he includes a section on the 70 Weeks):
 
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/18242
 
Key verses: Daniel 9.24-27. (It’s worth reading more for context.)
 
The clip Andrew gave claiming the 70 weeks verses will convert you:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiJCH07kAg&t=29s
 
A great scholarly paper from “The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures” by George Athas which outlines the difficulties in trying to get a fit to historical events and suggesting a theory of what the author of Daniel was doing:
 
https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/download/6231/5259/13824
 
Trump shooting original April 2024 prophecy (start 11 mins in):
 
https://youtu.be/Ey0qVzG8_vU?si=5b2U1I8oDSYVFFq8
 
An apologist discussing the shooting after the event:
 
https://youtu.be/vsidOPEAERE?si=Js-Gy2UuicT7VwPS
 
Doubts Aloud Links:

Show Notes

In Part 1, friends of the show John Nelson and Josh Parikh returned as guests and discussed “McGrewvianism”, which is the apologetic approach of partners Tim & Lydia McGrew.  Their critiques of McGrewvianism centred largely in lack of engagement in the last 150 years of scholarship into the New Testament documents and they related this extensively to the McGrew’s use of ‘Undesigned Coincidences’ to establish the historical reliability of the NT narratives.
Jonathan McLatchie, who we also consider a friend of the show, is in the McGrew camp and wrote a helpful response blog, which also concentrated on Undesigned Coincidences.  In this episode we discuss his responses and we take a wider look at contradictions between texts as a potentially symmetrical opposite concept to Undesigned Coincidences.
 
Links:
We discussed ‘undesigned coincidences’ with Jonathan McLatchie in our episode 29.
 
Jonathan’s blog, which we are responding to, is:
https://jonathanmclatchie.com/have-john-nelson-and-josh-parikh-refuted-the-reportage-model/  
 
The tome Andrew mentioned on the Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties
https://www.amazon.co.uk/International-Encyclopedia-Difficulties-Understand-Zondervans/dp/0310241464
 
The criminal case Frances discussed: a summary of the Hanratty case is here:
https://mobile-webview.gmail.com/-1530513736/426787727007691964
(You can access the full judgment from a link on the summary page.)
 
[We didn’t give Bible references in the podcast to the uncertainty over the disciple Andrew’s home, which impacts on Philip’s. They are John 1v44 and Mark 1v21, 22 & 29]
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
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Show Notes
We return to our “Doubts Aloud Book Club” with a second episode on Tom Holland’s book ‘Dominion’ which has caused quite a stir in Christian apologetics circles over the last few years. We cover some of the critical responses, including ours. But most importantly we sought out responses from historians.   Tom makes a bold and interesting set of claims that we list, and then we assess them with a wider philosophical view to go with the historical story that Dominion presents.
 
Links:
The book Dominion:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dominion-Making-Western-Tom-Holland/dp/0349141207
 
Book reviews we found:
Jenkins - in Christianity Today
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/january-web-only/tom-holland-dominion-christian-revolution.html
 
De Groot – in The Times
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/dominion-by-tom-holland-review-7pc255qs7
 
Jonathan Sumption – in The Spectator
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/did-christianity-make-the-western-mind-or-was-it-the-other-way-round/
 
The Unbelievable episodes with Tom that we discuss:
With AC Grayling:
https://youtu.be/7eSyz3BaVK8?si=TOdafNjHf22AJuov
And with Andrew Ollerton:
https://youtu.be/f2_W6eCijV4?si=QBEuJnA1N-xyxS7t
 
The Jennifer Glance book on slavery in early Christianity
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Slavery-Early-Christianity-Jennifer-Glancy/dp/0800637895
 
Rowan Williams book, Passions of the Soul
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Passions-Soul-Rowan-Williams/dp/1399415689
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
Friends of the show John Nelson and Josh Parikh return as guests together. They introduce Josh’s new term to the world: McGrewvianism, which is the apologetic approach of partners Tim & Lydia McGrew.  They are scholars in their own fields but do not use the methods of modern NT scholarship when arguing for the historical reliability of the gospels. Potentially this can be seen as fresh air, but Josh & John dig deeper.
 
This will be the first episode of a 2 part set. Josh & John cover such topics as McGrewvianism treatment of modern NT scholarship and their key ‘undesigned coincidences’ argument.
 
Links:
We discussed ‘undesigned coincidences’ with Jonathan McLatchie in our episode 29.
 
John’s blog, which has a post on undesigned coincidences, is:
https://www.behindthegospels.com/
 
The McGrews
https://lydiamcgrew.com/
Tim doesn’t seem to have a home page for his work, search for him on Amazon, or here:
https://wmich.edu/philosophy/directory/mcgrew
 
 
Doubts Aloud Links:
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Show Notes

Tom Holland’s book ‘Dominion’ has caused quite a stir in Christian apologetics circles over the last few years and we’ve been reading it. We also attended a church leader’s evening where he was the speaker.  So we thought we would start a “Doubts Aloud Book Club” with Dominion the first book covered.We introduce Tom, his current faith position and the book, we discuss his style and how much we enjoyed the read. 

We present the key messages that Tom seeks to make and talk about whether it’s a book useful for apologetics.  Finally, we read some extracts that had struck us and discussed them.A later episode on the book will cover more on the critical responses, including ours.  He makes a bold and interesting set of claims that we can both learn from and see where we, and historians, may disagree. Links:That book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dominion-Making-Western-Tom-Holland/dp/0349141207

The Justin Brierley Spectator article:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-christian-revival-is-under-way-in-britain/  

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