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 on
https://pursuingveritas.com/2014/05/14/ancient-hebrew-cosmology/

The Dr Heiser 20 min video lecture that’s really helpful
https://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=w6eEmfcMjDk

Finally the 2018 documentary film to google is “Behind the Curve”.

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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 Collins
https://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, Philosophy and Science” by Mike Licona and William Dembski.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Evidence+for+God%3A+50+Arguments&i=stripbooks&crid=2JZMR7RRQTQ9P&sprefix=evidence+for+god+50+arguments+%2Cstripbooks%2C108&ref=nb_sb_noss

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Episode 56– Show Notes

We’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/pGKe6YzHiME
and
https://youtu.be/femxJFszbo8

This was a massive amount of work by Phil and his team and the results are brilliantly helpful. It was great to chat through with Phil on the material, his experience in doing this and how the various participants (not least Craig) view such debate and discussion.

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Episode 55 - Title Suggestions

1. God’s Body
2. Does God have a Body?
3. God really has a Body and we’re not joking
4. The one where God has a body

Episode 55– Show Notes
The 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


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Resurrection interview with Mathew Hartke

Episode 53– Show Notes
We 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#4
We 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 33v3
The classic Christian response to why our world isn’t perfect while God is perfect is the Fall and Adam and Eve. We go back there again (sorry).


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Episode 52– Show Notes

Andrew’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_nuG5XtVnE998unA3PA
And 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-history/12803.article

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Episode 51 – Show Notes

We’re delighted to have a British District Judge as our guest. Not any District Judge but Graeme Smith who is a Christian and has written a book on the evidence for the resurrection, which he considers is excellent. We each enjoy a collegiate discussion with Graeme on various aspects of the book and how he concludes as he does.

The book is “Was the Tomb Empty: A Lawyer Weighs The Evidence For The Resurrection” Feb. 2014

Here’s a purchase link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Tomb-Empty-Evidence-Resurrection/dp/0857215280


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Episode 50– Show Notes

We celebrate our 50th episode by getting down and muddy in the issue of divine practical advice. Christians celebrate it when ancient advice or OT Law tallies well with modern health advice, but they don’t see the massive misses that there are in the Bible. We spend most of the time diving deep into the example of hand washing with soap, which is simple, within the technology of Bible times and has a massive impact on child mortality rates. Can we expect a loving God to help by giving this advice, especially when He visits earth in the incarnation?

Some of the references and links we mentioned:
Leviticus 13 & 14 for boils and mould. Chapter 15 for “an unusual bodily discharge” where there is lots of references to washing things and the only reference (v11) to anything remotely like hand washing in the community connected to health or food or sanitation or anything useful.

The Christian podcaster excited about God’s blessing in the Leviticus mould advice (we played this from 8min40s on):
https://www.wholewordpodcast.com/790475/8617765-leviticus-14-mold-abatement-3500-years-before-science

The key New Testament passage on Jesus’ response to the Jews developing handwashing traditions around food is Mark 7:1-23. Ed made a meal from verses 8-9 and also 18-19.

The link for these Jewish handwashing traditions around food:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handwashing_in_Judaism

Links for handwashing in general, when there is no clean water available and on soap
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_washing
https://globalhandwashing.org/about-handwashing/faqs/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap

Finally the where Ed got objections using the Unbelievable Facebook discussion group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/unbelievablejb/posts/3926152774151876/




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Text for DA Podcast Ep 49

Episode 49– Show Notes
We were delighted to welcome back friend-of-the-show Steve Tomkins to tell us all about the theological debates in late Tudor England which were conducted using, at one extreme, burnings at the stake and, at the other extreme, scurrilous publications akin to a 16thC Private Eye. Much of the material that Steve shared is in his recent book:
The Journey to the Mayflower: God’s Outlaws and the Invention of Freedom (2020)

If you want to know anything about Church history or really anything that matters, please see Steve’s other books:

A Short History of Christianity (Lion Histories) 2005
The Clapham Sect: How Wilberforce's Circle Transformed Britain 2010
William Wilberforce: A biography 2007
David Livingstone: The Unexplored Story 2013
My Ministry Manual by Rev.Gerald Ambulance 2003
Jesus and His World - Paul and His World (Steve wrote the Paul part) 2019
John Wesley: A Biography 2003

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