Doubts Aloud Podcast

Episode 44– Show Notes

We discuss the Old Testament Book of Daniel using Andrew’s research and knowledge. The main controversy surrounds whether it is written by Daniel himself as it purports to be (6thC BC) or someone claiming to be Daniel in the 2ndC BC. As it turns out this is only a controversy when conservative scholars are around. We discuss the reasons why the mainstream date Daniel at the juncture when the ‘prophecies’ suddenly turn from accurate to hopeless. The significance of this of course impacts on the use of Daniel by apologists, but the significance extends too to the use of it in the New Testament.

Links:
The quote from Richard Carrier:
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/18242

Doubts Aloud Links:
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Episode 43 – Show Notes

It is a delight for us to have a long chat with Ed’s friend Krish Kandiah, a Christian author and leader in the UK on adoption, fostering, social action and welcoming the vulnerable to our shores. He has written a successful book ‘Paradoxology’ which covers a lot of ground that can cause doubts for believers and has been significant in our journeys. In particular the narratives seeming to describe genocide of Canaanites at the command of Yahweh. He sees this as a paradox between God’s love and justice and what we read, say in Joshua, as we do. Krish’s approach is to embrace the paradox and understand it within wider ones, such as the Trinity, rather than brush it away under the carpet.

Here is the Amazon page for the book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=paradoxology+by+krish+kandiah

Look out for other books by Krish including ‘Faitheism’ on good relations between Christians and atheists as we discuss the issues.

As we discussed both care for the vulnerable and punishment in hell we discussed this passage often called the ‘Parable of the Sheep and Goats’: Matthew 25v31-46

And then when we were diving deep into commands and rules concerning the killing of women and children in the conquest, we discussed this passage: Deuteronomy 20v10-18

Krish is also a podcaster – called Leadershift. Please search for it in your podcast provider.

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Join the Facebook Group discussions:
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Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:

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Episode 42 – Show Notes

After promising this for a while, at last we tackle Mythicism which in our context is the idea that Jesus never existed as a historical human being. None of us subscribe to the idea but we find it an interesting idea and movement to learn from, both in what they use as evidence and what kind of person believes in Mythicism. It leads us to question what we can actually determine about Jesus of Nazareth that isn’t myth, either from Jewish or Greek/Roman stories and tropes.

Some links:
The discussion with Robyn Walsh on her new work about use of Roman tropes (or not) in the gospels, we had listened to it on the NT Pod:

https://podacre.blogspot.com/2021/06/nt-pod-98-origins-of-early-christian.html

The book on use of material from the Old Testament such as Elijah and Elisha in the gospels:
"Gospel Fictions" by Randel Helms 1988

The BBC Radio 4 discussion on Agrippina the Younger
“In Our Time” episode of 31 March 2016 -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b074yzwk

Doubts Aloud Links:
Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.

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Join the Facebook Group discussions:

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Meet us all in person (after Covid19) 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 41 – Show Notes

It is a delight for us to have a long chat with our friend ‘SkydivePhil’ - Phil Halper. He’s best known for his YouTube channel and has twice been on Unbelievable discussing cosmology and also, for his first appearance, animal suffering. Phil is a vegetarian and sees how the issue of animal suffering is a much more powerful argument against theism than is generally realised. It is that subject that we were keen to discuss, especially because Phil and some of his contacts have just published an important paper on the topic. The paper is not so much philosophy/theology but focuses most on the science of animal pain and suffering, asking the question of the degree to which animals suffer as we do when they experience pain. The conclusions from this are vast, but we stick in this episode to how it informs arguments against theism based on what we now know of animal suffering.

SkydivePhil’s Youtube channel is here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtOgKmAM4MeFu-jd-HB3_cg

The best link for Phil’s paper is here, it is free to read for its first three months https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09515089.2021.1914829?src=&journalCode=cphp20

Within the SkydivePhil channel, we suggest you look under “Animal videos” and especially Phil’s discussion with Randal Rauser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoRm8Rg4Lh0

Phil’s appearances on Unbelievable…..
On Animal Suffering, with Michael Murray:
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Animal-suffering-and-God-Michael-Murray-vs-Phil-Harper
On Big Bang:
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Has-the-Big-Bang-gone-bust-Phil-Harper-Jeff-Zweerink
On Multiverse:
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Who-s-afraid-of-the-Multiverse-Jeff-Zweerink-Skydive-Phil

For Sethien cosmology see here (OT God is evil, despite creating the world. Gospel of Judas etc)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sethianism

The material that eventually led Phil into becoming vegetarian was from the philosopher Robert Nozick , it can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchy,_State,_and_Utopia#Moral_constraints_and_the_state

Doubts Aloud Links:
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Episode 40 – Show Notes

It is a delight for us to have a long chat with our friend Justin Brierley, the founder and host of the Unbelievable Show (search “Unbelievable?” in your podcast App) where Christians and Atheists meet for respectful dialogue. The show is how the rest of us met each other.
We discussed in particular chapter 3 of Justin’s Unbelievable? book, written in 2017:
“Unbelievable?: Why after ten years of talking with atheists, I'm still a Christian”
Eg: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unbelievable-after-talking-atheists-Christian/dp/0281077983
Chapter 3 is on human worth, the Moral Argument and morality.

In the discussion we mentioned Tom Holland’s book “Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind”:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dominion-Making-Western-Tom-Holland/dp/0349141207

Why not pick up on Justin’s offer to join in with the recording of his next BIG CONVERSATION with NT Wright and Douglas Murray on Thurs 13th May 2021:
https://www.thebigconversation.show/mythmiraclesandidentity

And don’t forget this year’s Unbelievable? Conference on the afternoon of Sat 15th May:
https://www.unbelievable.live/

Finally … a shout out to the Unbelievable? Discussion Group on Facebook hosted by Justin (where Frances & Ed are among the Admins) , which we discussed briefly:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/unbelievablejb
Ask and you’ll get let in soon enough

Doubts Aloud Links:
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Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:

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Episode 39– Show Notes

We discuss the issue of some New Testament letters that have strong evidence to suggest that the author was not who they claimed to be. This practice was not uncommon in that period. We dig a bit deeper on the letter 2 Peter in particular.

We took the opportunity to quickly discuss another chapter from our “50 Arguments for Faith” book: chapter 47 on the NT canon.

What does it say on this issue?

Links:
The academic Bart Ehrman book is “Forgery and Counter-forgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics“, 2013.

Available:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgery-Counter-forgery-Literary-Christian-Polemics/dp/0199928037/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Forgery+and+counter+forgery&qid=1617536611&s=books&sr=1-1

Doubts Aloud 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.)

Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.

Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]
Join the Facebook Group discussions:
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Meet us all in person (after Covid19) 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 38– Show Notes

We try to be sensitive as we discuss the recent scandal of Ravi Zacharias’ behaviour as a leading Christian apologist and communicator. This was not just a preaching getting into a sex scandal. There were many victims of abuse by his behaviour and his organisations forceful cover up.
We seek to cover the aspects and implications of interest to atheists and where we have a more personal take on the story, such as Ed’s involvement with Ravi’s ministry in the UK (RZIM in Oxford).

Links:

The report

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rzimmedia.rzim.org/assets/downloads/Report-of-Investigation.pdf

The Unbelievable Show on the scandal and implications:

https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-

The-Ravi-Zacharias-scandal-Dr-Diane-Langberg-Glen-Scrivener-and-Steve-Baughman-on-lessons-we-need-to-learn

Premier Christianity coverage and reflection

https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/5-helpful-reflections-on-the-Ravi-Zacharias-scandal

The statement Ed was sent in 2017 by RZIM in Oxford

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n3cSBwEYqwYr9BQnJ-TEXYYP9Jjx96uU/view?usp=sharing

Doubts Aloud Links:

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Join the Facebook Group discussions:

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Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:

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Episode 37– Show Notes

We continue the discussion from the last episode which had launched from the chapter in our favourite Apologetics book - "How Darwinism Dumbs Us Down: Evolution and Postmodernism". This time we discuss the theists’ side of deriving confidence in our knowledge (quoting the book): “an absolute mind as the basis for trust in human cognition”, i.e. being in God’s hands when it comes to what we can know.
So what does happen when theists face their own source for determining truths and knowledge, which boils down to a reliance on God not deceiving them. Are they Dumber?
We discussed the philosophy of how we can know that an all powerful God isn’t deceiving us and then we couldn’t help ourselves and turned to the passages in the Bible (Old and New Testament) where God does actively deceive. (See 1 Kings 22, Ezekiel 20:25 onwards and 2 Thessalonians 2:11 for starters)
Ed thought that it might still be OK to live under a good loving God who may well be deceiving so that he (Ed) would just think what he was supposed to think. The question of knowing whether God is indeed good then comes to the fore. We looked at that too and had great trouble seeing how we could get there without merely trusting God’s supposed message to us that He is good.
Links:

Andrew’s YouTube clips on prophecies of Trump’s election win:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gIAtDxyTaM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfDouDlHM88

Frances’ article by Dallas G Denery II, associate professor of history and chair of the history department at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he discusses the history of the theologians’ struggle with the issue of divine deception.
https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-scientific-revolution-made-an-honest-man-of-god

Ed’s Christian site “Answering Islam” that claims to show that Allah is deceiving:

https://www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/allah_best_deceiver.htm

Frances’ quote by Bertrand Russell on the absence of good:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absence_of_good

The Unbelievable episode on ontological argument

https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-

Debating-the-Ontological-Argument-Peter-S-Williams-Peter-Millican

Doubts Aloud 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.)

Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.

Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person (after Covid19) 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 36– Show Notes

We started with the next random chapter from our favourite Apologetics book "How Darwinism Dumbs Us Down: Evolution and Postmodernism". The idea is that knowledge arrived at for survival purposes is not likely to include metaphysical truth, so evolution undercuts any confidence in concluding naturalism or atheism. This quickly morphed to the more well-known presentation by Alvin Plantinga, which he called the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism (EAAN). We discussed it at some length, including how evolution has indeed not endowed us with perfect brains, rather ones subject to plenty of flaws. This is the outcome of observation not philosophical speculation. So we are all Dumb.

We hinted at where this will be going in the next episode: what happens when theists face their own source for determining truths and knowledge, which is a reliance on God not deceiving them.

Are they Dumber?

We didn’t mention specific references to our material beyond Wikipedia, there is a lot of further reading available by doing a google search on the EAAN.

Doubts Aloud 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.)

Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.

Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

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

Meet us all in person (after Covid19) 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 35 – Show Notes

Andrew continued the long story of hell, picking up with St Paul. The various twists and turns (and torments) were related up to today.

We frequently mentioned Chris Date, he was our guest in episode 9.

Then Ed talked through his material on the apologetics of defending hell, based on a paper he wrote with Josh Parikh, find it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zq-BQro4qIaVMQNX6t4tMGRWIm5uVNc5/view?usp=sharing

Finally we became festive and Frances provided some Seasonal debunking. First in her sights was a myth about the shepherds at the nativity, such as given here:
https://www.premierchristianity.com/Past-Issues/2014/December-2014/Christmas-Scandals
Her source material was partly from ‘Facts and Trends’:
https://factsandtrends.net/2015/12/17/christmas-urban-legends-shepherds-as-outcasts/
And Frances mentioned the Jewish take on shepherds
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1762017/jewish/People-of-the-Land.htm

For good measure Frances then took on an atheist’s myth about Jesus and Mithras, such as was peddled on the BBC’s QI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSm7YPMQOSo&feature=emb_logo
See Tim O’Neil’s work on this one:

https://historyforatheists.com/2016/12/the-great-myths-2-christmas-mithras-and-paganism/

Doubts Aloud Links:

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