Why are Christians afraid of biblical criticism?

Aractus 26, September, 2022

Download audio transcript Around a decade ago, one of my Christian friends put forward the view that the bible should not be subjected to academic enquiry. I had heard this view many times, including by the late minister at my (former) parish. Going back around 20 years now, another friend who was studying at Moore […]

Dobbs returns normality to US abortion laws?

Dobbs v Jackson overturned Roe v Wade, what now ...

Aractus 20, July, 2022

The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade in the US is understandably shocking, and some of the consequences truly horrifying. But in truth the decision brings US law back into a field of normality though it may not seem like it at first. Terminations in Australia Yes here in ‘Straya we are more civilised than […]

Atheist bible studies

Aractus 30, June, 2018

Welcome to my brand new academic blog series. I call it my Atheist Bible Studies. This will be the introductory post, and for this series I will choose topics that Evangelical Christians will find challenging, but which everyone else (atheist, liberal Christian, or other theist) probably won’t. I should note that I’m not an anti-theist, […]

Paul and Luke

Aractus 03, November, 2010

To those who may not think there’s more to the last blog entry, you’re dead wrong. I’ve begun work on new research, and once that is complete I will do a blog entry on it. Today we’re going to talk about the reliability of the NT books, in particular those by the Apostle Paul, and […]

Challenging our methodologies

Aractus 28, August, 2010

In my last article I touched on a subject that transverses several of my interests; God, the Bible, Jewish history, Christian traditions, Jewish traditions, Christian history, the power of assumption and conjecture, the ignoring of evidence. Today we’re going to have a look at our methodology; something that transverses many of my other interests: Science, […]

The Name of God

Aractus 21, July, 2010

Many people know that I don’t consider Wikipeda to be of much use as an authoritative encyclopaedia. This is true of God’s Name. In fact, they have several pages – Tetragrammaton, Jehovah and Yahweh when they should only have one. I feel the need to explain this because I’m going to reveal what God’s name […]

The purpose-driven “greater good”.

Aractus 06, July, 2010

I’m not a fan of Rick Warren, never have been, never will be. I think he gives Christians a bad name, and that he’s a lukewarm Christian at best. Most of all though, I think he completely fails to preach the good news, and instead preaches a “feel good” gospel filled with practical advice. It […]