From the comments

Luis V. delivered my favorite response yesterday to the post about The Ten Commandments. 

He wrote:

It’s amazing for example, how something like the narratives of the birth of Christ are TOTALLY different in all 4 gospels, same with the death and resurrection narratives. Yet my school was all too happy to do what most Xtianity does, combine all 4 gospels into one super narrative, tell you it’s all in the Bible and not tell you jack about the fact that none of the gospels agree on the details. Combine that with laziness on my part for not really digging and analyzing the texts and voila, instant believer!

Thanks, Luis!

Zoinks, it’s an Easter Quiz! How would you score?

You probably worn out from celebrating Easter yesterday, but how much did you learn about the day you were celebrating.

SkepticMoney‘s Phil Ferguson posted a ten-question Easter Quiz recently. I think you should take it. Here’s a link.

For example, here’s question one with the answer in red.

1. When did Jesus get crucified?

a. At the 3rd Hour (9am), on Friday, the morning of Passover.
b. Shortly after the 6th Hour (noon), on Friday, the day before Passover.
c. He didn’t really get crucified, his identical twin Thomas Didymus did.
d. He didn’t really get crucified, he only appeared to be crucified.
e. We don’t know for sure, since the gospels disagree irreconcilably.

Note: According to the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), Jesus was crucified at 9am on Passover; John insists it was in the afternoon the day before Passover. To make matters even worse, they all say this was on a Friday. Later Christian sects argued he was never crucified at all; it was just a spiritual ruse.

How do we know that this is the answer?

One answer: read the bible. It’s plain as day. Another way, read a copy of the synoptic gospels.

In college, the required reading for my Bible 102 course on the New Testament was a Synoptic Gospels text. It places the overlapping stories of the gospels side by side. And it shows the discrepancies by showing what isn’t written in one book but is in another.

Once you see side by side that the accounts of Jesus are dramatically and irreconcilably different, it’s very difficult to make a case that the gospel writers knew what the hell they were writing about.

The bible works hard to defeat itself. Hell, go check out some of these masterfully written bible quotes that have been put on billboards recently.

Here are a couple (below) that I couldn’t reconcile as a Christian. Someone please explain how we’re supposed to believe the bible is the written word of a perfect deity?

Saturday Reading List

• Oh Chick-Fil-A, say it ain’t so! Gay activists are bashing the incredibly religious fast-food chain for associations with anti-gay agenda. Read here, here and here. Hey, Chick-Fil-A, do you get happy from smashing babies against rocks, too?!?
• The cure for loneliness? Date Jesus. I am not fucking kidding. Julie Ferwerda explains that dating Jesus is a must for anyone within a relationship or single. Among the list of ways to date Jesus (see page 2): Write letters, Record his answers, Walk and talk, Set real dates, Make cards or gifts for him and Study him. One major thing Ferwerda left out: don’t expect reciprocation, the sex is going to suck (he’ll never go down on you), and if you don’t worship the ground he walks on, prepare for a life-time eternity of torment. One-sided love does not equal stalking, insanity or absolute bonker talk. In fact, all relationships should be modeled after the one-sided affair with the ghost of Jesus past, present and future. If you’re unclear how to date Jesus, please see this very informative statement:

So how do you date Jesus? Here are some ways that work for me, but the sky is the limit for creativity—just like any true dating relationship. The key is to make it spontaneous, personal and a major priority. And then you’ll find that he begins showing up for dates—sometimes with flowers, love notes, and rainbows!

Coo-coo!

• The Beastie Boys are still set to release a new album soon. Good news, MCA is doing well against his battle with cancer.
• Prepare yourself for a sweetness explosion! Man gives ex an exploding dildo for Christmas. He keeps calling her asking for phone sex.
• The Monkeys you ordered offers captions to New Yorker cartoons that are actually funny.

Thanks Luis, for the Date Jesus link!

“The Historical Jesus, a New and Plausible Hypothesis”

Image via Wikipedia

I found this today blog today called, “The Historical Jesus, a New and Plausible Hypothesis”. I thought you might like to at least read it.

Since my de-conversion from Christianity, my stepfather and I had been engaged in an email debate for several months.

On this occasion we were debating the historicity of Jesus Christ.

Specifically, I queried him on the lack of corroborating evidence from sources outside the bible, given Jesus’ supposed fame (according to the bible).

He responded with “What artefacts would one expect from that distant period for a preacher with an itinerant ministry for only 3 ½ years in the Roman outback of Palestine?”

To challenge that I decided to look for outside historical documents discussing some very minor new testament characters to see what I could find.

The characters I selected were:

Judas the Galilean (Noted in Acts 5:37)

Theudas (Noted in Acts 5:36)

“The Egyptian” (Noted in Acts 21:38)

Read on