This is part of an ongoing series that will be posted each Monday. You can read the introduction to this series by clicking here.

These Mondays keep coming, don’t they? I hope Monday School takes some of the sting out of them for you! It’s STILL “The Rational Corrective To All That Nonsense They Tried To Teach You Yesterday” and cheaper than liquor. If you ever find a better deal than that, jump on it!

Today’s Lesson: What’s The Deal With The Book Of Esther?

The Book of Esther is a work that belongs to the Ketuvim or “Wisdom Writings” – that part of the Judaic biblical canon that is neither part of the Torah (that is, the Pentateuch – the first five books) nor associated with the Prophets.

It is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention God or the Lord.

It’s also the only book in the Bible that DOES mention India.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “The book purports to explain how the feast of Purim came to be celebrated by the Jews. Esther, the beautiful Jewish wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes I), and her cousin Mordecai persuade the king to retract an order for the general annihilation of Jews throughout the empire. The massacre had been plotted by the king’s chief minister, Haman, and the date decided by casting lots (purim). Instead, Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai; and on the day planned for their annihilation, the Jews destroyed their enemies. According to the Book of Esther, the feast of Purim was established to celebrate that day, but this explanation is surely legendary.”

Theodor H. Gaster’s Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament elaborates: “Scholars are virtually agreed… that the story is fiction rather than history. In the first place, none of the Persian kings who bore the names Xerxes (Ahasuerus) had a wife named Esther. Second, there is no mention anywhere except in the Book of Esther of a queen named Vashti, a vizier named Haman, or of a courtier named Mordecai who eventually replaced Haman. Third, there is no Hebrew, Aramaic, or Persian word pur denoting ‘lot’….” (p. 829). Gaster goes on to explain that Purim usually falls close to the vernal equinox (the beginning of spring), that the new year was often dated from the vernal equinox until very recent times, and that New Year’s Day is sometimes given the name phur in Arabic (which seems to have been derived from the Persian word for “first”). In his estimation, Purim probably was a Jewish festival derived from the ancient New Year’s celebration of a non-Jewish civilization. Kenneth C. Davis’s Don’t Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned essentially agrees when it describes Purim as “an ancient agricultural festival celebrating the arrival of spring” (p. 264).

Like many books of the Bible, Esther has flaws and oddities which reveal it to be an all-too-human a work and not the inspiration of a perfect God. In the words of Gaster, “It is to be noted, first, that the Book of Esther really consists of two stories now artificially linked together. The one is the story of Vashti; the other, that of Esther. Now, in each of them the central figure is a woman, and both revolve around the same central theme of how a beautiful woman outwits the designs of kings and princes…. They are, essentially, ‘Kaffee-klatsch’ talk at the expense of the menfolk. It is, accordingly, from a repertoire of such novellae that the Book of Esther may be supposed to have stemmed…. The stories have been linked together in the manner of most Oriental romances. They are enclosed in a general cadre of adventures at the court of the Great King. This is the kind of thing which one finds again in such well-known collections as the Pancatantra, the Twenty-five Vampire Tales (Vetalapanchavimsati) of Somadeva, and the Thousand and One Nights” (pp. 829-830).

Among several plot flaws Gaster points out are these three:

—– Queen Vashti is said to be deposed in the third year of King Ahasuerus’s reign while her replacement, Esther, is said to have been chosen in the seventh year of his reign – far too long an interval. The Syriac Version of the story recognized this problem and substituted “fourth year” for seventh.

—– King Ahasuerus approves Haman’s plan to kill all the Jews in Esther 3:10-11, yet when Esther reveals the plan to him in Esther 7:2-7 he’s ignorant of the plot, demands to know the name of whoever is responsible, and angry when he finds out.

—– Esther makes a big deal out of interceding with the king to save her people. When she finally does so and he grants her any wish she might ask, she fails to simply request “Save my people!” and instead asks the king and Haman to a couple of dinners! “Not only is the point of this procedure obscured, but it also remains unexplained why Haman could not just as well have been denounced in absentia” (p. 830).

Asimov’s Guide to the Bible provides more details as to the probable origins of this book. According to Asimov, virtually all the names of the chief characters derive from ancient non-Hebrew mythology. “Vashti” is the name of an Elamite goddess. “Esther” is the Aramaic form of Ishtar, a Babylonian goddess. “Mordecai” is similar to the name of the main Babylonian god, Marduk (which is rendered “Merodach” in Hebrew). Ishtar and Marduk were related in Babylonian mythology much as Esther and Mordecai are related in the Bible. The evil Haman is unmentioned by any historian but has a name suspiciously like that of the chief male deity of the Elamites – Hamman. Babylonia supplanted Elam and, as it did so, its gods supplanted Elam’s. That is to say, Ishtar replaced Vashti and Marduk replaced Hamman. This exactly parallels what happens in the Book of Esther.

Like most of the Bible, the Book of Esther does not make for pleasant reading unless you happen to be an extremely nationalistic Jew or a fundamentalist Christian. Asimov bluntly terms it a “savage” book, and so it is. As in the earlier books which detail the ancient Hebrews’s brutal conquest of Canaan, the Book of Esther celebrates the violent triumph of the Jews over their enemies. Haman and his ten sons are hanged – not won over or converted. The Jews throughout King Ahasuerus’s empire end up slaughtering some 75,000 of their enemies – a plot twist which may have thrilled long-suffering Jews the way a Commie-killing Rambo may have thrilled frustrated Americans in the 1980s but will tend to repulse those with more humanistic tastes. Thank goodness Asimov terms the bloody conclusion of Esther completely implausible and unrecorded anywhere outside the Bible!

It’s a wonder that the Book of Esther is even in the Bible. According to Davis’s Don’t Know Much About The Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Good Book but Never Learned, “Esther was a latecomer to the Hebrew canon. The rabbis who fixed the canon of official Hebrew scriptures debated well into the fourth century CE whether this story, essentially a Hebrew Grimms’ fairy tale, belongs with the rest of the divine books…. God is a ‘no-show’…. There are no laws, miracles, prayers, or mention of Jerusalem. It’s not even a very moral story, concluding with a bloodbath….” (p. 263).

The Encyclopedia Britannica agrees when it says “The secular character of the Book of Esther (the divine name is never mentioned) and its strong nationalistic overtones made its admission into the biblical canon highly questionable for both Jews and Christians.”

The Britannica goes on to describe how the obvious flaws of Esther led some to tamper with its text. “Apparently in response to the conspicuous absence of any reference to God in the book, the redactors (editors) of its Greek translation in the Septuagint interspersed many additional verses throughout the text that demonstrate Esther’s and Mordecai’s religious devotion.” This sort of tampering seems to have occurred again and again in book after book of the Bible as people over the ages repeatedly tried to make it into what they thought it ought to be. The Britannica gives many examples of this in its other articles on specific books; William Harwood’s Mythology’s Last Gods: Yahweh and Jesus is an excellent one-volume summary.

Interestingly, various religions and sects treat this tampering with Esther very differently. According to the Britannica, “These so-called Additions to the Book of Esther do not appear in the Hebrew Bible, are treated as canonical in Roman Catholic Bibles, and are placed in the Apocrypha in Protestant Bibles.” (Asimov says these additions “are so unrealistic as to detract still further from the possible historicity of the book.”)

The Britannica also says “Esther appears between Nehemiah and Job in the Protestant canon. In the Roman Catholic canon, Esther appears between Judith and Job and includes six chapters that are considered apocryphal in the Jewish and Protestant traditions.” Once again, a close examination of the Bible reveals that there really isn’t one Bible but many. Which Bible people believe in (if any) seems to be more a result of luck, culture, and upbringing than of logic, knowledge, or informed analysis. Those who continue to believe in a single, inerrant Bible seem willfully ignorant.

As for the Book of Esther itself…. I’m told that it’s still read by Jewish people every year as part of their Purim celebrations. I hope they’ll take the time to research it more thoroughly at least once in their lives.

I’m glad I did.

Hope you are, too! :-)

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Another example of how religion brings people together, acts as a civilizing influence on the young, and teaches us how to separate what’s really important from what isn’t:

—– 40 Arrests In Jerusalem Sabbath Protests (Monsters And Critics/DPA; June 28)

JERUSALEM: At least 40 people were arrested in clashes with police Saturday in Jerusalem during demonstrations by ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups against the opening of a car park on the Sabbath.

One demonstrator was seriously injured when he fell from a fence, Israeli media reported. Four police officers suffered minor injuries.

Police were pelted with bottles, stones, rotten fruit and dirty diapers, and trash containers were set ablaze. Police responded with watercannons in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators.

Thousands of less religious Israelis protested for the car park to be opened, and police were able to keep the two sides apart through a massive show of force.

The Jerusalem mayor’s decision to open the car park was condemned by ultra-Orthodox as breaking the Sabbath.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish boy heaves a bottle at Israeli police officers during the second day of demonstrations in the Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem. Thousands yesterday protested plans to open a parking lot at City Hall on the Jewish Sabbath; the faithful believe that driving on the Sabbath violates the biblical command to rest on that day. Police said they arrested 24 people, and a 6-year-old boy and four officers were slightly injured. (Muhammed Muheisen photographer/The Associated Press/The Columbus Dispatch; June 28)

—– Death Threats Sent To Jerusalem Mayor Following Parking Lot Riots (Nir Hasson and Jonathan Lis/Haaretz; June 28)

Two e-mail death threats were sent to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Sunday, a day after police clashed with ultra-Orthodox demonstrators protesting the opening of a parking lot in the capital on Shabbat.

Security at Barkat’s office has been increased following the threats, and police have opened an investigation.

Barkat’s bureau issued a statement Sunday vowing that Barkat will not change his decision to open the parking lot.

On Saturday, twenty eight ultra-Orthodox demonstrators were arrested and six people were wounded during riots in Jerusalem against the Sabbath opening of the parking lot.

A 20-year-old Haredi man sustained serious head wounds during the turmoil; Magen David Adom emergency services said the man, suffering from convulsions, was taken to Hadassah Ein Karem for medical treatment.

Police said they had no further details about the circumstances in which the man was wounded.

Four police officers were also lightly hurt during the protests, as was a six-year-old boy, according to the Associated Press.

Near the site of the demonstration, thousands of secular Israelis held a counter-protest in support of Barkat’s decision to open the Carta parking lot.

Despite the ultra-Orthodox protesters’ attempts to block the parking lot entrance in the afternoon, hundreds of cars were able to park there successfully on Saturday.

The Mayor’s bureau said later Saturday that the lot solved the problems of parking and public safety in Jerusalem’s Old City.

“The mayor is obligated to maintain the public’s safety and this concern is what guides him,” said a Barkat spokesperson. “The police must now be concerned with public order.”

In the wake of the protests, Barkat’s security detail has been reinforced and a security guard has been placed outside of his home.

On Friday, ultra-Orthodox Jerusalemites staged a mass rally to protest the parking lot’s opening.

Droves of Haredim flooded Bar Ilan Street, a major throughway in the heart of an ultra-Orthodox district, as well as other sites in the city.

Violent riots also erupted three weeks ago, after the municipality passed a resolution to open the Safra parking lot in the city center on the Sabbath. Hoping to appease the protesters, Barkat decided to open the nearby Carta lot instead, but the controversy has not subsided.

Numerous Haredi leaders from various factions, including Shas spiritual leader Ovadia Yosef and Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, a leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community, joined the call to hold the mass prayer session after the protest was initially led by Eda Haredit, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group.

Protesters attacked journalists who were covering the events, including Channel 2 reporter Dafna Liel who had to cut short a live report.

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Enjoy!

—– God And Science Don’t Mix (Lawrence M. Krauss/The Wall Street Journal; June 26)

Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in several exciting panel discussions at the World Science Festival in New York City. But the most dramatic encounter took place at the panel strangely titled “Science, Faith and Religion.” I had been conscripted to join the panel after telling one of the organizers that I saw no reason to have it. After all, there was no panel on science and astrology, or science and witchcraft. So why one on science and religion?

I ended up being one of two panelists labeled “atheists.” The other was philosopher Colin McGinn. On the other side of the debate were two devoutly Catholic scientists, biologist Kenneth Miller and Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno. Mr. McGinn began by commenting that it was eminently rational to suppose that Santa Claus doesn’t exist even if one cannot definitively prove that he doesn’t. Likewise, he argued, we can apply the same logic to the supposed existence of God. The moderator of the session, Bill Blakemore, a reporter with some religious inclination, surprised me by bursting out in response, “Then I guess you are a rational atheist.”

Our host was presumably responding to all those so-called fundamentalist atheists who have recently borne the brunt of intense attacks following the success of books like Sam Harris’s “The End of Faith,” and Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion.”

These scientists have been castigated by believers for claiming that science is incompatible with a belief in God. On the one hand, this is a claim that appears manifestly false — witness the two Catholic scientists on my panel. And on the other hand, the argument that science suggests God is a delusion only bolsters the view of the of the fundamentalist religious right that science is an atheist enemy that must either be vanquished or assimilated into religion.

Coincidentally, I have appeared numerous times alongside Ken Miller to defend evolutionary biology from the efforts of those on various state school boards who view evolution as the poster child for “science as the enemy.” These fundamentalists are unwilling to risk the possibility that science might undermine their faith, and so they work to shield children from this knowledge at all costs. To these audiences I have argued that one does not have to be an atheist to accept evolutionary biology as a reality. And I have pointed to my friend Ken as an example.

This statement of fact appears to separate me from my other friends, Messrs. Harris and Dawkins. Yet this separation is illusory. It reflects the misperception that the recent crop of vocal atheist-scientist-writers are somehow “atheist absolutists” who remain in a “cultural and historical vacuum” — in the words of a recent Nature magazine editorial.

But this accusation is unfair. Messrs. Harris and Dawkins are simply being honest when they point out the inconsistency of belief in an activist god with modern science.

J.B.S. Haldane, an evolutionary biologist and a founder of population genetics, understood that science is by necessity an atheistic discipline. As Haldane so aptly described it, one cannot proceed with the process of scientific discovery if one assumes a “god, angel, or devil” will interfere with one’s experiments. God is, of necessity, irrelevant in science.

Faced with the remarkable success of science to explain the workings of the physical world, many, indeed probably most, scientists understandably react as Haldane did. Namely, they extrapolate the atheism of science to a more general atheism.

While such a leap may not be unimpeachable it is certainly rational, as Mr. McGinn pointed out at the World Science Festival. Though the scientific process may be compatible with the vague idea of some relaxed deity who merely established the universe and let it proceed from there, it is in fact rationally incompatible with the detailed tenets of most of the world’s organized religions. As Sam Harris recently wrote in a letter responding to the Nature editorial that called him an “atheist absolutist,” a “reconciliation between science and Christianity would mean squaring physics, chemistry, biology, and a basic understanding of probabilistic reasoning with a raft of patently ridiculous, Iron Age convictions.”

When I confronted my two Catholic colleagues on the panel with the apparent miracle of the virgin birth and asked how they could reconcile this with basic biology, I was ultimately told that perhaps this biblical claim merely meant to emphasize what an important event the birth was. Neither came to the explicit defense of what is undeniably one of the central tenets of Catholic theology.

Science is only truly consistent with an atheistic worldview with regards to the claimed miracles of the gods of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moreover, the true believers in each of these faiths are atheists regarding the specific sacred tenets of all other faiths. Christianity rejects the proposition that the Quran contains the infallible words of the creator of the universe. Muslims and Jews reject the divinity of Jesus.

So while scientific rationality does not require atheism, it is by no means irrational to use it as the basis for arguing against the existence of God, and thus to conclude that claimed miracles like the virgin birth are incompatible with our scientific understanding of nature.

Finally, it is worth pointing out that these issues are not purely academic. The current crisis in Iran has laid bare the striking inconsistency between a world built on reason and a world built on religious dogma.

Perhaps the most important contribution an honest assessment of the incompatibility between science and religious doctrine can provide is to make it starkly clear that in human affairs — as well as in the rest of the physical world — reason is the better guide.

Mr. Krauss, a cosmologist, is director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. His most recent book is Hiding in the Mirror (Viking, 2005).

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Here are some of the things Zeus-denying Christians have had to put up with since my last weather-related update on March 2:

—– High Winds Rip Off Indiana Church Roof (WLFI.com; March 9)

FLORA, Indiana: Hundreds of area residents are cleaning up after powerful winds and heavy rains swept through the area. Around 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon, much of the News Channel 18 viewing area was hit by the fast-moving storm system. High winds tookoff the roof at the Valley View Baptist Church in Flora. Church trustee member, Van Kauffman said he was surprised to find downed power lines and debris when he arrived at the church.

“First of all, the police wouldn’t let me in because there were power lines down. And as soon as I got here, I went inside and made sure there wasn’t a lot of damage inside. It’s not too bad yet,” Kauffman said.

Kauffman said church services for tonight were canceled because of the damage.

—– Tornado Destroys Illinois Church (WANDTV.com/The Associated Press; March 9)

GREENFIELD, Illinois: The National Weather Service now blames a pair of tornadoes for destroying buildings in central and southwestern Illinois….

Weather service meteorologist Ed Shimon (SHIM’-un) says a tornado destroyed a church and a farm house near Greenfield on Sunday. The town is about 60 miles north of St. Louis….

—– Mississippi Church Shattered By Storm (Kathleen Baydala/The Clarion-Ledger/USA Today; March 26)

MAGEE, Mississippi: Tornadoes that raked across southern and central Mississippi in the early morning hours Thursday destroyed dozens of homes here and injured at least 17 people….

Many in this city of around 5,000 people were without electricity and drinking water.

The twister began around 1:30 a.m. on the southwestern edge of the city and cut across to the northeast corner, said Katherine Gunby of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency….

Gunby said at least 60 homes were damaged and the Corinth Baptist Church was so shattered that “only the doors to its sanctuary were left standing.”

One of Barbara Fox’s sons was buried in the church cemetery in 2005. The ripping winds carried his flowers away but didn’t mar his headstone.

“It kills me,” Fox, 56, a lifetime member, said of the damage. “But we’ll build back. We’ll be stronger.”

There were other small miracles, Fox said. The pastor’s Bible was found open on his desk.

“There was hardly any rain on it,” she said….

—– Possible Tornado Destroys Catholic Parish Hall (Al Showers/WLOX.com; March 27)

HANCOCK COUNTY, Mississippi: Mother Nature left her mark on the White Cypress Lakes community Friday morning. But no where was the storm’s fury easier to see than at St. Matthew Catholic Church.

“It was devastating to say the least,” Father Noel Fannon said. “The parish hall took a direct hit. The entire end of the parish hall was demolished completely. It completely peeled off the roof.”

Father Noel Fannon is sure it had to be a tornado that touched down just feet from his house.

“I was watching Mike Reader on WLOX, the power went off, but I happened to have a portable TV. And just about 1:30, the noise was just unreal. It was like a freight train passing by. The rectory shook, so I dived for the bathroom.”

Within three to five minutes, Father Fannon said the noise stopped.

“It was a scary feeling. I prayed quite a bit, no doubt about it.”

The parish hall sustained extensive damage. The office, kitchen and a classroom were destroyed.

“That steel, as you can see, it just bent it like it was just a pencil. So the force of the tornado was just awesome.”…

Church officials say they hope to have the building back up within a couple of months.

—– New York Church Cross & Steeple Blasted By Lightning (Arielle Brechisci/Newsday; April 5)

Instead of sitting in pews in the St. James Lutheran Church for Palm Sunday service, dozens of congregants gathered in the lower-level parish hall, where they sat on folding chairs. Music came from a keyboard instead of the traditional organ.

And even though the building had been struck by lightning two days earlier, dedicated churchgoers were undaunted. “We would have found a way to have church no matter what, even if we had to have it in the parking lot,” said Christine Dingfelder, a St. James resident and church member for 30 years.

On Friday, the copper cross that had sat atop the steeple since 1923 was blown off and across Woodlawn Avenue, over a black chain-link fence and into a sump. Sunday, it was propped against the back wall of the parish hall near the podium.

“We thank the Lord no one was hurt and no more damage was done,” the Rev. Henry Schriever told members before the service began. “God must be watching over us and the people around here, with crosses flying around.”

He said it’s likely that Easter Sunday service won’t be held in the church, either. “I would like to, but I’m not too optimistic,” he said. “We need clearance from the town.” Signs taped to the front and side doors said the Town of Smithtown deemed the main worship area unsafe for occupancy.

Dingfelder, 58, said she was at work in Manhattan on Friday when her son sent a picture of the church’s burned steeple to her camera phone. “I was so upset,” said Dingfelder, whose three children were baptized and confirmed at the church, and where her daughter was married last year.

Stacie Godfrey said she and her family have been church members for 43 years. “We’re truly blessed to be here on Palm Sunday,” said Godfrey, 33, also of St. James, who was baptized at the church. “We need to all stick together.”

Godfrey said she found out about the lightning strike when she received a phone call from her sister, Patty Boyle. “It took me a few minutes to realize what happened,” said Boyle, 43, of Nesconset. “I drove by twice and then saw that the steeple was gone, and I realized it got hit by lightning.” But Boyle, who was also baptized at the church, said she wasn’t worried about Sunday’s service. “I knew they would figure something out.”

Torun Reduto, the Sunday school superintendent, said Sunday school for the church’s 240 children was canceled because it is normally held in the parish hall.

Reduto, 66, of St. James, said she was in “complete shock” when she heard the news from her daughter. “I felt bad we had to have it here” in the parish hall, Reduto, a member for 42 years, said after the 8:30 a.m. service. “But I’m thankful we could have it at all.”

The 500-pound bell that’s still on top of the church will be removed Tuesday, Schriever said. “It’s hanging, but it’s not hanging by very much.” Hesaid that, if the bell were to fall, it would go through the church’s balcony and possibly through the second floor.

—– Lightning Probable Cause Of Ohio Church Fire (Matt Hilderbrand/The People’s Defender; April 9)

PEEBLES, Ohio: Heavy thunderstorms covering the county late Sunday night caused more than just water damage, as area fire departments were called to douse a fire at a Peebles area church.

According to Chief Mike Estep of the Peebles fire department, at approximately 8:50 p.m. Sunday evening, a fire alarm was set off at the Peebles Church of Christ at 6050 Steam Furnace Road. Upon arriving at the scene, Estep reported seeing fire on the west side of the structure, where the roof and the side of the building connect.

“It is believed that a lightning strike was the cause of the fire,” Estep reported. “All indications point to that explanation.”

Franklin Township was also called to the scene for manpower. West Union Fire Department’s aerial engine tanker and the Scott Township rapid intervention team were also involved in fighting the flames. According to Estep, the flames remained centered around where the strike occurred and were quickly subdued.

There were no injuries reported in the incident.

According to Estep, an initial investigation saw damages totaling at least $10,000, with a majority of the damage being caused by smoke. Estep reported that he expects repairs to occur quickly and for the church to be fully operable in the coming weeks.

—– Lightning Shatters Georgia Baptist Church Steeple (Stephen Milligan/The Walton Tribune; April 15)

WALTON COUNTY, Georgia: A local church had a close call with some heavenly wrath recently as lightning struck the church steeple.

Center Hill Baptist Church, in the Gratis area, was struck by lightning around 11 p.m. Friday night and debris scattered everywhere in the resulting blast.

“The lightning struck the backside of the steeple,” said Pastor Marion Prather. “It came straight through the front of the steeple. It looked like an explosion afterward.”

Although the lightning knocked out the church sound system and damaged some computer systems, the church escaped more serious damage and the Walton County Fire Department had little to do when it arrived at the scene.

“We’re very fortunate it didn’t burn the church down,” Prather said. “We had our regular Easter service.”

—– Lightning Bolt Sends Tree Into English Church (Elise Brewerton/Portsmouth Today; April 16)

PORTSMOUTH, England: The full force of nature at its most powerful brought part of a huge ancient tree crashing down on to a church roof.

Lightning struck the 100ft sequoia in High Trees, Waterlooville, at 2.30am yesterday morning. About a third of it fell and hit the roof of London Road Baptist Church, making a hole and smashing a window.

Debris from the tree was strewn across the church grounds and along High Trees, filling at least three trucks full of broken branches.

It is believed to be around 150 years old, planted to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo after which the town is named. It is the last in the road named after the row huge of sequoias that once stood there majestically.

Minister Bill Longley said: ‘I got a call from the church secretary about 8.45am who said the sound of it falling was so loud it was as if his house had been struck.

‘It all happened at about 2.30am and it looks as though about a third of it has come off. It is sad because it is part of the area’s local history.

‘It was here well before the church was built and we have put a guess of about 150 years on it. The Heroes of Waterloo pub is nearby – there is a lot linking the area to the Battle of Waterloo.

‘There will only be about 60-70ft remaining but I’m hopeful the tree will survive.’

A team from the Highways Agency have spent all morning clearing away the broken branches. A nearby fence was also damaged.

Heavy downpours and thunder and lightning were felt across the area on Monday night and the early hours of Tuesday morning. Despite the sun coming out yesterday the rain is heading back today.

Rev Sam Owoo, assistant minister at the church, said: ‘We have to look into whether the damage is covered by insurance – we hope it is. It is not a massive hole considering the size of the tree. We may have to slightly scale back our activities to keep people away from it.’

—– Lightning Blasts Oklahoma Church (Lauri Rottmayer/KJRH.com; April 19)

TULSA, Oklahoma: Members of the Bluestem Baptist Church in Dewey will be worshipping in their gymnasium this Sunday morning instead of their church building. Early Saturday, at approximately 5:30 a.m., a bolt of lightning hit the church, catching it on fire. Fortunately, the building was empty at the time.

“The lightning came through the roof over the baptistery striking the steel beam,” said Youth Pastor Joseph Witt as he pointed to the twisted steel beam. Charred debris and water cover much of the front of the auditorium and the rest of the building. The room that holds the clothes and food that the church gives to needy community members is a part of the destruction as well as classrooms and restrooms. “The food and clothing is the way we give back to the community,” Witt said “and it’s all gone.”

Pastor Bill Spencer said that the church has been experiencing real growth and that there had been future expansion plans. “These people were here in the flood of ’86 when there was two feet of water in this auditorium,” he said. “We’ll get through this.”…

The Bluestem Baptist Church is a 45-year-old ministry with approximately 120 members. The insurance auditor will visit the church on Monday.

—– Lightning Blasts Alabama Church (FireFightingNews.com/The Decatur Daily; May 2)

FALKVILLE, Alabama: A fall from a ladder injured a Falkville firefighter Friday morning while battling a church fire after a lightning strike. Falkville Fire Chief Chris Free said Monty Cody was about 8 feet up a ladder at First Faith Church of Falkville when he fell.

“We think the injuries are minor, but we sent him to Cullman Regional Medical Center to get a foot checked out because he was having a little swelling,” the chief said.

Free said the hospital released him about 11:30 a.m. after X-rays.

“They put a brace on his foot and told him to stay off it for about two days,” Free said.

Free said eight Falkville firefighters, backed by four firefighters from Ebenezer, responded to the church at 1153 Culver Road at 8 a.m. after lightning struck the bell tower and steeple.

“It knocked about a 4- to 6-inch hole in the roof line, and then struck the rafters,” Free said. “It ignited the siding and insulation, which were on fire when we got there. The fire was at the front of the church, in the attic underneath the bell tower.”

Pastor Chuck Smith, who arrived about 45 minutes later and spoke with Free, called the strike “a direct hit.”

He said it appears the lighting exploded through the upper decking of the roof, traveled outward and blew out part of a metal vent in the front eave of the church.

“It caught the decking on fire and part of the insulation between the decking and the roof,” Smith said. “It also blew off some of the roofing shingles, and blew off parts of the bell tower back to the fellowship hall, which is behind the church.”

Smith said there is smoke damage throughout the church and water and other damage to the foyer.

“The strike blew out two huge panels of a mirrored ceiling onto the floor of the vestibule,” he said.

Smith, a guidance counselor at the Morgan County Learning Center, said he was at work when his son Dustin called and told him he heard that the church was on fire.

“I was expecting the worst, but I was really pleased to see there wasn’t as much damage as there could have been,” the pastor said. “I was praying on the way that no one would be injured. The firefighters had the fire under control when I arrived.”

He said he spoke to most of the firefighters, shook their hands and thanked them for their help and their rapid response in taking care of the situation.

Smith said Billy Bryan, church leader, arrived with the insurance adjuster.

“We’re expecting that the damage will be taken care of,” said Smith, who has been pastor for more than 11 years.

He said until repairs are completed, the church plans to meet across the road in the old Woodmen of the World building, which the town owns.

“On average, we have 35 to 40 each Sunday,” Smith said. “Our church will seat around 100. Our record attendance since I’ve been there is 75.”

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—– Connecticut Church Creates Stir With Gay Exorcism Video (John Christoffersen/The Associated Press; June 24)

BRIDGEPORT: The video shows the 16-year-old boy lying on the floor, his body convulsing, as elders of a small Connecticut church cast a “homosexual demon” from his body.

“Rip it from his throat!” a woman yells. “Come on, you homosexual demon! You homosexual spirit, we call you out right now! Loose your grip, Lucifer!”…

It’s nearly impossible to say how often similar exercises occur in churches nationwide. But Kamora Herrington, who runs a mentoring program at True Colors and has worked with the youth, said she believes it’s fairly common.

“This happens all the time,” she said. “This is not isolated.”

Robin McHaelin, executive director of True Colors, an advocacy group for gay youths, said her organization is aware of five cases in recent years in which youths in her program were threatened with exorcism.

In one case, she said, a child called to report that his caregiver had called a priest who was throwing holy water on his bedroom door….

The Rev. Roland Stringfellow, a minister in Oakland, Calif., said he was subject to demon casting in the 1990s when he was at a Baptist church and was struggling with his sexuality. He said he was put in front of the church as members shouted “demon of homosexuality come out of him.”

“It caused nothing but shame and embarrassment,” Stringfellow said….

To learn more about exorcism, see the entry I posted on June 20 as well as the related links.

For more about the bizarre attempts of some Christians to cure gays of their homosexuality, see the entry I posted on July 15, 2006.

—– Unrest In Iran Sharply Deepens Rift Among Clerics (Nazila Fathi and Michael Slackman/The New York Times; June 21)

TEHRAN: A bitter rift among Iran’s ruling clerics deepened Sunday over the disputed presidential election that has convulsed Tehran in the worst violence in 30 years, with the government trying to link the defiant loser to terrorists and detaining relatives of his powerful backer, a founder of the Islamic republic.

The loser, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the moderate reform candidate who contends that the June 12 election was stolen from him, fired back at his accusers on Sunday night in a posting on his Web site, calling on his own supporters to demonstrate peacefully despite stern warnings from Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that no protests of the vote would be allowed. “Protesting to lies and fraud is your right,” Mr. Moussavi said in a challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei’s authority.

Earlier, the police detained five relatives of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president who leads two influential councils and openly supported Mr. Moussavi’s election. The relatives, including Mr. Rafsanjani’s daughter, Faezeh Hashemi, were released after several hours….

—– Iran Bans Prayers For “Angel Of Freedom” Neda Agha Soltan (Damien McElroy/The Telegraph; June 22)

Iran’s regime has issued a ban on memorials for a young woman whose death has become the focal point of protests against the clerical regime.

Neda Agha Soltan, 27, was dubbed the Angel of Freedom after a video which appeared to show her being shot by a government sniper was posted on the internet….

The Iranian authorities have now sent out a circular to mosques banning collective prayers for the woman.

—– Call To Execute Iran Protest Chiefs (The Guardian/The Press Association; June 26)

A senior cleric has urged for Iran’s protest leaders to be punished “without mercy” and said some should face execution.

The call by Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami indicated a harsh new turn in the regime’s crackdown on demonstrators two weeks after its disputed presidential election.

Hardliners have ordered long sentences and hangings before, and some fear those awaiting trial by a judiciary whose verdicts reflect the will of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could face severe punishments.

“Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution,” Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a ranking cleric, said in a nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University.

Mr Khatami said those who disturbed the peace and destroyed public property were “at war with God” and should be “dealt with without mercy”….

Since the election, opposition protesters repeatedly have clashed with security forces who arrested hundreds of people, including journalists, academics and university students. At least 17 people have been killed, in addition to eight members of the pro-government Basij militia.

—– Iran: Now The World’s Leader In Jailing Journalists (Catherine Lyons/Opinion L.A./The Los Angeles Times; June 26)

In just the last 13 days since the disputed June 12 election, Iran has become the world’s leading jailer of journalists.

A report released Tuesday by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran listed the names of 23 Iranian journalists who have been arrested and detained by the government. Additionally, more than 100 political personalities and members of the reformers’ presidential campaigns have also been arrested. The group confirmed 31 dead (though only four named), many of whom were students like Neda Aghasoltan, now the face of the opposition movement.

The report also revealed that many of those arrested were detained in their own homes by plain-clothed police officers — and many were not participating in protests when arrested.

In a blatant disregard for freedom of speech, a right Iran vowed to protect when it signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, government officials raided the Kalameh Sabz on Monday, June 22 — a reformist newspaper owned by opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Every person in the office at that time was arrested (CPJ estimates that number to be around 25 people), bringing the total number of Iranian journalists arrested up to about 40 — most of whom are still in custody….

—– Man Who Starved Baby Son May Get New Trial (Dave Wedge/The Boston Herald; June 25)

Killer Attleboro cultist Jacques Robidoux was defiant on the stand in his 2002 murder trial, but now claims he was mentally incompetent and may get a new trial.

The jailed religious fanatic, who is serving life for starving his 18-month-old son to death in 2000, argues in new court pleadings that he didn’t get a fair trial because his competency was never evaluated.

“God told him in an explicit directive to stop feeding his baby. He was unable not to follow this command because he believed man’s law was secondary to God’s law,” Robidoux’s lawyer, Janet Hendricks Pumphrey, wrote in court papers. “He believed no harm would come to his child if his food was restricted, and he believed that if his child died, he could resurrect him.”…

Robidoux and his wife, Karen, followed a twisted “vision from God,” allegedly experienced by another member, that ordered them to switch Samuel from solid food to a breast milk-only diet.

The boy slowly starved to death over two months.

Karen Robidoux was convicted of manslaughter.

For more details about this case, see the entry I posted on July 2, 2002 as well as Theist File #1298.

Add Jacques Robidoux’s name (admittedly rather tardily) to the ever-lengthening list of murderous theist parents that now includes Leatrice Brewer, Elizabeth Tevenan, Michael Miller,Marie Moore, Joseph Henry Hagerman, Valeria Maxon, Katrina Spriggs, Nelly Vasquez-Salazar, “Cristos Valenti”, Robert Blair, Avi Kostner, Elizabeth Duman, Samara Laverne Spann,Teresa Gilman, Rebekah Amaya, Christina Miracle, Andre L. Thomas, Brenda Drayton, Lashuan Harris, Liset Hernandez, Magdalena Lopez, Paula Eleazar Mendez, Tonya Vasilev, Dena Schlosser, Deanna Laney, Susan Smith, Mark Barton, William Gartlan, Karen Duncan, Hemu Vasrambhai, Michelle Huisman, Barbara Downey, and Bridget Stovall as well as the infamousAndrea Yates….

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The following is a guest post by Darthcynic

Over the past few weeks the issue of the historicity of Jesus came up out of a thread discussing whether St Paul knew Jesus’ disciples and the discussion has progressed from there. As it evolved, matters of the accuracy of the Bible and some inaccuracies on science and how I evaluate the evidence grew as offshoots of the main topic. For the sake of brevity I shall keep to the topic of an historical Jesus and deal with those other questions separately at another time. After reading Arthenor’s latest response on his blog, from the contents of previous posts in the original discussion and from some others related to the question of an historical Jesus there are some consistent differences that crop up. This largely revolves around the question of whether or not the gospels are an acceptable source of evidence for the subject at hand. To try and bring some clarity to proceedings and to make my position clear — I hope — I shall depart from simply responding in a point by point fashion and deal with matters closely related in an overall manner. To this end I intend to cover my position on what constitutes a reliable historical source and compare that to the gospels; finally I will come back to the original matter of the historical case for Jesus.

Parts of the Bible and much of the argument for the historical Jesus hinge on historical significance versus historical accuracy; the outcome of this matter would have serious ramifications for either position. One thing that is certainly agreeable is that the gospels are definitely historically relevant; they can be utilized to gain insight into the social and cultural makeup of the society and for whom they were written. The problem exists in whether they can be taken as a reliable source for the people and events that they describe, whether they can be considered as an historically accurate account of what actually occurred, just how much confidence can be placed in them? To ascertain this we must ask a few questions of them much as we would for any document purporting to be an accurate portrayal of the events it describes. For instance is it written by an interested party and hence does this mean the potential for bias to distort or even invent to cover gaps in knowledge or hazy recollection and when was it written? Is there corroboration of the events by contemporary independent or hostile parties or by other sources such as archaeological evidence? What is the provenance of the information, what is the source, from where does the information being written spring? How has this information come down to us in the here and now, do we have the original documents, have they been copied and in the process edited or added to, what is the common presentation now?

The gospels are most assuredly written by a party with a purpose; they have a religious agenda that is implicit and acknowledged by believers. Nor is this as simple as a difference between competing national or political ideologies; where ones eternal soul and salvation is concerned the potential for bias increases. Whilst the fact that there is an agenda does not specifically mean there will be distortion; there still remains that inherent bias and caution must be exercised. Put simply they cannot be accepted at face value; we should have independent or even better, hostile corroboration. The gospels are also written decades after the events they portray, with Mark appearing first. Even assuming the most Christian friendly light of being written some thirty to forty years after Jesus’ death, this is still a significant amount of time, it is well known just how weak people’s recollection of events a few months past can be never mind decades. Unfortunately as far as corroboration goes there isn’t any by any contemporary sources independent or hostile1 , so we have no means of discerning bias or fact from fiction as far as the gospels are concerned. As for their provenance, well they certainly are not written as histories so we have no means to ascertain from whence the information sprang. Nowhere are any sources for the information ever offered and no description of the means our gospel authors went to acquire the information nor what measures they undertook to verify the veracity of what they found. Other historians of the era and earlier, such as the Greek Thucydides have no trouble in informing us of their sources. So it could conceivably be all made up and we have no way of knowing; we cannot just assume truthfulness. The gospels are also often claimed as eyewitness testimony and hence this should be viewed as most reliable; they would appear to be anything but as Luke for instance makes clear in the opening verses that he is not an eyewitness and neither was his unidentified source, somewhere he says there was an eyewitness but not himself. The gospels have come down through the ages by the work largely of Christian scribes under the direction of their superiors, wherein there also lies an inherent bias and opportunity for selective editing of the originals. They now exist for us in a multitude of versions in just the English language alone; as far as I am aware there are no original copies at all.

Now it is clear from the above that there are significant —and as I see it so far— insurmountable problems with being able to accept the gospels as a dependable historical source on actual people and events. They have an agenda and potential for bias, and lacking any independent source we have absolutely no means to ascertain whether this bias is at work and to what extent. They are not contemporary accounts; they are not written by eyewitnesses and could not have been transcribed from other eyewitness accounts.2 Some elements of the story make eyewitnessing impossible, who was the eyewitness for Gethsemane, who was the eyewitness for the forty days and nights, who saw the angel appear before the women alone at the tomb, who saw Mary’s angelic visitation about things to come? Jesus was alone for the first two, there can be no witness and no one else is mentioned as being present for the others, if anyone else were there then why no mention? Also due to the shorter lifespan of the day we cannot expect that those who were present as adults at the early days to be still alive at the time of writing; their testimony must be secondhand or worse. How may we assume useful accuracy in the face of far-removed testimony and events no one could have witnessed?3 The gospels also lack corroboration, even were one to excuse the religious bias and attempt to claim that they corroborate each other, they fail; there is evidence that there has been copying from Mark by the others. Where subsequent authors encounter things not covered by Mark they do not tell the same story; for example the birth only occurs twice in the four and even they are not the same in content or chronology. It would be like two stories of a battle in which both sides won who turned up on different days. Finally, can a source be considered reliable as a historical document if it has been edited or augmented? I’d say no, as we do not know just where and what else could be edited. Alas that is exactly what has happened with the gospels; take John and his popular story of mercy to the adulteress and the famous line “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. This is well accepted (including by Christian scholars) as a fabrication, an addition probably in the first century, it even notes this in some Bible editions though not the popular KJV and notes are rarely consulted by most I’d guess. The ending of Mark is also believed and noted as an addition to round off an otherwise abrupt and open ending lacking a crucial resurrection, yet more meddling with the text.

However Arthenor would seem to contend that none of this matter, that being old and in line with his beliefs to be more than enough to imbue the gospels with historical authenticity; that a book remains inerrant and dependable even though folks have been adding extra material. It is quite clear to me however that the gospels come nowhere near an acceptable level to be treated as a useful historical account of actual events or people. By this criterion we must also believe the events of Homer’s Odyssey, the Talmud or the Koran; why are these not entire historical records of actual events and the Bible is? Furthermore if the gospels were so clearly reliable as historical documents then there never would be a question over Jesus’ historicity and no Christian would feel any need to bother with brief and obscure ancillary references to Jesus like Josephus or Tertullian, the gospels would be more than enough. However Christians do try very hard to make those brief and obscure references work for them, one would wonder why? Lastly, I must ask what evidence is there that the gospels ‘are’ an eyewitness account as has been claimed?

In a recent Monday School, Arthenor responds to questions of the historicity of the gospels and the criterion for evaluating this by comparison to Alexander the III, or Great as he is more commonly known. He contends that there is little evidence for this historical figure yet his existence is not in doubt so why should we treat the historical reality of Jesus or the gospels any differently. Let us briefly go through the criterion I highlighted above. To begin with Alexander was not claimed as the mortal manifestation of god whose presence on this world was to save His fallen creation of man; therefore we are clear of the potential for religious bias and people amending the story at later points to adhere to a period’s dogma. Furthermore Alexander is just a man, a great leader but just a man none-the-less, his actions and events of his life generally agreed to have taken place are entirely mundane affairs devoid of miracles or the supernatural; certainly Alexander versus a supernatural Jesus has a more plausible footing in addition to any evidence. Alas we are bereft of any writings of the man himself and we are also no longer in possession of the writings on him by contemporaries such as Callisthenes or Cleitarchus; we do however have independent sources which cite the contemporary writers as their sources such as Arrian, Plutarch or Strabo.4 We know from whence the information has come unlike the gospels or Tacitus. Far more than the few I have mentioned wrote on Alexander basing their writing on the earlier accounts; this has resulted in a number of different personalities for the man, but he did exist. Neither is there anyone as time progresses who doubts his existence or writes history of the region and period as though they had never heard of Alexander, attributing the events to some other figure or remaining silent. There are also sculpture and coinage bearing his image; and some coins have been dated to the period of Alexander’s life. We also know that the expansion of Macedonia, the overthrow of the Persian Empire and other events attributed to his leadership took place. In the question of whether Alexander and Jesus are at their most basic, historical figures; the evidence for Alexander is of greater quantity, provenance and quality that is also backed by physical evidence (coins, sculpture) and events he is involved in and known to have occurred. We can be reasonably certain of Alexander’s existence; Jesus on the other hand lacks in just about every field, hence the historical doubt like any other weakly evidenced character.

Now the issues that sparked it all, the historicity of Jesus, so let us go briefly through the evidence as it stands.

The gospels have been shown to not be reliable, useful evidence in this context so they cannot be considered as far as I am concerned. St Paul does not write a history as pointed out but his writing does present some issues, and there are instances where we would expect that Paul would have defended himself or aided his proselytizing by reference to an historical Jesus should he have existed. It is not reasonable to claim that Paul was not writing Jesus biography as the gospels were doing that, to begin with Paul wrote first, there were no gospels to take care of the biography. Secondly do we honestly think that Paul and the gospel authors met and agreed who would do what, “Paul is only going to do teachings and concepts so he has agreed to make no biographical reference” what reason have we to believe that this was the case beyond a personal preference? Furthermore in relation to Paul the bulk of his writing that concerns Jesus when read without assuming a mortal person, well it makes perfect sense as referring to a non-corporeal divinity, a development on Platonic philosophical thinking extant in the area and time.5

Josephus’ passage has certainly been tampered with at least once, given this clear instance of tampering and that later church fathers like Origen who were familiar with Josephus never cited ‘any’ of the entire passage, it is entirely probable that the entire passage was a fabrication and therefore not sufficiently reliable. Tertullian, Tacitus, Phlegon etc have been shown to be believably unreliable for a variety of reasons. Thallus is practically useless, nothing remains of his work, and in fact we are not even sure if Thallus was his actual name. Worse still is that nothing survives of Africanus whom Syncellus allegedly quotes and Africanus is where we get Thallus from, third hand info over nine centuries! It is hard to get any weaker. I would guess that Arthenor is wondering how this was any different from those writing on Alexander whom we accept existed. Well there are more people quoting Alexander’s contemporary sources and Thallus was not even a contemporary source for Jesus, Alexander’s was second hand, not third and Alexander’s sources were not being related by a Christian with a religious agenda in his writing nine centuries later.

Now there are also those writers that suggest against a historical Jesus; Theophilus (a Christian) never mentions Jesus and when asked to show his unbelieving doubter one example of resurrection he is silent, no mention of those Jesus raised and nothing about one of Christianities greatest moments, Jesus’ own resurrection, the crucial event that offers mankind a means to escape his inherited sin. Surely this silence where he should have had much to say is most bizarre? Minucius goes further by denying the crucifixion; in the discussion the pagan makes a series of allegations against Christian beliefs and acts, things like eating babies, worshipping a criminal who was crucified, etc. Minucius after some indignant shock explicitly denies that Christians worship a criminal that was crucified, or that mortal man could ever be believed as god. Now if he were just refuting the criminal notion he would have clarified that Christians worshipped their savior who was crucified, he does no such thing and instead moves on to refute the other falsehoods. Theophilus certainly appears to have no idea of the historical Jesus and Minucius’ words deny central tenets of the historical narrative and modern Christianity.6

As it stands there is a very compelling argument against most people’s simple assumption that Jesus did exist; it is by no means a cast iron case that completely removes Jesus from the historical record without question, but it is very compelling. Those who argue for an historical Jesus only, must elect to selectively interpret evidence in its pro light only and often with unconvincing reasons as to why anyone else should do likewise. To get around those authors who remain silent on events they could reasonably be expected to have recorded and those who appear to be unfamiliar with the historic Christ; the pro-argument engages in weak refutation, specially limited premises and wordplay “not claiming that Jesus ever lived on earth is not the same as claiming He never lived on earth”, how that refutes Theophilus’ puzzling silence is beyond me. Finally those arguing for an historical Jesus are at great pains to ensure the gospels continued inclusion; they must be kept as without them the pro-argument becomes severely depleted.

Some, such as Arthenor, are also keen to ensure that those who doubt a historical Jesus have a bias for doing so attached to them. I am in two minds as to whether or not I should delve further into the realm of bias, but I feel that it is too significant to pass unexamined. I will preface the following by acknowledging the plain fact that I may also be biased, certainly as far as the existence of god and the veracity of the Bible is concerned. As far as an historical Jesus goes I would very much doubt it, previously I still believed as an atheist that there was an actual historical figure of Jesus, no supernatural attributes but real nonetheless, and then I encountered a compelling argument against. So I feel there is no ad hominem in pointing out that a believer has a fundamental bias, a very strong bias as their faith, the entirety of their religious life hangs on it; there must be a Jesus as everything revolves about him. This would only be significantly stronger if that person also believed the Bible to be the inerrant, literal word of god; that is a titanic drive to find for one conclusion only or it all becomes undone. Especially if there is no allowance for the possibility that they may be wrong and what it would take to prove that. This scope for a pro-bias on the part of believers potentially muddies any investigation and pro-argument by them, is the argument reasonable or just one that supplies the best pro position? That is why I think there is also a desire to assign a bias on the part of those arguing against Jesus’ mortal existence, to give them that same muddiness and level the playing field. Like I pointed out Jesus’ existence or not makes no difference to me and hence why Arthenor then sought to invoke the stock skeptic character, to purchase bias by any means possible in suggesting an alleged philosophical position on other matters is the same as regards the historical argument. I am not saying that I am unequivocally free of bias but I think that I have refuted this allegation and over the posts provided a solid if brief refutation of the notion that an historical Jesus is the only or most reasonable conclusion; that there is a good case for doubt and Jesus may very well, have never existed.

For a more in depth and expansive argument on the issue of the historical Jesus try Earl Doherty’s site http://jesuspuzzle.humanists.net/home.htm and Ebon Musings article “Choking on the Camel” at http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/camel.html .  Where I first encountered the argument against the historical Jesus, and the source for some of the points I have raised and I thank them for presenting their findings.

Footnotes:

1. The Talmud being a religious text suffers the same suspicion we must exercise with any religious text, it can also be viewed as simply combating early 1st century Christian dogma on purely theological grounds. This seems sufficient reason to not view it as corroboration, not that it corroborates much, its story being different and also written after the fact.
2. These guys were certainly not present as adults for the conception or birth.
3. Note though that we have no sources and so we cannot even tell if it is testimony or fiction.
4. Even though Plutarch notes that he does not write histories but rather biographies, he is writing about historical characters.
5. The passages Arthenor cited included Romans 1:1, 5:12-15, 8:3 – do not explicitly reference an historic entity, two do not use any mortal qualification at all, very weak; the rest are of questionable origin, some of Paul’s epistles are believed by some to not be authored by him, these are Colossians, Ephesians, Titus and Timothy 1 & 2.
6. Tatian and Athenagoras who are also Christian, seem unfamiliar with the historical Jesus, puzzling no?

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—– Christian Soldiers: The Growing Controversy Over Military Chaplains Using The Armed Forces To Spread The Word (Kathryn Joyce/Newsweek Web Exclusive; June 19)

Ever since former president George W. Bush referred to the war on terror as a “crusade” in the days after the September 11 attacks, many have charged that the United States was conducting a holy war, pitting a Christian America against the Muslim world. That perception grew as prominent military leaders such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin described the wars in evangelical terms, casting the U.S. military as the “army of God.” Although President Obama addressed the Muslim world this month in an attempt to undo the Bush administration’s legacy of militant Christian rhetoric that often antagonized Muslim countries, several recent stories have framed the issue as a wider problem of an evangelical military culture that sees spreading Christianity as part of its mission.

A May article in Harper’s by Jeff Sharlet illustrated a military engaged in an internal battle over religious practice. Then came news about former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s Scripture-themed briefings to President Bush that paired war scenes with Bible verses. (In an e-mail published on Politico, Rumsfeld aide Keith Urbahn denied that the former Defense secretary had created or even seen many of the briefings.) Later in May, Al-Jazeera broadcast clips filmed in 2008 showing stacks of Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari at the U.S. air base in Bagram and featuring the chief of U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, telling soldiers to “hunt people for Jesus.”

In the aftermath of that report, the Pentagon responded that it had confiscated and destroyed the Bibles and said there was no effort to convert Afghans. But while the military dismissed the Bagram Bibles as an isolated incident, a civil-rights watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), says this is not the case. According to the group’s president, Mikey Weinstein, a cadre of 40 U.S. chaplains took part in a 2003 project to distribute 2.4 million Arabic-language Bibles in Iraq. This would be a serious violation of U.S. military Central Command’s General Order Number One forbidding active-duty troops from trying to convert people to any religion. A Defense Department spokeswoman, in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, denies any knowledge of this project.

The Bible initiative was handled by former Army chaplain Jim Ammerman, the 83-year-old founder of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), an organization in charge of endorsing 270 chaplains and chaplain candidates for the armed services. Ammerman worked with an evangelical group based in Arkansas, the International Missions Network Center, to distribute the Bibles through the efforts of his 40 active-duty chaplains in Iraq. A 2003 newsletter for the group said of the effort, “The goal is to establish a wedge for the kingdom of God in the Middle East, directly affecting the Islamic world.”

J. E. Wadkins, vice president of student life at Ecclesia College who oversees the International Missions Network Center, says they have worked with Ammerman for 20 years and reached out to him as part of their “Bibles for the Nations” mission. He estimates that in the end, between 100,000 and 500,000 Arabic Bibles were distributed in under one year, beginning not long after Saddam Hussein’s ouster. “It was a really early effort there,” says Wadkins, “when things first opened up.”

The effort is an example of what critics call a growing culture of militarized Christianity in the armed forces. It is influenced in part by changes in outlook among the various branches’ 2,900 chaplains, who are sworn to serve all soldiers, regardless of religion, with a respectful, religiously pluralistic approach. However, with an estimated two thirds of all current chaplains affiliated with evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, which often prioritize conversion and evangelizing, and a marked decline in chaplains from Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches, this ideal is suffering. Historian Anne C. Loveland attributes the shift to the Vietnam War, when many liberal churches opposed to the war supplied fewer chaplains, creating a vacuum filled by conservative churches. This imbalance was exacerbated by regulation revisions in the 1980s that helped create hundreds of new “endorsing agencies” that brought a flood of evangelical chaplains into the military and by the simple fact that evangelical and Pentecostal churches are the fastest-growing in the U.S.

The chaplains minister to flocks that are, on the whole, slightly less religious than the general population and slightly less evangelical. According to a 2008 Department of Defense survey, 22 percent of active-duty members of the military described themselves as evangelical or Pentecostal (although the actual number of evangelical-minded believers is likely higher when encompassing personnel who follow more evangelical expressions of mainline Protestant denominations, as well as a sizable percentage of the additional 20 percent that describe themselves simply as “Christian”).

Among the “endorsing agencies” is CFGC, which represents a conglomeration of independent Pentecostal churches outside established denominations. The group was accepted as a chaplain-endorsing agency by the Department of Defense in 1984, two years after it first applied. Since 1984, MRFF charges, Ammerman’s agency has violated numerous codes that govern chaplaincies, including a constant denigration of other religions, particularly Islam, Judaism, mainline Protestantism and Catholicism, but also non-Pentecostal evangelical churches. In a 2008 sermon, Ammerman described a CFGC chaplain at Fort Riley, Kans., who demanded the 42 chaplains below him “speak up for Jesus” or leave his outfit. In a video for an organization called the Prophesy Club, CFGC chaplain Maj. James Linzey called mainstream Protestant churches “demonic, dastardly creatures from the pit of hell,” that should be “[stomped] out.” But the primary target of CFGC’s ire is Islam. A 2001 CFGC newsletter asserted that the real enemy of the U.S. wasn’t Osama bin Laden, but Allah, whom the newsletter called “Lucifer.” A 2006 issue argued that all Muslim-Americans should be treated with suspicion, as they “obviously can’t be good Americans.” In a 2008 sermon, Ammerman called Islam “a killer religion” and Muslims “the devil.”

Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says it’s “counterproductive to the interests of our military to have officers or servicepeople proselytizing. It should be addressed at the highest levels of the military.” Hooper says that while he can’t say whether events such as these constitute a systematic problem in the military, “we’ve certainly seen enough incidents for it to be a concern.”

Weinstein, an Air Force veteran who founded MRFF in 2005 after both he and his sons say they encountered anti-Semitic harassment and proselytizing in the service, has waged legal battles against what he sees as an improper mingling of church and state in the military, including a current lawsuit against the Department of Defense alleging service members’ compulsory attendance at military functions that include sectarian Christian prayers and a broader “pattern and practice of constitutionally impermissible promotions of religious beliefs within the Department of Defense and the United States Army.” Weinstein says MRFF hears from 400 to 500 service members monthly—including Jews, atheists and religious minorities, but mostly nonevangelical Christians—who claim religious discrimination in the military, often from chaplains or officers implying that they aren’t Christian enough. “The vast majority of chaplains now see the military as a mission field with a lot of low-hanging fruit,” says Weinstein.

Art Schulcz, a lawyer representing CFGC in a lawsuit against the Navy, says that evangelicals are the real victims, at least in that branch of the service. (As of 2008, all three chiefs of chaplains were evangelicals.) Numerous evangelical Navy chaplains, Schulcz says, have been discriminated against, denied promotions and subjected to denominational preferences by a Catholic- and mainline Protestant-dominated chaplaincy that is intolerant of how evangelicals worship. Many, he says, have fled to the more evangelical-friendly Army.

“Mikey Weinstein says they’re shipping Bibles there,” Schulcz says. “I want to say, ‘So what?’ The Constitution protects that kind of activity.” He contends that General Order Number One’s prohibition on religion, which has been in effect since 2000, is overly vague and a violation of religious freedom, and that, in any case, chaplains should be exempt since, he argues, they are not military representatives but representatives of their faith groups: “The Constitution prohibits absolutely the government from proselytizing, but it protects the proselytizer to do so, unless they’re harming the public good.”

Department of Defense policy says that chaplain-endorsing agencies should “express willingness” for their chaplains to cooperate with other religious traditions. But Schulcz claims that Ammerman, who is not a paid government official, and his chaplains, who are, are entitled to say whatever they want unless they’re advocating insurrection.

On this point, MRFF charges they come close. Ammerman and chaplain Linzey have espoused conspiracy theories about “Satanic forces” at work in the U.S. government facilitating a military takeover by foreign troops; Ammerman even appears in a video favored by militia groups titled The Imminent Military Takeover of the USA. In 2008, Ammerman implied that four presidential candidates should be “arrested, quickly tried and hanged” for not voting to designate English America’s official language, and speculated that Barack Obama would be assassinated as a secret Muslim.

Among the Pentagon directives MRFF charges CFGC or its chaplains have violated are the command that chaplaincies express willingness for interfaith cooperation; that they be bona fide religious organizations with a primary mission beyond the military; that they not join organizations with religious or nationalist supremacist causes or that espouse violence; and that active military personnel not utter disloyal or contemptuous statements about officials or the country.

The last two underlay a 1997 call by Lt. Gen. Normand Lezy for the Pentagon to investigate the CFGC, due largely to Ammerman’s video and radio statements concerning military overthrow of the U.S. The Department of Defense confirms that a review was conducted, but that Ammerman’s statements were determined to be within the bounds of free speech. “That review found Mr. Ammerman’s opinions and statements did not transgress beyond that normally considered protected by Constitutional free-speech standards,” explains Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez, “nor was a specific connection established between Mr. Ammerman’s organization and prohibited activities—a necessary requirement in justifying the revocation of one’s status as an ecclesiastical endorser.”

Ammerman has not changed his rhetoric or agenda since the ’90s, and he will not comment further, saying his record stands on its own. “I know the three chiefs of chaplains,” he says, “and they know me, and know that I give them the best chaplains.”

MRFF is calling, in a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to strip the CFGC of its endorsing authority and to investigate its chaplains for various code violations. But they fear the Obama administration will not press this issue given the announced replacement of Army Secretary Pete Geren with Rep. John McHugh, a New York Republican with a conservative record on church-state separation issues.

Joyce is the author of “Quiverfull: Inside The Christian Patriarchy Movement.”

For more on this issue, see the entry entitled The Pentagon’s Continuing Love Affair With Jesus that I posted on March 15.

To learn more about Joyce’s analysis of the Quiverfull movement, see the entry entitled Update On Breedism Run Amok that I posted on March 19.

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—– Voodoo Made Me Drown Kids, Long Island Mom Tells Police (New York Daily News; Feb 10, 2009)

A Long Island woman Monday admitted drowning her three young children last year, saying she believed they were victims of a voodoo attack….

—– Elton Murphy Found Guilty Of Murder, Gets Life (MySunCoast.com/WWSB ABC7; May 11)

SARASOTA, Florida: A jury has found Elton Murphy guilty in the murder of art gallery owner Joyce Wishart. He has been sentenced to life in prison without parole….

“He felt like he was God some days… God was with him in a unique way telling him to go and rape women, God told him it was ok to do that, Jesus told him what he wanted, and he would ask Jesus why and Jesus would say ‘why shouldn’t you?’ It gave him a clear conscious to do anything,” says Dr. Kasper.

Would Dr. Kasper say something similar about Moses, Joshua, and the other holy murderers in the Bible?

Would the same jury have convicted Moses on the basis of his murderous actions (e.g., Numbers 31:17)?

“Ironically, the criminal’s religiosity fosters crime for, when it is genuine, it bolsters his opinion of himself as an upstanding citizen. It is as though by having felt remorse, prayed, and confessed his sins to God, the criminal empties his cup of whatever evil it might have contained so that he has even more latitude to do as he pleases” -Stanton E. Samenow, Inside the Criminal Mind (p. 171) (as quoted most recently in the entry I posted on June 7)

—– Outrage At Serbia “Beating” Video (The BBC; May 22)

Officials in Serbia are investigating a rehabilitation centre affiliated to the Orthodox Church where drug addicts have allegedly been filmed being beaten….

—– South Africa: Church Still Not “Moving Beyond Apartheid”, Meeting Told (Stephen Brown And Hans Pienaar/Ecumenical News International/allAfrica.com; May 25)

GENEVA/JOHANNESBURG: A South African church suspended in 1982 from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches because of its support for apartheid is “still not ready for readmission”, a meeting of the grouping’s executive committee in Geneva has been told….

WARC general secretary the Rev. Setri Nyomi, presenting his report on 23 May to the 2009 executive committee meeting in Geneva, noted that a WARC team had visited South Africa in March to meet the denomination.

“Our discussions showed a deep division in the church about moving beyond apartheid,” said Nyomi, a Presbyterian from Ghana, in his report. “It was our determination that they were not ready for readmission.”…

For more about the relationship between religion and prejudice, see the entries I posted on Oct 8, 2002, July 8, 2003, and Aug 5, 2008.

To learn more about the Bible’s so-called “curse of Ham” and how it’s helped to justify and inspire anti-black prejudice, see the entry I posted on Dec 8, 2003 as well as Wikipedia.

—– Archbishop Retires Amid Reports Many Of His Priests Are Not Celibate (NZCath.org/Catholic News Service; May 27)

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of a 54-year-old archbishop from the Central African Republic following an investigation into priests of his diocese who live more or less openly with women and the children they have fathered….

Africa News also reported that priests from nine of the country’s dioceses met May 22-24 in Bangui expressing their opposition to the removal of the archbishop and accusing the Vatican of being “discriminatory, partial and selective in the assessment of the situation since white priests and bishops are also guilty of the same practices.”

To learn a bit more about the extent of the hypocrisy and corruption in the Catholic Church, see the entries I posted on March 2, 2004, July 14, 2006, and May 12, 2009.

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The sentiments displayed in the following comment that I received on my post about Saint Paul’s bones seem fairly common and therefore worth addressing:

wow…it must be nice to be such a skeptic. Listen: if you and other atheists don’t believe in God, why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to disproving religion? It’s interesting too how atheists seem to focus solely on western religion and not eastern religion. I don’t remember seeing any atheists parading outside a Shinto temple…
Live and let live. If you don’t believe in anything, don’t worry about it. If you believe in something, go for it. End of story.

–George Spencer

Let’s break this down into its component parts:

(1) if you and other atheists don’t believe in God, why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to disproving religion?

For whatever reason, it seems that some of my theist readers are under the impression that this is more or less all that I do. In fact, I probably spend around 5-10% of my time devoted “to disproving religion.” It is not a significant part of my life. Nevertheless, what George is really asking here is why an atheist should even bother to devote any time to critiquing religion. After all, if we do not believe in God then why do we care if others do?

I honestly find such a question to be terriblely naive. It is kind of like asking: If you and other pacifists don’t believe in war, then why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to discouraging war? Or how about this one: If you and other vegetarians don’t believe in eating meat, then why are you constantly devoting your time and energy to get others to stop eating meat? Such questions would only make sense in a world where the vast majority of people are already atheists, pacifists, or vegetarians. The fact of the matter is, we live in a world in which the vast majority of people, at least, are theists.

If beliefs did nothing more than stay inside a person’s head then it probably would not matter. On the contrary, beliefs frequently motivate behavior. Bad beliefs can potentially motivate bad behavior. One only has to look at the Middle East to see that conflicting beliefs about what God wants people to do with a strip of desert land has not made that part of the world more desirable in which to live.

I think that the Conversational Atheist makes a good case for why atheists should engage believers in religious debate in his essay on the subject here. He lists four main reasons:

A)If people are loudly proclaiming their false beliefs, they should not be encouraged or go unchallenged.

If you are convinced that a person’s beliefs are wrong or mistaken, then do you not have a moral imperative to explain to that person why you think so?

B) Faith-based religion wastes the time, money, and resources of well-meaning people.

Time and money spent devoted for religious purposes could better be spent elsewhere.

C) Religion teaches inappropriate responses to real world problems.

Whether it is praying for a solution or witholding valuable medical treatment for a child, religions promote magical and superstitious thinking that as a society we can do without.

D) Promoting faith as a virtue gives credence to religious leaders who have “authority” for terrible reasons

In more general terms, promoting faith as a virtue has serious consequences besides simply being an error in thinking. Would you rather have the US commit to a war because the President has faith that God is on his side or because there really is credible intelligence that a nation is harboring weapons of mass destruction? Making decisions or choosing beliefs without firm evidence or even despite evidence to the contrary is a recipe for disaster.

(2) It’s interesting too how atheists seem to focus solely on western religion and not eastern religion. I don’t remember seeing any atheists parading outside a Shinto temple…

This critique of Western-centricism is embodied in this other recent comment that I received:

have yet to see atheists laugh at Buddhist monks, or burn a copy of the Tao Te Ching, or fiercely debate with a Jainist. It seems hilarious, in fact, that so-called atheists only seem to focus on Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. If you are a real atheist, be an equal opportunity one. Focus your energy on all religions. Put your money where your mouth is; I see “ex-catholic” shirts and “flying spaghetti monster” shirts…but where is a shirt making fun of the Dalai Lama? Or why is there no shirt that has “ex-Jew” in bold letters? Where is a shirt mocking Sheeva or Vishnu? Why not have a shirt that says “Thor never existed”? I see no shirts mocking pagans or earth-based religions either…where are those? How about a shirt making fun of Jainists and their ethics of non-violence? Is there a shirt making fun of the aborigines of Australia and their beliefs? If not, then why not? If you are an actual atheist, then noth ing should be held as sacred. Or is it only a select few beliefs that you feel it is right to mock?
Think about it.

–Jason

I have thought about it, Jason, and the answer should be fairly obvious. Certainly, I am against all nonsense no matter what the content or the context. I am not just skeptical of Western monotheistic religions but all religions, past and present. However, I happen to live in a society that is dominated by Christianity and with Islam frequently a subject of the news. This is why I focus most of my efforts on critiquing Christianity and the other monotheistic religions that have the most effect on my life and my culture. The government of the United States is dominated by Christians. Every president past and present has at least been nominally Christian. I am only aware of one congressman who has ever come out publically as a nonbeliever (Fortney “Pete” Stark).

If I lived in India then I would probably spend more time taking apart Shiva and Vishnu. Since I don’t, and neither do most of my readers, I don’t see much value in doing so.

(3) If you don’t believe in anything, don’t worry about it.

Atheists don’t believe in God, but we believe in many other things, as Proud Atheist recently pointed out. We believe in humanity and our potential for good and positive change. We believe in friendship and love. We believe in rationality and our capacity for reason. What about you? What do you believe in?

POSTSCRIPT: If you really want to see an atheist mock all religions, and not just Western ones, then you might want to check out the book Your Religion Is False by Joel Grus. Short description from Amazon: “Whether youʹre a Christian or a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu, a Rasta or a Jain, an Environmentalist or a Cheondoist, a Scientologist or a Giant Stone Head Worshipper, your religion is false. In this long-awaited book, Joel Grus reveals the details of not only how your religion is false but also how every other religion is false.”

Well, I am sympathetic to that project.

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…At least that is what some people are thinking now that the pop superstar has passed away:

Image via Wikipedia

World’s Leading Internet Evangelist Claims Michael Jackson is in Hell
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, June 29 /Christian Newswire/ — Pastor Bill Keller, founder of LivePrayer.com, submits the following and is available for comment:

In all of the intense media coverage after the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson, the one thing that has driven me crazy has been hearing over and over, often by high profile Christians, that Michael is now at peace in Heaven. Really? I hear this same thing whenever a famous person dies, regardless what they believed during their life, as well as from people when a family member or close friend dies, again, regardless what they believed during their life.

If this is true, than what is the use of the Gospel? If this is true, why should anyone waste their time and effort telling people about Jesus? If this is true, than the death of Jesus on the cross was a meaningless exercise, his resurrection didn’t need to occur, and people can believe whatever they want during this life and make it to Heaven. THAT MY FRIEND IS THE UNIVERSALISTIC LIE FROM HELL!!!

The fact is God made only ONE plan of salvation. There is only ONE way to everlasting life and that is faith in Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ of the Bible. There are NOT many roads that lead to God, only one, the Jesus road!!! You can’t believe whatever you want and die and end up in Heaven. That is a lie from satan that is leading millions of souls to the flames of hell for all eternity. WHAT YOU BELIEVE DOES MATTER!!!

It is arguable that Michael Jackson was the most recognized person on the planet. Despite his vast fame and material possessions, Michael was bankrupt in the things that really matter in life, joy, peace, contentment, HOPE! Those things only comes through having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and living according to God’s Word.

After his child molestation trial concluded, on June 17, 2005 I wrote these words, “Even though he has been acquitted of the charges brought against him, the moment he dies he will stand before The Judge, God Himself. At that moment, if he dies without Christ he will be standing all alone. There will be no high priced defense attorney, no family, no fans, only God who will judge him for his sins and cast him into everlasting darkness. At that moment, if he has accepted Christ as his Savior by faith, he won’t be standing alone. Next to him will be the ultimate defense attorney, JESUS CHRIST, who will tell The Judge that his sins have been paid for and Michael Jackson will be ushered into God’s presence for all eternity.”

According to Christianity, it is not who you are or what you do that matters in the end. Rather, the most important thing in God’s invisible eyes is whether or not you held a certain right belief – the belief that a person named Jesus was magically resurrected in ancient Palestine in front of no witnesses nearly 2,000 years ago. All else deserve terrible punishment for all of eternity. God is so merciful that He will forgive your sins so long as you believe that His son’s death is sufficient punishment for whatever it is that you did and Jesus didn’t.

This is, quite simply, an immoral doctrine that is derived from the long standing Jewish tradition of the scapegoat (literally the sacrificial lamb) and the idea that the shedding of innocent blood somehow washes away the wrongdoings of the community that takes a part in the ceremony. In other words, it is just a silly and disgusting way to imaginatively sidestep taking any real personal responsibility. I don’t know what kind of person Michael Jackson really was behind the scenes. According to Christianity he could have been the best person to ever live and that wouldn’t matter if he wasn’t willing to suspend his intellect for a book of Iron age literature.

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