gregmelia

If one thing’s bound to wind me up, it’s people of any political stripe trying to claim Jesus for their cause. I know plenty of leftists – it’s an occupational hazard of the eternal student – and I’m sick to the back teeth of the argument that goes, “We’re nice to people, the right wingers [...]

There are a lot of arguments about the historicity of the bible, particularly the earlier parts of the Old Testament. Apart from the young earth creationists (whose views I don’t hold very highly), many Christians believe that the Old Testament switches from myth to history at Genesis 12 when God calls Abram, and starts his [...]

1) I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 1 Timothy 2:12 In this letter to another church leader, the big question (apart from “Why is this more hated than the previous verses about genocide?”) is whether Paul (yes, this is one of Paul’s [...]

3) Do not allow a sorceress to live (Exodus 22:18) I have a confession here: On the Ship of Fools poll, I voted for this verse. Sometimes, a well-meaning bible verse can be taken out of context and abused until it leaves a stain on the bible itself, and this is certainly one of them. [...]

A while ago, I blogged that irreverent Christian website Ship of Fools was searching for people’s least favourite, most despised verse of the bible. Now, as reported by the Telegraph, they’ve done it. Here’s the list from Ship of Fools themselves, or you can hang around and read it right here. In reverse order, here [...]

On the anniversary of man’s supposed landing on the moon, here’s why it didn’t happen. If anyone can spot the allusions to biblical criticism methods, well done! if you can’t, you’ll probably find it a bit boring. Sorry about that. There are no original copies left of the recordings from the Apollo 11 landing. How [...]

Everyone who’s read the Bible has a favourite verse, but what’s your least favourite? Which bits get you grinding your teeth in annoyance at the big bigot up there, or weeping with frustration at yet another long genealogy? Ship of Fools have decided to find out, andare conducting a public poll with their usual flair. [...]

I have a friend, who likes to say that “personal spiritual experience is what matters”. The important part of religion isn’t what we read in texts like the bible, or what is passed down to us, but our own, personal experience of God. And what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong is that all too often, [...]

I recently found this amusing (for me) piece of text. It’s written by Philo of Alexandria, and it’s about the creation story in Genesis 1, at the start of the Bible. He [the author of Genesis] says that in six days the world was created, not that its Maker required a length of time for [...]