Did Jesus criticize the Jewish authorities? A bit. One story really stands out, and that’s the incident in the Temple.
In this video, I look at the incident at the Temple, and what it really meant. But I also look at the larger picture, and that’s interfaith debates.
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In the 20th century, we see a decline in religion. It was more pronounced in Europe, but even the United States felt the effect. But for some reason, while Europe didn’t rebound, the United States found a golden age of religion.
In this video, I explore the reasons for both the decline and the rise, and what made Europe different from the United States.
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There is this myth that before Europeans showed up, Indigenous peoples in the Americas were at peace with everyone, and violence didn’t really exist. That instead, Europeans introduced things like sexual assault.
But the history of various tribes tells us something else. In this short video, we look at some of those cases, which are rather fascinating.
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The Old Testament is filled with warfare. It should be expected since Israel was in a strategic position. So to pick some terrible actions within war should be easy when it comes to the Old Testament. Yet Dan Barker picks the Tribe of Dan conquering a city. No massacre, no gory details, just a simply conquering.
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A second video on the topic of scalping, because well, it’s a popular question. Here we dive a bit more into the history.
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In the Book of Hosea, we get some disturbing images. Israel was under attack, and would soon become a conquered people. Hosea was one of the prophets that were trying to get the people to understand what was happening.
But the book of Hosea was written long after the events it speaks of, and the intention was to try to understand what had happened. And part of what happened was terrible. Hosea doesn’t leave out those gory details.
The thing though is that the perpetrators of those actions wasn’t God, but the Assyrians.
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In the near distant past, American Indians found it to be illegal to practice their religious beliefs. This seems incredible given that our First Amendment gives us the right to free worship, but what exactly that meant has long been debated.
In this short video, I go over the history of the right to worship freely, and how American Indian’s history has impacted this.
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A two question type of video. First, how did Indigenous peoples feel about non-hetero individuals? Well, it was complicated, much like it is today.
What about nomadic tribes? Well that is much easier. Yes, and I look at some of those tribes.
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Did Europeans bring the practice of scalping to the Americas? No, but the did help spread it a bit. But long before any European set foot on this continent, scalping was practiced quite widely.
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Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation has compiled a list of his top 10 worse verses of the Old Testament. There’s just one problem, he utterly butchers the job.
In this first video, I look at the number 10 verse, which deals with the story of Job. Job is a complicated book, and one that both atheists and theists often get wrong. Barker isn’t an exception here. Instead of looking at what Job is saying, the argument that he’s making, he takes a verse out of context.
Ironically, what Barker is pointing out as a flaw about how God is portrayed is the same thing that Job was doing.
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