“Rational Doubt” Blog – Vacation Bible School

Vacation Bible School is a Christian institution that the Clergy Project’s Rational Doubt blog has emulated with its own uniquely skeptical version.

I’m proud to be included and grateful to Linda LaScola, the editor of the blog, for including my contribution.

It begins with the answer to an implied question about the usefulness of the Bible as a source of morals:

Anyone who thinks that the Bible is about morality does not truly understand what kind of document it is.

The Bible (and here I’m referring to the Hebrew Scriptures) is a collection of many texts with many different agendas. It consists of a very wide range of material, including: the highly mythologized tales of the Torah (Pentateuch) with its multiple sources; tendentious histories about kings and kingdoms; and a broad variety of prophetic exhortations, pietistic poetry, novella-like narratives and wisdom literature.

After that I answer a few other questions about the Bible’s contents and relevance for our time.

You can find the rest at this link!