I was so inspired by the photo of Donald Trump holding the Bible that, further inspired by a Stephen Colbert skit, I have decided to post selections from the King Don version of the Bible. So, here is the word of God, er, Don, er…. The Creation Story:           In the beginning it was fabulous. What God did was incredible. See, it was dark. Really dark. So dark you couldn’t believe it. And God said “Somebody turn on the lights!”… Read more

This is the continuation of the imaginary dialogue between Augustine and Hypatia begun in the last post. Moderator: I fear that the discussion once again is descending into mutual recrimination. To get us back on track, let me get back to a point that was raised earlier. It seems to me that one real strength of orthodox Christianity is the doctrine of the incarnation, which unites spirit and flesh. Orthodoxy banished the extreme dualism of Gnosticism and Manichaeism, an unattractive… Read more

For the edification of my students, and for fun, I have written some dialogues that resurrected figures from the past and allowed them to debate. I set these debates as part of programs on “The Afterlife Broadcasting Company.” I assume that the participants have become aware of intellectual developments since their day. Here I have tried to be as true to Augustine’s views as I could. We know quite a bit about Augustine but much less about Hypatia. Therefore, I… Read more

It has been over a year since I contributed to Secular Outpost. Multiple responsibilities and distractions took me away. I would like to return to SO with a post that is somewhat tangential to our usual discussion topics here, but the issue is so important that I think we need to discuss it whenever we can: I am an old white man. What can I say about racism? Whatever I say, I am sure it will not be enough, since… Read more

WHY ARE FICTIONAL OLD TESTAMENT STORIES MORALLY RELEVANT? There probably was no Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and there probably was no Conquest of Canaan by the Israelites.  These stories are either pure fiction, or they are legends that have only bits and pieces of historical truth in them.  So, if the stories about Joshua leading the Israelites to MERCILESSLY SLAUGHTER every man, woman, and child in the towns of the Promised Land are fiction or legend, why get… Read more

WILLIAM CRAIG ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN Before I examine the question of whether the Old Testament clearly indicates that ALL of the peoples living in the towns of the Promised Land regularly and frequently practiced child sacrifice in the decades prior to the (alleged) Conquest of Canaan by Joshua and the Israelites, I’m going to take a look at what William Lane Craig says about the significance of the issue of the command of Jehovah to… Read more