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O'Reilly has no credentials for entering this field. Before attempting any non faith based examination of the life of Jesus, one needs to master the evidence, learn what is reliable and what is not. One needs to first read the works of scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, , Bart Ehrman, Burton Mack and Reza Aslan.
It was immediately manifest to me when reading O' Reilly's book that he had not done his homework before starting. He embraces the gospel reports as unchallenged reporting of the facts and his speculations are based on this primary error, making them worth little. If O' Reilly even has an awareness of the work that has been done in this field, he fails to show it in his book.
My conclusion was that this was a book designed to make money for the author, scholarship and accuracy were not major concerns. If bookstores had a section called "Demagogue Literature", that would be where "Killing Jesus" should be shelved.
yep, honest and un bias take you got there. I didn't read the book because I knew it was the same ol' same ol'. Just like your stuff.
1) burton really? ... ex po-ed religous guy philosopher?
2)Reza Aslan: The English teacher?
3) A.N. Wilson: the news paper dude?
4) Bart D. Ehrman No way you pointed to this guy, Just no way.
Again I ask. what did billy boy say that shows he is unqualified? or are you just gona keep spewing nonsense and toy "scholars".
are you trolling?
Just no way a edumacated sofisticated smart guy like you would point to these guys.
O'Reilly has no credentials for entering this field. Before attempting any non faith based examination of the life of Jesus, one needs to master the evidence, learn what is reliable and what is not. One needs to first read the works of scholars such as John Dominic Crossan, A.N. Wilson, Bart Ehrman, Burton Mack and Reza Aslan.
It was immediately manifest to me when reading O' Reilly's book that he had not done his homework before starting. He embraces the gospel reports as unchallenged reporting of the facts and his speculations are based on this primary error, making them worth little. If O' Reilly even has an awareness of the work that has been done in this field, he fails to show it in his book.
My conclusion was that this was a book designed to make money for the author, scholarship and accuracy were not major concerns. If bookstores had a section called "Demagogue Literature", that would be where "Killing Jesus" should be shelved.
Thanks for the summary. I'd have pretty much guessed as much.
I haven't read the book and don't plan to. Being an Atheist, it has no more interest to me than "Killing Spiderman". My son just got "Killing Patton" for me and I am looking forward to reading it.
One of my bible-banging friends loaned me a book "The Case for Christ" and I read it. I was amazed how people take this stuff seriously.
By the way, I think Bill O'Reilly is great! We record his show every night and always watch parts of it, especially Waters' World and Gutfeld & McGurk.
How can a work that is supposed to be historical assert as a simple fact time and time again that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies? O'Reilly accepts the religious apologetics of Craig Evans, Darrell Bock, J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig as genuine historical scholarship.
They are not historical and they are not scholarship.
Virtually every one of the New Testament and Jesus books mentioned in the end notes are the work of evangelical/fundamentalist spin doctors dedicated to defending the proposition that the gospels are entirely accurate, miracles and all.
yep, honest and un bias take you got there. I didn't read the book because I knew it was the same ol' same ol'. Just like your stuff.
1) burton really? ... ex po-ed religous guy philosopher?
2)Reza Aslan: The English teacher?
3) A.N. Wilson: the news paper dude?
4) Bart D. Ehrman No way you pointed to this guy, Just no way.
Again I ask. what did billy boy say that shows he is unqualified? or are you just gona keep spewing nonsense and toy "scholars".
are you trolling?
Just no way a edumacated sofisticated smart guy like you would point to these guys.
You may or may not have noticed that I have been ignoring your posts. The above is an example of why, lots of style and sack dancing, no substance.
I suspect that his talk of tides and sunrise was rather aimed at the whole 'Who made everything then?' argument He knows (surely) about the rotation of the earth and the gravity of the moon. The idea is 'All this existence, order and complexity is inexplicable without a god'. This is not in the same order of absurdity as the designed banana or the freeze -dried eucalyptus leaves. He just expressed himself so badly that he should really have kept his trap shut.
He just expressed himself so badly that he should really have kept his trap shut.
He is actually smarter than that, and like most of his kind, is simply pandering to the people who keep the royalty checks coming in.
Senator Ted Cruz is another one who spouts the most cravenly stupid remarks continually and yet was lauded by his law professors as the most brilliant law student they ever encountered. It is simply a question of whether you believe your own BS or have simply latched onto a particular BS that is profitable and that you have decided to work with on that basis.
It's a mistake to assume that what comes out of any person's mouth is what they actually believe in. The only thing you can say with any confidence about these guy's true beliefs, is that they believe in the money and power and influence that these beliefs brings to them.
I am of the opinion that O'Reilly and Cruz and their ilk not only know their chosen tropes, but also know the perceptual quirks and weaknesses of their opponents. One of those is that those opponents will waste prodigious amounts of energy "reasoning" with them. This "loud and proud" approach is designed in part to incense the opposition.
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Then this book is unlikely to be worth reading except for a laugh.
Tide goes in, tide goes out. You can't explain that.
