Responding to claims about the Bible’s reliability

[B.S._Lewis]

I'm just wondering why Dennis Leary started randomly preaching during a stand-up routine?

[maskedsaiyan]

I’m grateful that I’ve encountered Biblical scholarship on YouTube. It has helped me deconstruct all of the dogmas that was taught to me . I personally believe that Christians who proclaim openly their truth over others are unaware that what was taught to them is either false or imposed interpretations on the Biblical texts. Also, confidence does not equal accuracy.

[tussk.]

This is the 'Why are there still monkeys?' guy. You can safely ignore everything he says.

[TheAntiburglar]

I honestly thought that was dude was a stand-up comedian at first >.>

[lnsflare]

"There's never been a book like that in history!"

*<gestures towards American comic book compilations, which are tens/hundreds of "books" long and are written by many authors>*

[goodknightcarolina]

6:46 “I’m gonna die and come back to life, nobody’s ever done that” but did the Bible say Lazarus died and came back to life?

[thinkingoutloud]

Hey Dan! Im wondering if you can do a video on the cognitive science of religion? The whys behind religious belief? It'd be interesting to hear and to contextualize this for us lay- people. Thanks so much!

[troybridgeman]

Brad Stein is a mediocre comedian who is cashing in on the evangelical right nationalist movement like a number of other celebrities who think being famous automatically makes them experts on complex social issues . One of his funniest lines is that he is open minded and accepting of everyone because he is a conservative. You gotta admit that is hilarious

[Agryphos]

On authorship, it's not even just accepting the Bible's words as inerrant, bit the traditional attributions that have sprung up around it but which the text makes no direct claim

[alanb]

Digging one-handed is hard. No wonder they're frustrated.

[bristolrovers]

I think it was Bart Erhman that suggested when looking at The Bible, start with the four gospels.

Take 4 sheets of paper, one for each gospel, and write down a list of all the significant details and events for the death/resurection and birth of Jesus and then compare them.

Its a good exercise

[dirtydish]

It's your final point that strikes me. Sacrifices made for one's values and/or beliefs is not out of the ordinary and it doesn't take much effort to research and confirm this. Yet, many Christians will go on as thought it is completely novel and unique to Christianity. It is this half-hearted/lazy/possibly deceptive mindset being promoted by religious leadership that played a huge role in my personal move away form religion.

[ballasog]

I'm aware of the difficulties with the Bethlehem story. But consider this. At its foundation, what is the story about? It is a story about a husband dragging his wife on a trip without having the sense to make a hotel reservation. So how can that story *not* be true?

[theoutspokenhumanist]

With so many preachers and apologists repeating the same lies and nonsense over and over, is it any wonder that Christians believe their words to be true?
Add in the fact that the majority of Christians have a tenuous grasp of the bible, at best, many have never read it all and almost none are aware of the work of biblical scholars and what we see is a prime example of faith. Choosing to believe what cannot be known, simply because they want it to be true. It is self-deception, sometimes through genuine ignorance of the facts but often through wilfull blindness.

[Lilitha]

It is interesting that they bring up prophecies, because what happened with the prophecy that Jesus would return before his disciples died?

[jamesmcgarity]

I am and will be forever grateful to Dan for making these videos. Hands down, my knowledge of the Bible has increased easily (!) 10-fold since I first encountered his videos about 8 to 10 months ago!

[JopJio]

The Nt even cites apokrypha by name, e.g. the book of Enoch, in the book of Jude. And there are other examples

[davidholman]

A calm voice of reasoning is so reassuring, and enlightening.

[andrewwalker]

Hi. Im wondering how you reconcile your beliefs in the Mormon church whilst having the knowledge you have gained in your qualifications and holding the views you now hold?

[lisaboban]

So, YouTube now allows creators to lift an entire video, put a little comment at the beginning like, "Brian is dropping truth bombs here" and post this as his own creation?
Dan at least stitches commentary and sources into a video. What did this "creator" add to Brian's sermon?