Bill Zuersher Seeing Through Christianity A Critique of Beliefs and Evidence

The Origins of Christianity -- as explained by the author of "Seeing through Christianity: a Critique of Beliefs and Evidence"

[komuso]

This was very interesting and helpful in seeing the big picture of Christianity's development. Fantastic presentation!

[johnlandes]

Great presentation on how all this came about. The book Seeing through Christianity is excellent also.

[mthoodstyle]

Such a great lecture. I love Bill’s soft spoken style. I was never a Christian so I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have your religious bubble popped with this information. Even as a non-indoctrinated person my mind is blown! The way he uses the OT’s own “fossil record” to unravel the entire narrative of the NT is brilliant. Checkmate. Living in the Information Age is exciting because we can see the potential undoing of the mind virus of religion.

[larryparis]

So, basically, each of the various gods in the Old Testament were totems of different tribes. Those tribes, with their totems, warred against each other, until one murderous, territorial tribe outdid the others. And, as we know, the victors write the stories. The stories did not have to be true - obviously, since they were lardened up with obfuscating propaganda - but the stories functioned to justify the positions of the privileged power-brokers - who were real people - in their positions of the complex.

[vgrof]

Bravo! I like very much the idea of being both an atheist and an agnostic at the same time. That describes me as well.

This is a wonderful testament in the quest for humans getting over religion (5000 years of failure). It's a tough sell, although it shouldn't be. How can we accelerate the progress?

I'm about half way through reading Kugel, "The Great Shift: Encountering God in Biblical Times". Let's say I was 95% certain God does not exist when I started reading Kugel, now I'm 99% certain of it. Kugel, in spite of likely agreeing with virtually everything presented about the OT in this lecture, is still a Jewish believer. What's that about?

Thank you. Carry on, Mr. Zuersher. Please!

[TheGretsch]

Mind blown. 47 years in Christianity and 25 of them in pastoral teachings roles and never heard all the timeline put together so well. Thank you for this.

[BlGGESTBROTHER]

To learn more check out the lecture series "Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) (RLST 145) with Christine Hayes" on the YaleCourses YouTube.

[josephbelisle]

Brilliant. Great video. Great questions at the end. I would wish this video be seen by everyone worldwide.

[Theslavedrivers]

The whole Bible in one talk! - Super-impressed!

[EngelsFermin]

This guy males me think erhman is overrated, i like erhman but always felt his position its a little baised,

[OrichalcumHammer]

40:00 No. I am going to argue Apocalyptic jud-sm arose due to Yahweh foreskin covenant failing to fight off other powerful nations and the jealousy towards Romans and ancient Egyptians. A group of regularly defeated group of tribal people who out of sheer jealousy of spitefulness wanted the world to end.

[jackshadow]

Interesting info. The explanations of Christian thought presented here are quite flawed though (for example, saying that all Christians believe in atonement sacrifice — not true — study Orthodox theology), but that’s understandable in just one lecture. For a Christian perspective on the divine counsel, one can read Michael Heiser’s books or watch his YouTube videos.

[saykhelrachmones]

My Judaism is built on fiction, and that’s ok. Christianity is built on fiction, but it falls apart therefore.

[guthrie_the_wizard]

This is such a tremendous lecture. I’d love to see it presented on a greater known channel such as Holy Koolaid, Genetically Modified Skeptic, or similar.

[recreatingadam]

El means 'on' in Hebrew and Elohim simply means 'God' (Big G). Can you explain 'El Shaddai' because I cannot find it in Genesis. I'm not trying to be argumentative...I am currently trying to leave a Christian Cult and I'm so so struggling. These videos help me but I need to work out what info I can trust... your reply would be very much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[MiCajaDelIdiota]

[Minute 24:00] Not a facetious question, but a sincere one: What kind of evidence--archeological evidence--would 2 mil campers wondering an area would leave behind? Corpses (bones)? Animal bones? Artifacts (material culture items) like tools? Weapons? Coinage? Bowls? Jewelry?

[MiCajaDelIdiota]

[minute 1:17:29] Regarding the question about the Jewish Babylonian exile: the answer that Mr. Zuercher gave is cogent & persuasive. However, the question was not if the story about rounding up only the Jewish elite makes sense, but rather, is there any evidence for it? What evidence there is that only the elite was exiled?
"Historians agree that several deportations took place (each the result of uprisings in Palestine), that not all Jews were forced to leave their homeland, that returning Jews left Babylonia at various times, and that some Jews chose to remain in Babylonia—thus constituting the first of numerous Jewish communities living permanently in the Diaspora." Britannica.
"The exile in Babylon—which directly affected mainly those of the upper class of society—occurred in three waves from 597 to 581 B.C.E. as a result of Judean rebellions against Babylonian rule." New World Ecyclop.

[drlegendre]

El had many sons, Yahweh among them. Each son of El became the tribal deity of a different tribe / nation, with Yahweh assuming his position over the Hebrews. As time passed, Yahweh became conflated with El and the distinction was lost - El simply became the term for God, with Yahweh (YHWH) the holy, unspeakable name of the god of Israel

And yes, El (and later Yahweh) had a consort, Asherah. She was all but completely expunged from the literature, though she still shows up once or twice in the OT.. in particular, read up on the story of the bronze serpent.

[recreatingadam]

'violent' translates as אלים

[chrismiller]

Thanks.This was great. Could you link the slide in print out notes form?