Hey Goldies and Plats, Now's your chance!  I'll be recording the December Gold Q&A on December 11, schedule gods willing, to be published later that week.  God a burning, a smoldering, or a cool ?  Ask away!  Anything related to the blog.   I'll do my best to answer.  , Send your questions to [email protected], and Diane will compile and send me the list. DEADLINE: Get your question in by Saturday (12/09/2023) midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). Every question I get is interesting, but remember that shorter and to-the-pointer questions are more likely to be chosen.  Zingers are welcome!

Dear Goldies and Plats, It's time for the November Gold Q&A, where I answer your questions--or at least as try to. Send your questions to [email protected], and Diane will compile and send me the list. Get your question in by Saturday (11/11/) midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone).  (Sorry 'bout the late notice) The questions are always interesting, but remember that shorter, more general-interest questions are more likely to be answered.   Lookin' forward to it!

I will be recording my Gold Q&A tomorrow, October 30, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time.  Wanna come?  I'll be doing it on Zoom so any gold or platinum member who wants to listen in is welcome.  I've gotten a lot of unusually intriguing questions this time, and will not be able to answer all of them, but will pick a bunch and will be happy to have you listen in. I won't be able to answer live questions, but I will get on five minutes early to say hey to those who want to come.   Here's the link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84586175851?pwd=h9zaZs1tYF3zvFhJh64GOTy9FafBh7.1 Hope to see you there!    

Gold & Platinum members: lend me your...questions! It's time for the October Gold Q&A, where I answer your questions--or at least as many as I can get to in an hour! Send your questions to [email protected], and Diane will compile and send me the list. Get your question in by Friday (10/27) midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). The questions are always interesting, but remember that shorter, more general-interest questions are more likely to be answered.

Here is an intriguing look at the life and death of Jesus from a Muslim point of view.  Many of you will not grant the first of these four puzzles, but the others you may not find problematic.  But look at it from a Muslim point of view instead of yours.  How can these puzzles be resolved?  Platinum member Omar Robb attacks these issues in this post.   ****************************** Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com   This is a brief summary of an article with the same name, and I will provide the link for the original article at the end. There are 4 puzzles related to Jesus that are really interesting: Jesus didn’t die on the cross (as per the Quran). So, was Jesus nailed to the cross but didn't die there, or was he not on the cross at all? Jesus missionary lasted for about 3 years, and we can conclude that he finished his mission. So, what was this mission? Why Jesus ascended to heaven and why is he returning back? Why not just die [...]

Here is the Gold Q&A for the month, a perk for Gold members only!   I hope you enjoy it.   ******************************

Whoa, is it time for another Gold Q&A already? Yep, it sure is! Send your questions to [email protected], and Diane will compile and send me the list. Short deadline this month--get your question in by Friday (9/8) midnight (whenever midnight is in your time zone). The questions are always interesting, but remember that shorter, more general-interest questions are more likely to be answered.

       The Bible has numerous passages that would be shocking to many readers if they read them without pious assumptions.  Of none is that more true than the Song of Songs (sometimes called the Song of Solomon).   And so I welcome this guest post by Platinum members Dan Kohanski, who takes on this erotic work and tries to say it as it is!         Remember: you too can publish a post for other Platinum members.  Why not give it a shot?  Just send something along to me, and I'm happy to look it over for you. ****************************** (This essay was inspired by Bart’s recent post, “What is (Sexually) Unnatural,” and based on research I did for my recent book, A God of Our Invention: How Religion Shaped the Western World (Apocryphile Press, 2023), specifically the chapter on sex: “God Between the Sheets.”) The Hebrew Scripture is the work of many hands: scribes, story-tellers, mythmakers and lawmakers, prophets and poets. Its parts were composed over several hundred years, and edited for [...]

Dear Goldies, It's time for another Gold Q&A.  You ask the questions, I answer them.  My plan is to record the event this coming weekend; if I'm able to do it at a decent time (other things are hanging fire), I'll announce it a bit in advance so people can come and listen in if they want. For me to do that, I NEED QUESTIONS!  Got any?  Anything related to the blog is AOK.  Remember that long and involved questions are far less likely to be chosen than relatively succinct to-the-point ones (if something in the question needs explaining, I'll explain it). DO NOT ask a question in a comment to this post (well, don't ask if you want me to answer it; if you don't want an answer, ask away!).  INSTEAD, submit your question to [email protected] DEADLINE for your question submission: this Friday, August 18, midnight your time. I'm looking forward to it, as always!    

Another Platinum Post from Omar Robb--as always, intriguing! ****************************** Omar Abur-Robb omr-mhmd.yolasite.com I did discuss this subject in some comments here in the blog, but I prefer to put it in a formal post. We are going here to argue that the non-metaphysical data related to the exodus can be fit with the history of Egypt between Ramesses-the-Third (III, died 1155BC) and Ramesses-the-Sixth (VI, died 1136BC). Also, we will argue that Israel/Yisrael is unlikely to be the name mentioned in the Stele of Merneptah. 1# We will discuss this subject from a scientific historical perspective in which we will exclude all metaphysical data. So, if we looked at the Quran and the Old Testament (OT) and just extracted the non-metaphysical data (i.e. the viable data that doesn’t contradict with science and normality) then the summary of this data can be: The Israelite were a foreign tribe in Egypt, and they were oppressed there, but managed (gradually or swiftly) to immigrate to Arabia under the leadership of a man whose name was Moses. Now ... Quran [...]

Serene has been an active member of the Platinum Corp, and here has written her first Guest Post; it's informative and, I bet, controversial!   Let Serene and the rest of us know what you think (and why)!   ****************************** Hi fellow Platies! Today, I present the case for Jesus as the son of a handmaiden and an Abrahamic divine king.     https://www.britannica.com/topic/sacred-kingship/The-divine-or-semidivine-king This would be under the right codified in the Babylonian Talmud that gives foreign officials access to engaged Jewish virgins: https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.3b.1?lang=bi&with=all "Rabba said: The baraita is referring to a period where the government said that a virgin who is married on Wednesday will submit to intercourse with the prefect [hegmon] first." And also in accordance with an Arab tradition attested to in the 7th C, and likely existing earlier, of royalty freeing a handmaid after first birth to marry.   The Why To reboot Jewish lineage. Lineage Nabataean-Edomite King Herod the Great had eliminated all of his lineage-Jewish children heirs by 4 BCE. Civil unrest ensued because as the saying goes, “representation matters”. [...]

How different is John from the Synoptics?  You may you think you know the answer, but this thoughtful post by platinum blog member Ryan Fleming should surely make you think.  And it all leads to a rather startling question at the end.  So what do you think?   ****************************** The partial narrative in the Gospel of John has a few important differences compared to the three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The Synoptic Gospels are not identical, but in general they have reasonable agreement regarding the chronology of events in Jesus’ ministries. If one carefully tracks the chronology in the first three gospels, and then attempts to compare them with the Gospel of John, one quickly notices the differences. However, there are several other important differences worth noting. With each difference, a list of possible explanations follow: As discussed above, a different chronology – a timeline of too many events to list here. A long period of time from the writing of the other three (several decades?) with the word-of-mouth sequence of stories naturally [...]

I'm pleased to post this discussion of the miracles attributed to the emperor Vespasian, by Platinum blog member Ryan Fleming.  These miracles are not widely known outside the realm of antiquity nerds, and rarely are they much analyzed even there.   But they are significant and interesting, and here Ryan provides an intriguing assessment of them.  Enjoy!   **************************** Roman historians Tacitus (56 CE to 120 CE) in The Histories, Book IV, Section 81, and Suetonius (69 CE to 122 CE) in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars wrote of miracles Vespasian performed in the temple of Serapis in Alexandria Egypt. In one case he healed a blind man by anointing his eyes with his spit, and in another he healed a paralyzed man (withered hand or leg) by touching the hand or leg. It is tempting practice to compare these miracles with nearly identical acts attributed to Jesus in the Canonical Gospels and debate which came first, the Jesus stories or Vespasian stories: Curing blindness with spit: Mark 8:23-25, John 9:6-7 Curing blindness: Matthew 9:29-30, [...]

Hello, Gold & Platinum friends! Here's a video of me recording the June Gold Q&A in ancient Rome--or, maybe...?  

Dear Goldies & Plats, Our monthly Gold Q&A is coming upon us.  DEADLINE for your question(s):  Friday, June 23, midnight your time.  Interested in anything I can deal with?  Now's your chance: Ask away! I'm more likely to answer questions that are relatively short and to the point than those that go on for a long paragraph.  So be concise. I'll answer as the spirit leads. To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] My plan is to record the session sometime over the few days after that.  I may send out a note indicating when that'll be a day or so ahead of time in case any of you want to listen in live. So, let me hear what you're curious about and I'll do my best to respond! BDE

Folks, our May Gold Q&A ended up in two parts. Make sure you scroll down to see Part 2:  

Dear Goldies, Our monthly Gold Q&A is coming upon us.  DEADLINE for your question(s):  this coming Friday, May 19, midnight your time.    Interested in anything I can deal with?   Now's your chance: Ask away! I'm more likely to answer questions that are relatively short and to the point than those that go on for a long paragraph.  So be concise. I'll answer as the spirit leads. To enter your question on to the list: send it to Diane at [email protected] My plan is to record the session sometime over the few days after that.  I will probably send out a note indicating when that'll be a day or so ahead of time in case any of you want to listen in live. So, let me hear what you're curious about and I'll do my best to respond! BDE