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  • Ian Mills: New Testament Review
    2020/11/02

    My guest this week is Ian Mills, a PhD candidate in New Testament studies at Duke University. His dissertation is “Rewriting the Gospel: Second Century Evangelists and the Act of Gospel Writing.” His key advisor is Mark Goodacre and Bart Ehrman is on his dissertation committee.

    Ian is a professing Christian who confesses the resurrection of Jesus. I ask Ian to provide intellectual cover for believers. His example is one of honesty and intellectual integrity while maintaining faith. What makes him interesting is his commitment to methodological naturalism as it applies to studying the first and second century gospel writings. He explains why even as a believer this is not threatening to his faith.

    Ian is the co-host of the New Testament Review Podcast. He and his co-host Laura Robinson rose to internet fame (at least in secular circles) after they did an episode giving an unflattering review of Lee Strobel’s “A Case For Christ.” Ian’s approach is a breath of fresh air particularly when compared to popular apologetics.

    What [popular apologists] do is bad for you. And it is because it is a complete inversion of what people of integrity and what good science inquiry should be.
    Instead of starting with questions and data and going and looking for explanations that satisfy your questions, they start with a set of conclusions and go mining the evidence looking for that.

    I personally learned a lot from Ian in this conversation. He is a wealth of information and expertise on the early Church and the process of gospel writing and canonization. As I say in the interview, I felt transported back to the best of Bible college. I suspect we will be hearing from Ian for years to come.

    Links

    New Testament Review Podcast
    https://soundcloud.com/user-829560134

    YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR8SeIgZf4x0-wUMWVvWchw

    Academia
    https://duke.academia.edu/IanMills

    Twitter
    https://twitter.com/IanNelsonMills

    Interact

    I mention Ted Chiang’s Hell is the Absence of God
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/06/04/review-hell-is-the-absence-of-god/

    Critique of Apologetics
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/critique-of-apologetics/

    Full show notes
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2020/11/01/ian-mills-new-testament-review/

    Attribution

    "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats 

    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

    --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gracefulatheist/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gracefulatheist/support
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    1 時間 24 分
  • Sam: When Belief Dies
    2020/03/19
    My guest this week is Sam, the blogger behind When Belief Dies. Sam is also starting an upcoming podcast of the same name. Which will include his friend Dave who remains a believer with questions. They will tackle the difficult questions about Christianity with mutual respect and curiosity. Sam was a very dedicated to Christ and to his church. He was in the process of becoming an elder when depression and doubt led to deconversion. Sam tried to appease his doubt with apologetics to no avail. Now Sam uses his insights post-deconversion to help others who are doubting and in the process of deconverting. Links Blog
    https://whenbeliefdies.com/ Twitter
    https://twitter.com/WhenBeliefDies Facebook
    https://www.facebook.com/whenbeliefdiesblog/ Interact My guest appearance on the Skeptics and Seekers podcast
    https://skepticsandseekers.squarespace.com/blog/x-tians-part-one-what-christians-who-stay-need-to-know-about-the-christians-who-dontDeconversion
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/Secular Grace
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/secular-grace/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間 12 分
  • Stephen Barry: Deconversion not so Anonymous
    2020/03/04
    This week’s show is a Deconversion (not so) Anonymous episode. My guest this week is Stephen Barry. Stephen was a Seventh Day Adventist who deconverted while attending college studying theology. When he was exposed to other ideas and other people even within his own faith tradition, this small amount of scrutiny led to deconversion. After losing the community of the black church, Stephen has found secular community. Though he notes we have a long way to go to be more inclusive of people of color in the secular community. Stephen is a musician and a music critic. He blogs about this love of music with great insight on Tublr. We discuss explicitly spiritual music and how we interpret it post-deconversion. Stephen’s break down of the H.E.R. song, “Lord is Coming.”
    https://barryorchestra.tumblr.com/post/190207895358/barryorchestra-presents-top-50-of-2019-26 Links Twitter
    https://twitter.com/barryorchestra Facebook
    https://www.facebook.com/barryorchestra Blog
    https://barryorchestra.tumblr.com/ Music
    https://barryorchestra.bandcamp.com/ Interact Deconversion
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Deconversion Anonymous episodes:
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/category/podcast/deconversion-anonymous/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間
  • Jessica Hagy: The Humanist Devotional
    2020/02/20
    My guest this week is Jessica Hagy. Jessica is the artistic and comedic genius behind the blog, Indexed. She has recently written a book titled, The Humanist Devotional. Jessica is an artist, an author, a comedian, and a marketing and social media guru. Get as humble as you can.
    Jessica grew up secular and calls herself a humanist. It is not that she rejected the bible, but rather that there was so much more for her to learn. In the episode she uses the analogy of a library card as granting access to the world’s knowledge. Access that she took advantage of. Small talk can get big fast.
    We walk through her 10 steps on how to be an interesting person and re-imagine them as how to find meaning and purpose as a humanist. Do something!
    Links Blog
    https://thisisindexed.com/ Twitter
    https://twitter.com/jessicahagy Instagram
    https://www.instagram.com/jessica_hagy/ 10 Steps on how to be interesting
    https://inkandescentwomen.com/the-women/author-jessica-hagy/ The Humanist Devotional
    https://www.amazon.com/Humanists-Devotional-Meditations-Worlds-Greatest-ebook/dp/B07YCT8NNY/ How To Be Interesting
    https://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Interesting-Simple-Steps-ebook/dp/B00ANSW8MW/ Interact Secular Grace
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/secular-grace/Deconversion
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/ Why I am a humanist
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/11/18/why-i-am-a-humanist/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間 3 分
  • Sasha Sagan: For Small Creatures Such As We
    2020/02/06
    My guest this week is Sasha Sagan. Sasha has written a beautiful book called For Small Creatures Such As We: Rituals For Finding Meaning In Our Unlikely World. The book title comes from a quote in the book Contact: For small creatures such as we,
    the vastness is bearable only through love.
    Ann Druyan and Carl Sagan from Contact Sasha and the book she has written embodies Secular Grace and carries on the graceful life philosophies of her parents. Sasha has a galaxy spanning perspective on life that only the child of physicist can have. Sasha has an infectious joy about life. Listening to her or reading her work it is hard not to share in this joy. In her book, Sasha argues that we as human beings need ritual in our lives to mark the passage of time, to celebrate the momentous moments in our lives and to mourn the loss of loved ones. We discuss secular grief in the face of the loss of her father, Carl Sagan, when she was 14 years old. Sasha shares the wise parting words he had for her and the ongoing impact he has had on her and the world. Links Website
    https://www.sashasagan.com/ Twitter
    https://twitter.com/SashaSagan Instagram
    https://www.instagram.com/sashasagan/ For Small Creature Such As We
    https://www.amazon.com/Small-Creatures-Such-We-Unlikely-ebook/dp/B07N5JQXFK/ Interact Secular Grace
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/secular-grace/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    58 分
  • Joel Berry: The Petty Prophet
    2020/01/23
    My guest this week is Joel Berry, the podcast host of the Petty Prophet Podcast. Both his blog of the same name and the podcast are from the Christian believer and politically conservative perspectives. Joel is very much a believer. He had listened to the Graceful Atheist Podcast and was curious enough to initiate a conversation. [Due to fundamentalism] I think that I was teetering, when I was 19,
    …, and I was deciding which direction to go with my life, teetering in my faith a little bit, and I joined the military, became a Marine Corps infantry man. Within a year I was in Fallujah.
    [I was] a sheltered kid, [a] home schooled fundamentalist. I am taken out of the [United] States, out of my Christian bubble, and I spent a year in Iraq.
    … I had a little Bible in my flak jacket that I read when I could.
    Joel meets me in an honesty contest in which we both push each other but also take the time to listen to one another. I think it makes for a compelling conversation. What compels me about Christianity? I think the first thing was that, and this is experiential … ,
    I was taken out of a Christian world …
    and I open my Bible and I read the words of Jesus in the Gospel and the words of Jesus really drew me in, there was something about that man that seemed other worldly and amazing to me.
    Joel experienced a deconstruction from a fundamentalist form of Christianity. He left the IFB. He left a fundamentalist Calvinist theology. But he maintains in his words “a childlike faith.” [I got into] aplogetics, the reasons to believe, the reasons for my faith, but all that stuff it’s all arguments, none of it is completely conclusive, and there is still an element of childlike faith involved.
    This is a 20 Questions with a Believer episode. Joel and I take turns asking each other questions and then crucially allowing the other person to answer. Links Joel on Twitter:
    https://twitter.com/JoelWBerry The Petty Prophet Blog:
    https://thepettyprophet.com/ The Petty Prophet Podcast
    https://thepettyprophet.com/homepage/petty-prophet-podcast/ Interact In the final thoughts section I make reference to this tweet: https://twitter.com/GracefulAtheist/status/1218199410682691594 Joel brings up several episodes he has listened to. Here are links to those episodes: Laura Anderson: Adverse Religious Experiences:
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/laura-anderson-religious-abuse-and-religious-trauma/ Matthew Taylor: Confessions of a Young Earth Creationist:
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2019/06/20/matthew-taylor-confessions-of-a-young-earth-creationist/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間 39 分
  • Marie D'Elephant: Everyone's Autonomous
    2020/01/09
    And what else would you want from life except to connect with other people … and to talk about things that matter and ask the big questions?
    My guest this week is Marie D’Elephant the host of the Everyone’s Autonomous podcast. Marie has a powerful and unique voice in the secular community. She is passionate about her own autonomy and the autonomy of others. What is next? Since none of that is real, what is going on and how do I want to live?
    Her new podcast jumps off where Everyone’s Agnostic leaves off. What to do now after a faith transition. The podcast “hosts conversations about reclaiming our autonomy and advocating for the autonomy of others through the lens of recovering from religion.” OK, I’ve been heard, I understood what happened, how do I resolve this, how do I move forward?
    We discuss existential dread, the fear of aging and facing death. Marie talks about her work on Everyone’s Agnostic and taking on managing Dave Warnock‘s Dying Out Loud tour. Mostly we talk about autonomy and how you can discover yours. I love this autonomy and this is the life that I want to live!
    Links Everyone’s Autonomous Podcast:
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everyones-autonomous/id1485253552?mt=2&app=podcast Twitter:
    https://twitter.com/s_autonomous Facebook:
    https://www.facebook.com/everyonesautonomous/ Interact Dave Warnock Episode:
    https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2019/08/08/dave-warnock-dying-out-loud/ Attribution "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats
    http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間 8 分
  • Sarah: Believing Spouse of an Atheist Deconvert
    2019/12/12
    What happens when you are married to a person based on your mutual faith and one of you deconverts? My guest this week is Sarah who is a believer married to a former Christian and now atheist deconvert. Sarah describes herself as “born again.” She is a dedicated Christian who is very active in her church preaching and teaching. Her integrity, honesty, and heart for people come through with shining colors in this interview. After many years of marriage that was predicated at least in part on their shared faith, her husband informed her he had deconverted and was no longer a Christian. He goes on to blogging and podcasting about his atheism while she continues to teach and preach at her church. As you might imagine, this was and is a difficult process of transition for both Sarah and her husband. This decision that you made on your own affects us; it affects both of us. The core of our relationship was centered around church and being Christians. We talk about the complexity of being Unequally Yolked. She describes what it felt like when she learned her husband no longer believed. How do they discuss the Bible together? How do they handle their daughter and the Alpha Course? We explore ways to make a marriage work when one spouse believes and the other does not. This has been a major theme of Secular Grace: that relationships are valuable and worth keeping even when we disagree on faith. And it is our job to love our friends and family through our deconversion process. This is a 20 Questions with a Believer episode (formerly known as A Believer Interviews the Graceful Atheist). Sarah and I take turns asking each other questions and then crucially allowing the other person to answer. Links Recovery From Religion has a resource page with a section entitled: Spouses/ Partners With Mixed Belief Systems (from a secular perspective)https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/religious-resourcesUnequally Yolked (from the Christian perspective)https://thriveglobal.com/stories/what-does-it-mean-to-be-unequally-yoked/ Interact If you are a believer and would like to have a 20 questions honesty contest with me on the podcast, get in contact: gracefulatheist@gmail.com Secular Gracehttps://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/secular-grace/Steps of Deconversion: Telling your family and friendshttps://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/deconversion-how-to/#in-and-out-of-the-closet Attribution: "Waves" track written and produced by Makaih Beats http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Makaih_Beats Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/
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    1 時間 17 分