What does history say about the accuracy of Bible stories? With Dr. Joshua Bowen

Dr. Joshua Bowen (@DJHammurabi1) is an Assyriology scholar and author of “The Atheist Guide to the Old Testament". Josh describes his journey from fundamentalist evangelical Christianity to atheism, and what motivated him to write two volumes (so far!) of the Atheist Guide. He and Leslie discuss the Old Testament book of Exodus, and its correspondence to what we know of the time from the fields of history and archaeology. You can learn much more about Josh’s work on his KZbin channel, Digital Hammurabi.
Podcast for Inquiry is brought to you by the Centre for Inquiry Canada. Hosted by Leslie Rosenblood. Produced by Lee Shields, Zack Dumont, and Martin Zielinski. Graphic design by Nikolay Nikitushkin. Music by Anthony Lazaro. Send your thoughts and feedback to [e-mail].

[@eyalguz6303]

Gotta love Dr. Josh's enthusiasm when he is in his element.

[@dancahill9585]

Former Fundamentalists make the best atheists :) Watching Josh Bowen or Bart Ehrman or other scholars talk about the historical Bible it is fantastically educational.

[@cblazgoogle3844]

Totally 👍

[@DigitalHammurabi]

Such a fun interview!!

[@ttown55]

In my 2 year decon journey, this has to be the most important video I’ve seen. Both of you, well done. And Dr. Bowen, you’ve been on my “unbiased info” list for quite awhile.

[@lengnauer78]

Dr. Bowen, your 'bottom line' is beautiful. Thank you for being a voice for reason!

[@PMcDMind23]

I’m so happy a search on Dr Josh led me to the Centre for Inquiry Canada.

[@lostfan5054]

Love Digital Hammurabi

[@helenr4300]

Josh - I love you and Megan's content, such deep scholarship and insight but with grace. Thank you for sharing your story here. As a progressive Christian ready to embrace the Bible as containing ancient myths, national origin stories etc along side other genres. I can only face the Old Testament by seeing it not as god speaking to his people but of people creating stories of their origin and wrestling with how they see God through that. I am finding deeper thoughts when rather than read creation or flood as literal, we begin to ask why a people chose to create that story, when was it written down (eg probably formalised in the exile) and what that says about the people and their thinking.

[@helenr4300]

looked up volume 1 and 2 - best combined price was Amazon but I try to buy other than them - do you have an recommendations to purchase from (I am in UK)

[@Justin_Beaver564]

You mean liberal Christian? That's not what Progressive technically means.

[@1957rayn]

This program liberates souls, PERIOD!!!

[@MrCyclist]

This was great. Let's have more from CFI Canada

[@danbreeden8738]

Josh is an excellent scholar

[@CRoadwarrior]

No, he's not. He's very biased and full of logical fallacies in his argumentation.

[@leo--4341]

@@CRoadwarriorwhere?

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@leo--4341 Wherever he disagrees with CR, obviously.

[@dereknoto6555]

@@CRoadwarrior I love how petty you are CR. Hilarious. Showing up in irrelevant comment sections to talk shit because you're big mad that he's better at this whole "hermeneutics and exegesis" thing than you.

[@CRoadwarrior]

@@dereknoto6555 Petty? No more petty than some Biblically illiterate person making comments about a subject that he knows little about. And no, he's not "better" at hermeneutics and exegesis than I am. I seriously doubt that.

[@robind.phillips2129]

😁I have Vol 1 and 2! Waiting for Vol 3. Anyway, thanks for sharing.

[@danbreeden8738]

He is one to take seriously on what the Bible actually says and means

[@ThermaL-ty7bw]

does it really matter ? when people just make up their own little facts in life ? even if we had some Link kind off thing in our heads where we could ''think the internet'' , even Then people would be still as dumb and probably even more ... everything on the internet has a counterpart of even more then one , to the knowledge that you seek ... every time i want to know something and try and look it up , even in the headlines you find 2-3(-4) contradictory explanations ... or just nothing what so ever ... we need something NEW , just Something that can help us progress beyond this almost 2000 year HALT on humanity ... that jesus fellow , should have kept his damn mouth shut , if he existed at all

[@KaiHenningsen]

Josh on Josh and the conquest.

[@donnaritch9704]

fabulous episode...well done

[@danbreeden8738]

Good podcast

[@Xavierschanclas]

I was listening this while driving and passed some evangelicals on the corner yelling with a megaphone how women go to hell for abortions and I yelled back “YOUR GOD’S NOT REAL!!!”

[@Sportliveonline]

What is God ~~ Theophoric names in the old testament can you explain

[@jonmeador8637]

Everyone needs to read Albert Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus.

[@HankC9174]

all peoples cultures religions and nations have myths and legends except christianity apparently

[@Tjordful]

I wish this guy would speak faster I double the speed and can still understand him.

[@curtunderwood8039]

he is one of the best at dismantling the Bible

[@BPTacticalSovereignty]

He obviously has a strong marriage, he should give marriage advice!

[@zach2980]

Josh, what’s ur favorite sinning thing to do? ;)

[@sciologist]

The original Neolithic Pictographic meaning of Moses’ God as; “YHVH ALHYM (Elohim)"; read the "Bible Codec/ yhvh meaning" its on the web

[@wordscapes5690]

As a member of the queer community, now very old and very near the end, I should very much like to tell all ex and apologetic evangelicals who put us all through such utter hell (and still do) to take their regrets and apologies and insert them in the same area from which proceeded their many, many bigotries. Thank you. 😘

[@shinobi-no-bueno]

What does "the queer community" mean?

[@wordscapes5690]

@@shinobi-no-bueno Move along.

[@richardh8082]

@@shinobi-no-bueno not the point. Do your own research.

[@RichWoods23]

1:00:30 "When I say the thirteenth century then what that means is 1299 to 1200 ... it takes a little while in school to get your head wrapped around it" I had to chuckle, because Josh has got this wrong too. The first century BCE runs from the year 100 BCE to 1 BCE, just as the first century CE runs from 1 CE to 100 CE; there was no year zero. The 13th century BCE is therefore 1300 BCE to 1201 BCE. (Yes, I was the sad git who didn't celebrate the new millennium until the night of 31st December 2000.)

[@krumplethemal8831]

Accuracy~ History: 248 Bible: 0

[@User1245uflkju]

Remember- he is an atheist as as such his views/ assumptions lean that way. You will see the difference when he is in conversation with apologists- much different. But to his credit, not duplicitous ( like Dr Erhman)

[@raydunn8262]

Thank you. 1. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Followers who leave Evangelism and Mormonism seem to go all the way. I still haven't found any YTers' channels that zero in on leaving mainframe Christian denominations. 2. So we need a new name for the plants called Wandering Jews.😂

[@CRoadwarrior]

The biggest problem with the nonsense coming from Bowen is that he simply presents a one-sided view on the Bible, and seems to present the idea that nothing in the Bible is historically accurate. Nothing could be further from the truth. He pretends that "consensus scholarship" is the best way to arrive at the truth, when we know from history that "consensus" can be a logical fallacy, known as the consensus gentium fallacy. The consensus can indeed be wrong, and thus the fallacy revealed. So it is extremely dishonest and disingenuous to act as if the Bible has no historical truth in it, and that "consensus" alone among scholars determines actual truth. So you can blindly accept everything Bowen says as if it's all sound and correct, or you can check behind him and see where the fallacies in his ideas are.

[@Justin_Beaver564]

We all have biases. There's absolutely no way to know how historically accurate that the Bible is or isn't.

[@CRoadwarrior]

@@Justin_Beaver564 Nonsense. Of course there is a way to know how historically accurate the Bible is. It's called honest research.

[@Justin_Beaver564]

@@CRoadwarrior The Bible was a way to preserve Jewish identity. Every tribe had it's own national myth and patron deity. These were ways to unify a tribe and create cohesion. The worship of Yahweh was a way to tell other tribes that you were Jewish.

[@CRoadwarrior]

@@Justin_Beaver564 And who told you this? None of this has anything to do with determining the historicity of the Bible.

[@Justin_Beaver564]

@@CRoadwarrior In Japan the national myth is a goddess named Amaterasu who gave birth to the first Emperor of who the current monarch is currently decended. This was the official government narrative until they were forced to recend it in the new constitution forced onto them by the US after World War 2. Israel's national narrative was also extrememly effective and not only were they able to maintain an identity but also re-build a modern nation based on that ancient identity. That doesn't mean the Bible should be taken literally but just the astounding effectivness that stories can have on shaping identity is impressive to say the least.

[@CristiWilson-py9iv]

⚛️

[@ryanmerlington2993]

I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts … the deconstruction crew strikes again .. all this needs now is a laugh track

[@KARMICHAEL11]

Starting off with claiming that an internal critique and argument between believers (within orthodoxy) are currently having, is evidence that one should doubt the core validity of biblical truth is a hilarious overstep. The only thing apparent to me by 9 minutes in, is that Dr. Bowen is conveniently ignoring the findings of modern biblical archaeology by Joel Kramer, building on the work of Garstang, Kitchen, and others. How disappointing, hoping I don't have to go an hour without hearing Leslie bring up these questions like a good interviewer (and not a fanboy), but we'll see...

[@KARMICHAEL11]

56:00 - demonstrably false, my archaeology prof has on-site demonstration of this, as well as forthcoming scholarly reports. The problem now is; if y'all are this selective with your "evidence", stipulating it as "credible", then how are you trustworthy on your other claims? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWOadKCpiKyra7s

[@IIrandhandleII]

The Bible is highly accurate about samsons magical hair and noahs ark.

[@sciologist]

Are there gods that descend from the sky and get earth girls pregnant producing demigods? Of course not, that is mythology. Do people ascend to the sky to live with the gods? Of course not, that is also mythology. The bible begins and ends with mythology, which implies everything within the covers is mythology. read the "Bible Codec/ yhvh meaning" its on the web.

[@Betruthfulgodiswatching]

Dr. Josh sound confused. He never seems to point out exactly what is wrong with text. Talks a lot but never answers the question clearly.

[@CristiWilson-py9iv]

I invite u to take the blinders off. Raise the veil.

[@christianulrichjohansen8498]

This is just sad to watch.