Some may enjoy this lively Biblical Criticism board, newly revived by Peter Kirby:

[dimbear]

http://earlywritings.com/forum/index.php

Pretty much all there are liberal theologians, and the discussion is free spirited.

[rug]

1. An interesting site.

Peter Kirby is presently an agnostic by way of Catholicism.

http://peterkirby.com/my-story.html

[longship]

2. I like the Bible Geek, Robert Price.

Yes, he's a fairly staunch Republican. But he's an unapologetic atheist and has a love of comic books, old horror and SciFi movies, and HP Lovecraft. He also adopts cheesy accents in his podcast. Jesus is rendered as Willem Defoe (of Last Temptation of Christ), Moses as well as most of the Old Testament as Charlton Heston, recently he has been rendering St. Paul as Paul Lind, etc. On top of that he has a encyclopedic memory for the Bible and citations on Biblical critical analysis. Two PhD's have a tendency of giving one a broad background.

The guy's ultra smart and prolific as hell. He's written many, many books. Too bad about his politics (which only rarely intrudes on the podcast).

Price is one of my guilty pleasures. Google "bible geek" if interested.

[dimbear]

3. Robert M Price is an interesting and complex person. He's present in spirit in two other threads

on the board right now: the one where it's suggested you learn theology even if you don't believe in God (and I bring up the danger of it to your career) and the thread about mythicism, which is called "was Jesus even born?".

I hope he's doing well health-wise.

One of those guys that you just have to be astonished at.

[longship]

6. I likely posted the one in the "Was Jesus born" thread.

But iPhones aren't conducive to searches on DU.

I am a huge fan of Price. And I agree with him that atheists should know the Bible. Of course, Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, and Harris would all agree with that. It was only after reading their books and listening to the Reasonable Doubts podcast, where Price appeared in an interview on Paul. He blew me away. (RD is also an awesome podcast.)

That did it for me. I dusted off the Bibles on my bookshelf along with Asimov's Guide to the Bible (both volumes). I have not read the former, but use them for reference. The King James version's language is so antiquated that it might as well be Chinese to me.

But I learn a lot from RD and the very prolific Price.

And indeed, Robert Price is an extraordinary person. Quite a character. But Christ, he's smart. (so to speak)

[skepticscott]

4. Lots and lots of babble over a minor issue

As usual, "liberal" and "progressive" theologians don't even bother trying to actually prove that Jesus, even if he existed as an actual person, was the "son" of "god". They just hope that no one will notice that they skipped that part, and that someone will keep signing their paycheck for debating the tooth fairy's differing reimbursement for molar or incisors.

[gopiscrap]

5. interesting