55 episodes
Data Over Dogma Daniel McClellan and Daniel Beecher
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- Society & Culture
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4.8 • 984 Ratings
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This ain't your pastor's Bible podcast. This is a deep interrogation of the book, and we're bringing receipts. Bible scholar Dr. Dan McClellan and atheist podcaster Dan Beecher team up to discover what the Bible actually says, what it decidedly doesn't say (even if everyone thinks it does), and explore the history of the most popular book of all time.
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Can Jesus Forgive Sin?
This week, we're going to point out a blatant contradiction in the Bible, and if you don't like it... you'll just have to forgive us!
In our first segment we'll talk about the epic end(s) of the the reign of king Ahaziah. There are two stories, and boy howdy- they do NOT line up!
Then, we're talking new-testament forgiveness. Does Jesus have the right to forgive sins? The rabbis say no. He says yes. The disabled guy who was lowered into Jesus' house through a hole in the roof would just like to make it out of there in one piece. Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
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Black Hole Sun
You ever wonder if nefarious scientists are feverishly working to open a portal to allow demons out to begin the apocalypse? Well don't. That's silly. Nevertheless, some people ARE worried about that. And so many other silly things!
This week, we look at the hysteria brought on by the recent total solar eclipse here in the U.S. and what Biblical implications (if any) it might have had.
Also, we talk about the Jerusalem council in the book of Acts, and the impact it had on the formation of early Christianity. As the early followers of Jesus sorted out what it means to allow gentiles into the fold, they had some decisions to make about what rules all the new kids had to follow. They had no idea how big an impact they were going to have! To all the Christians who love bacon- they say "you're welcome."
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
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https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
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The Holy Ghost (and Bears!)
This week, it's a deep dive into the Biblical ideas of spirits, souls, trinitarian thought, evolutionary agency detection, demons... and that's just the first segment! What is a spirit or a soul, anyway? Where did that idea come from? And after we answer ALL those questions, who or what is the Holy Spirit?
And then, you know, we talk about Elisha and the bears murdering a bunch of kids.
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Follow us on the various social media places:
https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma
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What is a Woman... Biblically?
It's a big question these days. A deeply personal issue for many, a wedge issue for politicians (and that doofus Matt Walsh), and a point of A LOT of misinformation when it comes to the position of the Bible. Well, we're not qualified to talk about the personal or the political much, but on this week's show, we'll definitely be able to dive head-first into what the Bible has to say about the question of "what is a woman"?
But before we get to that, we're diving into a murder mystery! An actual Biblical whodunnit. We all remember the story of when David killed Goliath, right? Well, what if that's not right? What if the giant Philistine was killed by someone else entirely, and David is just taking the credit? It's an episode of Law and Order: Bible Unit, and we're on the case. *Dun Dun*
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Follow us on the various social media places:
https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma
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Is Religion Make-Believe? With Neil Van Leeuwen
It doesn't sound very nice, but this week we're asking the question: is religious belief the same as factual knowledge, or is closer to imagination? Cognitive scientist and philosopher Neil Van Leeuwen is here to walk us through the theory he puts forward in his book Religion as Make-Believe A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity. And it is fascinating!
Dr. Van Leeuwen dives deep into how our minds relate to the world around us. What distinguishes our understanding of what's in the room next to us from our ideas about who or what controls the universe? Is there a difference between what he calls a "religious credence" that God is present in your life and the factual belief that you're currently sitting on a soft brown sofa? What's going on in our brains when we believe something versus when we know it?
Find the book here (or ask your local bookshop to order it for you): https://www.amazon.com/-/he/Neil-Van-Leeuwen/dp/067429033X
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Follow us on the various social media places:
https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices -
Easter and the Undead
It's time for bunnies and chocolate, and recounting stories of brutal murder! For Christians around the world, Holy Week is an incredibly important time. But how well do you actually know the good, the bad, and the ugly of the last days of Jesus? But also... they weren't the last days, were they?
This week, we're going through the Holy Week timeline and events to get some perspective on it all. Then, it's all about re-enlivening. Where did the idea of resurrection come from? What's its history? And did ancient Jewish people think of it the way we do now?
For early access to an ad-free version of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and an opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma
Follow us on the various social media places:
https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod
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Customer Reviews
Loving the Data over Dogma concept!
I’m loving this podcast! It’s as educational as it is entertaining! Thank you!!
Too much dogma, not enough data
In general, this podcast overlooks the radical discontinuity between the historical Jesus and the character of Jesus portrayed on the pages of the gospels - see March 18 episode.
There is very little evidence (or data, if you will) which helps us objectively verify what the historical Jesus actually did and said. This has been the overwhelming consensus of mainstream historians for the last 150 years. Even self-professed Christians like Dale Allison, Jr. and Helen Bond who’ve been on the podcast openly and repeatedly maintain we can know exceedingly little about the actual deeds and words of the historical Jesus. Secular biblical and classical scholars are even more suspicious regarding efforts to reconstruct the historical Jesus because they understand any reliance on various methodological criteria is ad hoc and overly dependent on hypothetical written sources (Q, M, L, etc.) and unrecoverable oral traditions. I imagine Dan McClellan knows this but chooses not share these unsettling facts on the podcast in an effort to advocate for an intellectually respectable version of Christianity as a refuge for the thousands and thousands of believers who are fleeing conservative churches (including his own Mormon church).
I am quite sympathetic to this podcast’s mission, and I appreciate the hosts’ desire to combat the spread of religious misinformation. However, Dan McClellan has a blind spot when it comes to his beliefs about the historical Jesus. He seems unwilling to align with mainstream scholars regarding the quest of the historical Jesus and instead displays a need for the Jesus of the gospels to be very nearly identical to the Jesus of history.
As podcast guest Dale Allison wrote in his 1998 book, ‘Jesus of Nazareth’: “Appeals to shared criteria may, we can pray, assist us in being self-critical, but when all is said and done we look for the historical Jesus with our imaginations - and there, too, is where we find him, if we find him at all.”
The historical Jesus has been forever lost to us, and all that remains are the unverifiable and unfalsifiable claims of his later followers. That is the true state of affairs when data has the final word over dogma.
Expected to love this and I do
I have tried reading the Bible from cover to cover more than once, and always got bogged down in things that seemed confusing or that I just didn’t understand. Dan M does a superb job of explaining the language and the history, and Dan B helps put this in layman’s terms. Thank you both for making the Bible make sense.