2023-09-28 15:06
Commenters on this post need to learn something about Stith Thompson's famous (in its academic realm, at least) Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, or at least the basic gist of its ideas, along… Read More
Blog Directory > Spirituality Blogs > The Philosophy of the Socratic Gadfly spirituality Blog >
The Philosophy Of The Socratic Gadfly Blog
wordsofsocraticgadfly.blogspot.com
Tags:
jesus
humanist
russell moore
childhood fear
trunk
historical
neshoba county
religious
appeared
georgia rico
This is a slice of my philosophical, lay scientific, musical and poetic musings.
2023-09-23 15:30
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope by Sarah Bakewell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
After three-starring (perhaps high?) Bakewell's "Existentialist Ca… Read More
2023-09-21 14:40
It's a piece that is otherwise generally good, but nothing really new — it's about the closure of ever more "mainline" houses of religious worship in the face of the rise of the… Read More
2023-09-16 14:36
I grieved for
The closure that would never happen,
Even though closure is a myth
I grieved for
The childhood fear and anger
Of him, and about him
That I could never more fully… Read More
2023-09-14 14:00
The Smart Fool, mentioned in these pages before, is once again not smart. He cites this essay
by Paul Foster in favor of the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians.
Problems? Sure. First, Nero re… Read More
2023-09-07 14:00
A year and a month ago, on vacation, I saw a lightning-split tree trunk, a ponderosa, with what appeared to be a bud of new growth in the stump portion of the trunk still rooted. (The… Read More
2023-09-02 15:52
Contra some degree of perhaps too much huzzahs and handsprings at r/AcademicBiblical (note a commenter talking about this connecting the canonical gospels and Thomas when no such idea… Read More
2023-08-26 16:38
"Matty," as I love to call him, is THE (Rush Limbaugh type voice), Matthew Harrison, ongoing president and almost president-for-life of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the largest… Read More
2023-08-24 13:55
That's per this Tumblr-length brief from The New Republic. (Sadly, it spoils itself by linking to a longer piece by Nat-Sec Nutsack Brynn Tannehill, who pivots into going off on the Russian… Read More
2023-08-19 14:00
I've been banned for a week as of Thursday, and am sure that I'll be permabanned when I drop this post as part of my comments, and as a message to the mods there. Just like r/AcademicB… Read More
2023-08-17 14:08
The Texas Monthly notes
in a guest piece by Nina Burleigh that some Religious Right group, with
the name of "The Nazarene," is grifting at $69 a pop for people to see
the fake James… Read More
2023-08-12 14:30
I heard the news that Gustavo Dudamel would replace Jaap van Zweden at music director at the NY Phil on Sirius' Symphony Hall while on vacation.First, I didn't realize van Zweden had v… Read More
2023-08-10 14:37
You can't go wrong when doing a mash-up of famous Shakespearean phrases (for $1,000, Alex) and amateur philosophical scrivening, can you? At least not in my book.So, we're taking off from a… Read More
2023-07-27 14:36
Multiple comments on this question post about "The Woman Taken in Adultery" pericope are wrong, based on the text-critical issue (along with narrative and redaction criticism issues) o… Read More
2023-07-20 14:33
"Nones," as many of my readers likely know, is the common current sociology of religion term to agglomerate all people who are not religious, from "spiritual but not religious" through… Read More
2023-07-13 14:00
As on my main blog, I do a roundup of popular posts. But, since I don't blog here as often, I do this on a quarterly, not monthly, basis. As there, not all these may have been written… Read More
2023-06-29 14:44
At the Atlantic, Kieran Setiya reviews what is billed as the first full-length bio of Plato, and a new English translation of a relatively recent bio of Diogenes.I agree at least in pa… Read More
2023-06-24 15:49
Rick, I am SHOCKED there's gambling in the house of Matthew Harrison (and the people even more wingnut than him).Vermont Digger has the details on a former distillery owner there who a… Read More
2023-06-22 14:00
I know philosopher friend and Heidegger lover Brett Welch has heard the basics of Martin Heidegger's antisemitism before, but the LA Review of Books has more on how his son and literar… Read More
2023-06-15 14:03
The series of comments on this post by r/SmartFool are washed up. In fairness, in part, he's citing scholars that are wrong, but he's also way stretching things on his own.First, no, n… Read More
2023-06-10 15:51
Here's an interesting one. From what I've read of his comments, Dr. Wonderful is NOT a fundagelical or close. He's a liberal Xn who takes much of biblical theology "non-literally." He'… Read More
2023-06-08 15:03
I've repeatedly called out the Self-Besotted Philosopher, Jonathan M.S. Pearce, for his errors at the semi-Gnu Atheist site.Now, time to further turn my guns on M.L. Clark.I saw NAFO F… Read More
2023-06-01 14:00
At the Catholic school that's part of my newspaper beat, the homily for the graduation mass before commencement (the parish has a K-12 school) was focused on the readings of Acts 23, Paul's… Read More
2023-05-27 16:03
From a Mac Sticky Note I wrote to myself long before I was banned:Do people on this channel understand the use of rhetorical questions in headlines? Or snark in comments? And, when did the Z… Read More
2023-05-18 14:00
Yes, that's you, Jonathan M.S. Pearce. That is, if it's not The Self-Besotted Asshole.As I told him on Twitter a month ago, his insistence that I had to watch one of his three different dail… Read More
2023-05-11 14:00
But, is it TOO sympathetic, both in the author's treatment of two religious leaders who attempted to negotiate with David Koresh at the time, and the stance of those two religious leaders th… Read More
2023-05-04 14:00
I had written a bit about this in a takedown piece (my second) about OnlySky a few weeks ago. I had been thinking about a more in-depth pullout about this issue anyway, but Jonathan M… Read More
2023-04-27 14:06
Yeah, since I've been cut off from commenting, but not banned from the group (yet) I can look at stupidity but can't comment. So, on occasion, doing a compilation over several weeks, I'll fi… Read More
2023-04-22 14:00
Actually, per a very good piece by the Texas Observer, and previously unknown to me, it's ultimately "woe" in the singular — and that's union busting.The Observer names names, and link… Read More
2023-04-20 13:58
I wrote, 14 months ago, about how the Atheist Patheos site had gotten a lot of shit wrong in its first month. I debated about going back there again, with subscription screens and donation s… Read More
2023-04-18 15:15
Let this slip by a bit, but only by a couple of weeks.Here's a roundup of my top-10 blog post, by readership, in the last three months.No. 1 and 8 are related. They're part 3, "miscellaneous… Read More
2023-04-13 13:35
Tis true that Christianity, in both fundagelical and more liberal versions within Protestantism (and parallels within Catholicism) in the United States has shown itself more resilient… Read More
2023-04-06 14:00
Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer
My rating: 1 of 5 starsThis is an expanded version of the Goodreads review for inside baseball Skeptics™,pseudosk… Read More
2023-04-01 16:14
This is not an April Fool's joke. Basil is missing from Bon Appetit's list of 20 essential spices. It doesn't even hit the honorary mentions at bottom, where rosemary sneaks in.Beyond… Read More
2023-03-30 13:53
I ate the bacon That was on the grill And which You were surely ignoring And not only Because of Ramadan. Or Yom Kippur. Or Good Friday. It was delicious. No forgiveness needed… Read More
2023-03-25 14:38
I think Pocket had shown me this piece before, but, in any case, I see major errors in Atlas Obscura's piece on Scots.First, I would call it "Scots English" but Wikipedia in my Google search… Read More
2023-03-23 05:30
That's what it plans. Details from Strategic Government Insider:The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has launched a two-stage global competition to find architect-led multidisciplinary design team… Read More
2023-03-16 14:05
Not quite "banned in Boston," unless "Naugrith the Nazi" is from Boston, England.Anyway, one of my friends on Goodreads had suggested the former of the two about six months ago. And… Read More
2023-03-09 15:00
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and related evidence for wh… Read More
2023-03-04 16:00
Yeah, religious leaders are freaking their heads out, per the AP, about ChatGPT writing AI sermons.In part, maybe they're worried it's better than them:Todd Brewer, a New Testament scholar a… Read More
2023-03-02 15:42
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and related evidence… Read More
2023-02-28 18:12
Been a long time since I've done a cleanup on that.Some, like John Horgan's old Cross-Check, Massimo's previous blogging incarnation and Skeptic's Dictionary, though not current, are s… Read More
2023-02-25 17:43
Over at my main blog, I have Skeptophilia, a blog by Gordon Bonnet, on my blogroll. It's generally good stuff, but at times, more than once, I've wondered how skeptical he is on some t… Read More
2023-02-23 15:00
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal by Yonatan AdlerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThe Origins of JudaismSimply a great book. Adler’s look at archaeological and re… Read More
2023-02-16 15:00
I Corinthians 8 is well-known to critical scholars for largely torpedoing Luke's claim in Acts 15 of some grand "Council of Jerusalem."Luke claims there, in v 20, that Paul agreed there to h… Read More
2023-02-09 15:00
That's the subthesis of "Picasso's War," reviewed below.Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America by Hugh EakinMy rating: 5 of 5 starsSimply fascinating book. The title is a pun, c… Read More
2023-02-02 15:57
A Naugrith the Nazi, or other moderators, at r/AcademicBiblical or r/AskBibleScholars, can go fishing for comments that aren't academic enough but leave up OPs like "Do you prefer in B… Read More
2023-01-26 15:48
Blogger Tales of Whoa says this:A paper in Psychological Studies showed that newborns, when played music judged by listeners as "happy" or "sad," responded differently -- and that it seems t… Read More
2023-01-22 01:59
Old Concordia Seminary classmate Kloha, as I blogged nearly 3 years ago, with a follow-up to that, due to new details, a few months later, was hired as chief curatorial officer at Hobb… Read More
2023-01-19 15:00
Last year I joined Storygraph. I had been considering it even before Amazon gave me the Mafia horse's head in bed treatment and I eventually deleted my Amazon account, leaving me with… Read More
2023-01-15 06:18
If you missed it, I blogged last year about the Dallas/Denton NPR station taking over management of WRR, the classical radio station for the area, owned by the city of Dallas, and also Texas… Read More
2023-01-12 15:00
First, "badge enamored" is more suave than "mini-Nazi." And, perhaps, somewhat nicer.Second, "on the spectrum" is "on the spectrum."OK ...Early-mid November, current moderators at r/Ac… Read More
2023-01-10 15:00
Thanks to a library card at the nearest large library, I smashed my Goodreads reading challenge with room to spare. Take a look at what was on my list. I re-read one hugely formative… Read More
2023-01-07 16:00
A quarterly roundup of the most read blog posts of the past three months. Not all were new to the past three months.No. 1, "Libertarian pseudoskeptical pseudoscience," about Brian Dun… Read More
2023-01-05 15:00
I recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was after someone on the AcademicBiblcal subreddit recommended his previous book, “Reth… Read More
2022-12-31 16:30
A quarterly roundup of the most read blog posts of the past three months. Not all were new to the past three months.No. 1, "Libertarian pseudoskeptical pseudoscience," about Brian Dunn… Read More
2022-12-22 14:39
Not as it's known in German lore that spread from there to elsewhere in Europe, then the US.Try 275 years or so later.It's also not just that part of German-based Christmas myth that's… Read More
2022-12-15 15:50
I recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was after someone on the AcademicBiblcal subreddit recommended his previous book, “Rethinking… Read More
2022-12-10 15:00
The Dallas Observer is Dallas-Fort Worth's alt-weekly, part of the (Village) Voice Media group. Its Dec. 1-7 issue (just 24 pages at about a 50 percent adhole, not counting house) had a qua… Read More
2022-12-08 15:00
I doubt it; I hugely doubt it.That's as, per the Blake painting, to riff on a biblical phrase, I wonder: "Who watches the comforters?"I digress. Back to the main point. Someone at one of the… Read More
2022-12-03 16:56
I was driving home Wednesday night and wondered why I was hearing Christmas music in the 7-8 p.m. slot instead of the normal Bill McLaughlin. Then, after grocery shopping, realized I w… Read More
2022-12-01 15:22
On my main news blog, I wrote recently about Pro Publica's reporting on a Senate committee minority report on the COVID lab-leak hypothesis, co-reported with Vanity Fair. Some people, in par… Read More
2022-11-26 16:46
By J, of course, I'm talking about the Yahwist strand within the Torah. (And, yes, while I believe the original version of the documentary hypothesis doesn't hold water, I do believe a… Read More
2022-11-22 14:30
Old Concordia Seminary classmate Kloha, who signed on in mid-2020 to clean up the Augean stables at Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible, over the Dead Sea Scrolls forgery and other things, wil… Read More
2022-11-19 20:53
Unlike Massimo Pigliucci, with some good encomia here, I didn't know Ken in person.Unlike Massimo on the flip side, though, growing up in the Four Corners and deepening my interest in the wo… Read More
2022-11-17 15:00
The "trigger"? An OP claiming on an AcademicBiblcal a subReddit post about a British academic, Alan Garrow, claiming that the eruption of Vesuvius was the target, with VERY specific alleged… Read More
2022-11-10 15:16
I recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was after someone on the AcademicBiblcal subreddit recommended his previous book, “Rethinking… Read More
2022-11-03 14:23
Per an Aeon interview about a new book of his, the British philosopher has ideas that I would very largely agree with.His analogy with "Moby-Dick" is very good, as an introduction to the id… Read More
2022-10-27 14:00
The Case for Proto-Mark: A Study in the Synoptic Problem by Delbert BurkettMy rating: 2 of 5 starsI recently read Delbert Burkett’s “The Case for Proto-Mark.” That was afte… Read More
2022-10-06 14:16
That was raised by the second of two people I blocked last week on the DebateReligion subreddit. The first was a "just asking questions about definitions" Hindu troll, one of a general subty… Read More
2022-09-29 14:00
I mentioned two weeks ago that I had a "secular spiritual experience" that, in part, involved the most famous logion from the Gospel of Thomas.Shortly before I saw the standing dead ponderos… Read More
2022-09-22 13:39
Recently, on Reddit's Academic Biblical subreddit, I'd seen claims that, yes, Paul didn't write II Timothy or Titus, but that he DID write I Timothy, and that language, and themes, were proo… Read More
2022-09-15 15:27
This is both a highly condensed and refocused version of an obit I wrote about Barbara Ehrenreich on my main blog, one that I had not intended to become a "takedown" obit, but ultimately did… Read More
2022-09-08 15:10
This particular phrase, listed as a direct quote of Jesus in Saying 77 of the Gospel of Thomas, has long stuck somewhere at least in the the back of my mind. The "long" is at least the 30 ye… Read More
2022-09-01 14:03
I had been by San Francisco de Asis Church in Taos before my most recent vacation, but it wasn't until after I got back home and shared my pictures of it with friends that I realized i… Read More
2022-08-25 14:00
With a flash of insight while out hiking recently, I thought of not only JUST how ahistorical the book of Acts is, beyond the “we” passages not at all bei… Read More
2022-08-04 14:00
Regular readers here know what I think of Jesus mythicists in general and Richard Carrier in particular.But, I have now found a new reason to scorn him.Via a post on the sub-Reddit for… Read More
2022-07-21 14:00
Middle-class precariat pseudo-leftist I know that I am the first and the second And that they are intertwined. Does this make me a pseudo-leftist as well. Am I too afraid Of giving up the s… Read More
2022-07-14 14:00
So claimed a friend of James McGrath on Facebook. (McGrath posts as "public," so violating no confidences.)The friend touts a study by a prof at Carlton College saying that 35 percent… Read More
2022-07-07 14:00
This isn't like the main blog, where I do a monthly roundup. I don't post that often here.But, I did decide to start doing a quarterly roundup, so, here's the most-read blog posts of A… Read More
2022-06-30 14:00
If there really are "no Buddhas and no teachings," then why didn't Subhuti just leave after Chapter 8 of the Diamond Sutra? And no, Stephen Batchelor, Robert Wright, Thich Nhat Ha… Read More
2022-06-23 14:04
This is NOT the rise of the "Nones," which seems to have plateaued during COVID, anyway.And, this is just a Gallup poll, not a full Pew Research study. BUT?It's definitely interes… Read More
2022-06-16 14:00
As in something that might pass a Turning test, and is not John Searle's machine-behavioralist idea of the Chinese Room?Online friend Tales of Whoa says yes. The actual dialogue with LaMDA b… Read More
2022-06-09 14:00
I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Nietzsche by Sue PrideauxMy rating: 3 of 5 stars"I am dynamite" was not, as far as I know, said about himself BY Nietzsche. Rather, one of his first positive review… Read More
2022-06-02 14:00
As regular readers here know, I sometimes blog about art, classical music and literature (like poetry) as well as philosophy and critical religion.I'm not a big movies buff, but I do h… Read More
2022-05-26 14:00
This is an expanded review of Francesca Stavrakopoulou's "God: An Anatomy."God: An Anatomy by Francesca StavrakopoulouMy rating: 4 of 5 starsThis was a great book in many ways, but a n… Read More
2022-05-05 14:00
As I said when posting the link to this review of Daniel Wegner's book by that name to Massimo Pigliucci's Facebook group, for people who want to really understand where I stand on vol… Read More
2022-04-28 13:50
Poletti, who has a Medium site popular with what I'll call "edgy evangelicals,", people who promote "dudebro Christianity" or whatever, claims the Shroud of Turin artifact really is 2,000 ye… Read More
2022-04-14 14:00
Medieval Christian theology used this phrase, as modern theologians know — "why some, not others" for the so-called "mystery of salvation."So, why do some people go to hell despi… Read More
2022-04-07 14:00
Unlike at my primary blog, I don't post here enough to do a roundup of top blogging, by readership, monthly.Quarterly, though, yes.So, let's dive in. (Note: Not all blog posts may be f… Read More
2022-03-17 14:00
A Twitter back-and-forth with Julian Baggini over various things David Hume has led me to in part question Hume's value as arguably the world's first modern psychologist. His "I can't appre… Read More
2022-03-10 15:39
First, sorry that I hadn't posted in a couple of weeks. But, late last week, I got easy material for two more posts, both long reads, and both about my "favorite" subject of the last year.Th… Read More
2022-02-17 15:00
At one time, what seems eons ago, the Jesus Seminar did great stuff. The work of John Kloppenborg et al on Q, including its reconstruction, likely early forms, etc., was fantastic.Afte… Read More
2022-02-10 15:00
"Tosh" is my British English, thought-out answer to a clickbaity piece at 3 Quarks Daily that leaves me with not so high regard for its author and the seemingly impoverished view of what hum… Read More
2022-02-05 16:30
And, I'm here to gloat.OnlySky Media was founded by the atheist contingent formerly at Patheos after Patheos essentially said, they say, that they had to be nice to theists.So, they formed t… Read More
2022-02-03 21:54
From Mondoweiss, late last year.It's not just that he remains excommunicated by the Amsterdam synagogue that booted him (and he does), but that a modern Spinoza scholar is also persona non g… Read More
2022-01-29 19:31
Via Massimo Pigliucci, Paul Fidalgo offers a critique of sorts of both transhumanism (not limited to Ray Kurzweil's Singularity) and the "collapsitarian" movement, led by a group calle… Read More
2022-01-27 15:29
I remain convinced that Christians did not start the Great Fire of Rome.More importantly, I remain convinced that Nero did not scapegoat Christians as arsonists, mainly because there w… Read More
2022-01-20 15:00
From a 3 Quarks Daily piece linked by Massimo Pigliucci, my thoughts:Per your previous posting from Mr. Elgat on qualia, I noted that originally, I heard of qualia in the sense of colo… Read More
2022-01-15 17:10
Not all posts are from the past year, but these were the most popular by readership in the past year.No. 1? Remains my calling out of Anthony Fauci for telling Platonic noble lies abou… Read More
Subscribe to The Philosophy Of The Socratic Gadfly
Get updates delivered right to your inbox!