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Title: The Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan ISBN: 0-9655047-9-4 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Great introduction to rational Biblical research.
Comment: This book is an excellent layman's introduction to the "documentary hypothesis" and an excellent starting point for someone interested in a truly analytical analysis of scripture based on it's historical context. The author presents the scholarly debates and questions regarding the history of the Bible in enough detail to understand the arguments and yet maintain a level that is accessible to the layman. He also provides an extensive bibliography that provides an interested reader with ample opportunity to verify the material for themselves. Tim Callahan himself states in this book that this material is well known among scholarly circles and has been debated endlessly and refuted, without success outside their own clique, by apologists. This book is simply presenting core scholarly arguments that have been hidden behind, what the general public sees, as an incoherent and hopelessly daunting mountain of verbose and conflicting and outrageous interpretations of scripture made by apologists and mystics. This is the book the fundamentalists don't want people to see. It is a book that presents the scholarly criticisms, which fundamentalists have fought vainly against for decades, in a format that people can understand. Now people can read this book and use it's bibliographical references to pursue biblical research for themselves and not rely on the fundamentalists' arguments from authority.
Now just a few personal words about some of the criticisms I have seen posted.
Beware of the arguments of Christian fundamentalists and apologists. These people will argue that any evolutionary biologist with a strong background in evolutionary theory has been brainwashed by being too educated in his academic field to provide an unbiased interpretation of evidence, however, they don't seem to feel that a strong religious background taints scriptural interpretation at all. They feel it is necessary to understand the evidence. The same people that are criticizing Tim Callahan as "unqualified" to present an opinion on scripture because he does not present a dozen degrees from theological seminaries and a long background as a "Christian" scholar will argue endlessly against evolutionary theory without so much as a single respectable class in evolutionary theory. We usually refer to these people as hypocrites.
Additionally Tim Callahan is quite correct when he attributes the roots of Christianity to the same roots as modern Islam and Judaism. Christians need to understand that radical Islamic fundamentalists are no different from radical Christian fundamentalists. In spite of the peaceful messages espoused by their mainstream followers religious, social and political extremists can be capable of acts of unspeakable violence and hatred like 9-11, medieval witch and heretic burnings, the KKK, the Holocaust and a million other examples throughout history. The author is not blaming Christianity for 9-11 but is, quite accurately, showing how any form of religious fundamentalism or extremism can lead to this form of horrific behavior.
While the majority of Americans are Christians America was never a "Christian country', our constitution is not based on the 10 commandments and our founding father's were not, as a group, more religious than any other randomly selected group of Americans today. Our founding fathers were very careful to keep references to specific faiths or doctrine out of our governments founding documents. Our country was founded during a rebirth of rational thought and humanism and our, sometimes imperfect, adherence to those ideals is why our country is the land of freedom it is today. I defy any Christian fundamentalist to find anything in the 10 commandments that espouse freedom of religion, freedom of speech, right to bear arms, right to trial by jury, and right of The People to freely elect their leaders. The point Tim Callahan is trying to make is that fundamentalist Christians are just as dangerous to the freedoms America holds dear as fundamentalist Muslims.
Tim Callahan's book is a rational and entirely American way to look critically at any material that proclaims divine authority. It is a great introduction to the rational and scholarly side of research into the origins of the Bible. It is not complete by any means but it is a very good place to start.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reason & knowledge are more important than faith & ignorance
Comment: Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it even when you smack them over the head with the truth. It takes a special kind of fool to believe that the particular 66 (or 73 for the Catholics) books of the Bible just appeared inspired and in their final form to lead mankind for all ages. Like any ancient work, they have origins and it's refreshing to see someone look at the Bible as what it is: an organic outgrowth of even older religious ideas as well as multiple revisions to eliminate contradictions or censor unpopular notions (about 75% of the original books have been purged altogether and there isn't a single extant book in the modern Bible that has survived unaltered from its earliest forms).
Unless you simply enjoy having your comfortable beliefs unchallenged, this book is a great read. Further, this is the sort of factual information needed to combat the often overwhelming ignorance in the world.
Rating: 1
Summary: And Biblical Scholars fly in black helicopters
Comment: Tim Callahan's Secret Origins of the Bible is an absurd attack on the historical accuracy of the Bible. From his grassy knoll, Callahan, who apparently lacks any academic credentials, exposes what he sees as a dark conspiracy by Biblical scholars to only report on the Bible verses that "support their personal or political views." He claims to expose how the Bible is wholly based on plagiarized myths, which can be regarded as ancient fictional tales. Claiming that these myths are "distorted as literal truth, they are used by agents of repression, burdening society with unreasonable limitations and irrational directives." He makes the absurd claim that the massacre of September 11, 2001 was committed by fanatics whose religious beliefs were "based on the same mythic system out of which arose Judaism and Christianity." He argues the same mythic beliefs were responsible for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
He is explicitly anti-theological throughout this book, and there is no question of his motivation in claiming the Bible as myth. Callahan rehashes Biblical controversies that have been debated among Biblical scholars in the very public arena for thousands of years. He presents another one-sided variation of a very old theme. These debates have been particularly intense since the Enlightenment, when historical-critical scholarship began to gain much appeal. Nothing at all in this book can even remotely be called a secret, or new. For example, the work of Julius Wellhausen, over a century ago, is presented as sensational and suppressed scholarship, concealed even before Wellhausen, yet every introductory college Biblical course covers Wellhausen, including the counter arguments. Where is the conspiracy of suppression? Callahan's other arguments are equally as lame.
From the extreme modernist in biblical scholarship in the late 19th-20th century to the current revisionists and nihilist, the Bible's historical accuracy has been openly and publicly debated. If by suppressing the truth, Callahan is referring to those minority voices not being taken seriously, it is because true scholarship has overwhelming demonstrated them wrong, and it is not due to some dark conspiracy.
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Title: Bible Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment? by Tim Callahan ISBN: 0965504700 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Who Wrote the Gospels? by Randel McCraw Helms ISBN: 0965504727 Publisher: Millennium Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Gospel Fictions by Randel McCraw Helms ISBN: 0879755725 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: January, 1990 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Acharya S ISBN: 0932813747 Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Jesus Puzzle. Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? : Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus by Earl Doherty ISBN: 0968601405 Publisher: Canadian Humanist Publications Pub. Date: 19 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.50 |
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