Josie

I love libraries, all those books just waiting for me discover new things between their covers. My local library is pretty good, for a small town, and the staff is very helpful in helping you find a book, or ordering it intra-library loan if they don't have it. My biggest complaint is the fact that they have no books that present a viewpoint other than the standard christian one on the shelves..they have several shelves of christian books, but nothing on atheism, freethought, secular humanism. I know, because I look frequently, hoping I overlooked something, or it was out, or they might have gotten something new in. I even had to get "Demon Haunted World" on the intra-library loan, as they didn't have it.

Imagine my surprise when I found "The Secret Origins of the Bible" by Tim Callahan on the shelf last week. I sat down and read the intro right there, just because I couldn't believe that I was finding a book that might disagree with the bible in my little town.

I've only read the first three chapters so far, but I'm loving it. He uses langauge, and established history to show how some things couldn't have been written when it is claimed it was, and uses myths common to all peoples of the time along with more langauge clues to show the origin of the bible stories. He's managed to demolish most of Genesis so far, and I'm only 80 pages in.

Has anyone else read this book?

Doctor X

His book is a good introduction.

My MAJOR problem is he does not cite his sources. Frankly, he verges on plagerism. This may not be intentional on his part since he is probably writing for the lay public rather than scholars, but that is no excuse.

--J.D.

Josie

I don't know what the standard is for providing sources for your work in professional papers, but he has provided sources for what I've read so far.

example: pg 71
"as quoted in Peterson, 1976, pg 46", and in the back of the book there is a four page bib, listing all the authors and book titles. He also has an index of authors, and what pages he has used each one on.

Doctor X

Well I am too lazy to get off my ass to go pull it out of the bookcase. . . you have to insult my [Fragile and infantile.--Ed.] ego first. . . .

There were some areas where I expected him to cite certain scholars. I will leave it at that. HOWEVER, I would recommend the book as a good basic introduction.

--J.D.

Toto

Tim Callahan, the author of that book, has a good article on www.skeptic.com taken from his book on the Passion:

Who Really Killed Jesus?

Josie

Thanks for the link Toto.

I had seen in the acknowledgements that he thanked the staff of Skeptics, but didn't realise he was an editor there.

The Admiral

I just checked our libraries online catalogue and lo and behold, they have the book. I'll go grab it tomorrow.

The Admiral

Vorkosigan

A good article, but I think the reference to the Zagmaku festival is a little off. How on earth would Mark have known it? Crossan's suggestion that the mockery scene was taken from Philo is much better, for it not only explains the scene, but also the name.

Vorkosigan

Sparrow

I feel the same way you do about libraries. While in college I used to spend countless hours of my free time perusing the stacks.

I live in a prosperous suburb of a large town. There's a large high technology office park nearby. There are substantial Asian ethnic minorities in the area. You might think there would be a more diverse religion section in my local library than you'll find. It's not that they don't buy the books, it's that they keep getting lost. The most recent one I've searched for that is listed as lost is "The Bible Unearthed". Consider yourself lucky and don't forget your other library, known to the public as the internet.

Josie

Our library has gone though some changes in the last couple of years. First, they moved into a much larger building, built new just for them, instead of the rented building they had been in for years. Second, the old librarian retired, and was replaced by a younger woman. When I ask about getting books with a different viewpoint, they reply, "we're working on it." Apparently when they packed everything up for the move, there were like 25 different bibles on the shelves. A lot of the books there are quite old( 25-50 years old), so I can't blame the current staff for the lopsidedness of the collection, and I know that they only have so much money each year to spend.

I've promised them that if I win the lottery, the library is getting a lot of money.