It is a source of joy for some, schadenfreude for others, and for many it is the source of deep, soul-crushing anxiety. It's the Rapture! That theoretical moment when all of God's good kiddos on Earth get to fly up to heaven, while all the naughty boys and girls get stuck here on Earth. It's a theology believed by millions around the world, but there might be a problem: is it possible that the rapture isn't actually in the Bible? On this week's show we're discussing the origins of the rapture id...
Aug 12, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Look around you. Do you see it? It's everything. All the stuff. The earth, the sun, the stars, that sofa that you love but your partner kind of hates, the oceans, the trees, the new Taylor Swift album that they pressed into a vinyl album for some reason, even though everybody just streams... It's all here. But why? Was it always here? The stuff? Or was it created? This week, we're discussing creatio ex nihilo. It's the idea that God created everything from nothing, and if you're saying to yourse...
Aug 05, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast When you look at the New Testament and you see "The Gospel According to Matthew" or "The Gospel According to John", you could be forgiven for assuming that what you're getting is a book written by the apostle Matthew or John. But many scholars are convinced that this is not the case. Why don't they believe that these disciples of Jesus actually wrote the books that bear their name? This week, we're joined by bible scholar and gospel authorship expert Michael Kok. Dr. Kok will walk us through man...
Jul 29, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's Biblical misogyny day here at the Data Over Dogma show [well, it's one of them- this is the Bible we're talking about after all], and we've got some real doozies for you. First, we're looking at the strange, sad tale of Tamar. Things start fine(ish) for her--she finds herself married into a prominent family--but then all heaven breaks loose. Which is to say that God kills her husband. This launches her on one of the most insane paths in the whole Bible. BUT, that insane path gives us a chan...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Aaron Higashi is one of our favorites, and we're not alone! The folks over at The Bible for Normal People are fans, as well, and have enlisted Aaron to write a "for normal people" book about First and Second Samuel. These two books include some of the Bible's most famous and most infamous characters and moments. If you've ever read about the exploits of biblical David, and wondered if he is, in fact, a good guy... well, Dr. Higashi is right there with you. We'll ask him about his take on Dav...
Jul 15, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Christian nationalism marches onward in the United States, and our hot take is: that's bad. Louisiana has now passed a law mandating putting a poster of The Ten Commandments™ in every classroom in the state. Lawmakers claim that they're providing historical context for the laws of the land. Historians say that's bunk. So what's really going on here? Are the Exodus 20 top-ten really the foundation that undergirds all law and order in modern society? Does it matter what version/translation is used...
Jul 08, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast People talk all the time about souls. "He's my soulmate." "It was so scary, my soul left my body." "I'm going to destroy that piano if you don't stop playing Heart and Soul." But what are we actually talking about? Is there really a non-corporeal entity, an animating force inside each of us? Or are we just crude matter? And what does the Bible have to say about it? This week on Data Over Dogma, we're getting soulful. We'll discuss the development of the concept of the soul, and some very surpris...
Jul 01, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a judge and a king this week, and both are fascinating! First we're looking at Deborah, a prophet, a judge, and a really interesting figure whose story gets told twice in the Bible: back-to-back! Women often get short-shrift in the Bible, but Deborah's story is pretty satisfying. She's tough and her army wins the battle, and even more awesome-- she's not the only badass woman in the story! Stay tuned for the exciting (and gratuitously gorey) conclusion! Speaking of staying tuned, you're DEF...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's questionable heroes week here on the Data Over Dogma show, and we've packed in some big names! How big? How about the guy they named the whole tribe of Israel after? You know... Jacob. We're asking the big questions here: do striped sticks really make sheep have spotted lambs? Is a cruel trick fair-play if the other person falls for it? And most importantly- if you beat a stranger in a wrestle, does that stranger get to change your name? Then we look at famous strong-man and the judge of Is...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's the book that didn't make the cut. Enoch (or first Enoch, if you're nasty) is an important book, both historically and religiously. As a matter of fact, New Testament writers considered it scripture. So why, when you open your Bible at home, is Enoch nowhere to be found? This week we're exploring the mysteries of the book that got the boot. Where did it come from? Was it really written by Enoch the patriarch (hint: no)? Why was it not included in the popular canons? Is there anyone that sti...
Jun 10, 2024•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Get ready for some fascinating stuff! It won't be a baptism by fire, but we will be immersed in some cutting edge information about John the Baptist. Dr. James McGrath joins us to discuss John and his new book Christmaker. And trust us- you're going to learn some cool stuff. Many people's image of John is just a wild-haired itinerant preacher dressed like a cave man and roaming the desert and dunking people in water every chance he got. It turns out, he was likely a far more important and more i...
Jun 03, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Well, strap in y'all, because we're going after two of the most famous passages in all of the Bible. One of them is a nice story of Jesus and his mercy, the other is... less nice. Both are about women. And look out, M. Night Shyamalan, because we have a twist ending for both! We start it off with the story of the woman taken in adultery. This is the beloved tale that Jesus ends with "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." A lovely, poetic moment for the prince of p...
May 27, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast They said they were going to do it, and doggonit, it got did! This week David Burnett makes his triumphal return to Data Over Dogma to discuss the recent academic conference on monotheism that he, Dan McClellan and others organized at Brown University. And if that sounds boring or dry to you, hold onto your butt, because—fire in the hole!—they were dropping bombs! The whole goal of this conference was to challenge any notion that the people of ancient southwest Asia (meaning the people who wrote...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast When people say they've read "the Bible," what do they mean? Well generally what they DON'T mean is that they read source texts in their original languages. Most of us don't have the time or desire to learn how to read ancient Hebrew or Greek, so we're at the mercy of other people to figure out how to render the two thousand plus year old writings into our language. That leaves us with a problem: how do we know which translation to use? This week, Dr Dan is going to give the low-down on the many...
May 13, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's perhaps the most surprising conspiracy theory to pop up in this century. Humans have known that our planet is a sphere for literally thousands of years. Why, in a day of more advanced science than ever before, would people suddenly abandon that knowledge? Well, before our collective eyeballs all get too strained from rolling them, let's all pause to look at the probable origin of the flat-Earth insistence: The Bible. Does the Bible actually say that the Earth is flat? If it does, are reader...
May 06, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you've been listening to the show for any length of time, you know that the Bible did not come from any single source, nor does it speak with one voice. This week, we have Dr. David Carr with us to discuss "the primeval history" of Genesis 1-11, and and the sources from which those chapters sprung. Were these stories taken and modified from other myths and legends in that part of the world? Were they actual history? What should we think when the stories repeat/conflict with themselves? Join u...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Apr 22, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Apr 15, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ou...
Apr 08, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 B...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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? ...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Did Paul use slave labor to help him write his epistles? Would we even have a Bible without the work of enslaved people? This week, we welcome New Testament scholar Candida Moss, whose new book, God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible comes out later this month. In this book, Dr. Moss explores the widespread use of highly skilled enslaved people, not only as scribes or human dictation machines, but likely in much more creative capacities. Was your favorite passage of ...
Mar 11, 2024•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast What do we know about Jesus? Not the character who is the subject of the Christian Bible, but the actual historical figure? Who was that person? What can we know about him? Do scholars even believe that he actually existed? This week, we welcome Helen Bond to walk us through the actual history, or as much of it as we can piece together. On another just as fascinating front, we'll talk to Dr. Bond about the women of the New Testament. Did Jesus have female disciples (beyond his mom and Mary Magda...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week we're doing something a little different. We're working with our friends over at History Daily to bring you some content that, though it is not Bible related, we think you'll really enjoy! Every weekday on History Daily, host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. Give it a listen, and if you like it, subscribe! ***PLEASE CONSIDER TAKING OUR SURVEY! For a limited time, you'l...
Feb 26, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a big, scary topic, but it's one that you can't avoid if you want to talk honestly about the the Bible and its contents: does the Bible contain genocide? And if so, does it condone the genocide it contains? On this week's show we're looking at mass destruction, and wrestling with what it is, and what it means in a biblical context. Is the story of the ordered annihilation of the Amalekites genocide, or is it something else? What about God destroying Sodom and Gomorrah? Or the flooding of th...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast You've probably heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but how much do you really know about them? Where did they come from, when were they discovered, and what can they tell us about the Bible as it was handed down to us? Also, are all the scrolls and fragments that have found their way into private collections and museums legitimate? This week we talk to expert Dr. Kipp Davis, who gives us the skinny on the scrolls. It's all the history and mystery surrounding what some have called the most significan...
Feb 12, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast One man, one woman. That's what many pastors, priests, and politicians claim the Bible prescribes for marriage. Are they right? Can it be actually be boiled down to that one simple dynamic? Well, if you've been listening to our show, you know how completely unlikely that is. But don't just take our word for it, we've brought in a ringer on the subject! Dr. Jennifer Bird is the author of Marriage in the Bible, What Do the Texts Say? Dr. Bird is going to set us straight on biblical conceptions of ...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's one of the most baffling moments of the new testament. Jesus talks to, and kills, foliage. Because he was hungry, and it was out of season, so it didn't have fruit. Dr. Dan does his best to make it make sense. Then we get into some really fascinating textual analysis! Don't let the fancy name intimidate you, this dive into deutero-Isaiah is super interesting. What do you think? Do you buy the hypothesis? Many have challenged the idea, but the Deut abides. For early access to an ad-free vers...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hooooo boy. This week, we're asking one of the biggest questions in Christianity. Is Jesus God? Specifically, we'll be looking at two questions. First, we examine the gospel most frequently cited to support the idea: the gospel of John. Literally, the first verse of John says "The Word was with God, and the Word was God", doesn't that kind of end the debate? Well, if you know this show, you KNOW it's going to be more complicated than that! We'll go verse by verse discussing why what you've alway...
Jan 22, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
