It is sometimes argued that only the religious could really comprehend religion and that, therefore, the irreligious ought to abstain from criticizing religion or religious beliefs. In other words, a peculiar worldview can only be fully understood from within and should thus be criticized only from within.

This argument can easily be refuted by a reductio ad absurdum. If it were true that peculiar worldviews could only be comprehended by those…

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This is my first post in a planned series on the Historical Method. I will discuss general topics and areas of tension between conservative biblical scholars and skeptics. This series will include discussions of authorship, dating, and general reliability. My focus in this first post is the question of whether either group—the skeptic or the theist—is committed to a double standard regarding ancient texts.

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one of TA's brightest and best regulars, Pam, posted a response to a recent thread where she mentioned the two contradictory flood stories in Genesis. Pam told us that she had brought up the two flood accounts to a person who had done some religious studies and that this person then invoked the classic inerrantist dodge by saying that the… Continue