Still Unbelievable!

Episode 155 David and Matthew Current Events July updateMatthew is joined by David from Skeptics and Seekers for another roundup of what's been going on.https://skepticsandseekers.squarespace.com/---------Still Unbelievable! book: https://amzn.eu/d/fmsN1CwApostate book: https://apocryphilepress.com/book/apostate-stories-of-deconversion/https://amzn.eu/d/9RIUZYxTo contact us, email: reasonpress@gmail.comour YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:https://hollykirstensongs.com/https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 138 - Gavin Ortlund takes 5 minutes to Shoot Christianity in the foot.This episode is the audio only of a video review that is available on the Still Unbelievable! YouTube channel. See show notes for a link.the originalhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QWcKjIKf0kdid the universe begin?https://youtu.be/4Ps9-u0KfG4?si=1ew1M2-TI8rODbkqapparent fine tuning does not mean a god did ithttps://youtu.be/jJ-fj3lqJ6M?si=CRVg4At1mXpK-qd6consciousnesshttps://youtu.be/MASBIB7zPo4?si=6JK-no1XeIdj1k9oprayer does not workhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-mar-31-sci-prayer31-story.htmlTo contact us, email: reasonpress@gmail.comour YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:https://hollykirstensongs.com/https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 136 - Transhumanism - with Revd Dr Stephen Goundrey-SmithIn this episode of Still Unbelievable!, Matthew chats with an old friend about Transhumanism. Stephen and Matthew have known each other since they were in a church 18+ group more than 30 years ago. Stephen trained as a pharmacist and then as a minister for the church if England and now combines them both in his work at Ripon College Cuddesdon. We raise several topics in this conversation, so please as always check the show notes for essential links. And if you have any thoughts Steve and Matthew are both happy to receive them, reasonpress@gmail.com.1) Revd Dr Stephen Goundrey-Smith - items and bookshttps://www.rcc.ac.uk/about-us/our-staff/revd-dr-stephen-goundrey-smithhttps://www.ethicsandmedicine.com/ethical-evaluation-of-new-biomedical-technologies-using-past-case-studies-in-pharmaceutical-medicine/https://amzn.eu/d/8lW8qvM2) Transhumanismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism3) CRISPRhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR4) Upload TV_serieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upload_(TV_series)5) Humanity +https://www.humanityplus.org/6) Co-creation spiritualityhttps://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/co-creation-spirituality7) Brent Waters - Bioethicisthttps://www.cbhd.org/people/brent-watershttps://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/this-mortal-flesh/2896018) Leon Casshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Kass9) Michael Sandelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sandel10) Anti-Natalismhttps://www.thecollector.com/what-is-anti-natalism/11) Lynn White - The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisishttps://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/energy-government-and-defense-magazines/historical-roots-our-ecological-crisis12) The Voluntary Human Extinction Movementhttps://www.vhemt.org/13) Alasdair MacIntyre - After Virtuehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue14) Bernard WIlliams - The Makropulos casehttps://www3.nd.edu/~pweithma/Readings/Williams/Williams%20on%20Immortality.pdfTo contact us, email: reasonpress@gmail.comour YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:https://hollykirstensongs.com/https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Episode 134 - Apostate - Jo Lloyd JohnsonIn this episode of Still Unbelievable, Matthew chats with Jo, one of the contributors of the book Apostate, Stories of Deconversion. Jo is already an author and has written her own memoir of deconstruction. Please be aware that this conversation touches on sexual violence from the opening minutes, but it is not all that is talked about, other topics are covered as well. Jo's book does talk about her experience of sexual violence and proceeds from her book go to the fantastic charity, Louder Than Silence, see the notes for links to the books and the charity.1) Silenced in Eden - Jo's bookhttps://a.co/d/cap1YWt2) Louder than Silencehttps://www.louderthansilence.org/3) Apostate Bookhttps://apocryphilepress.com/book/apostate-stories-of-deconversion/4) The Inverse Cowgirlhttps://msmagazine.com/2023/09/25/inverse-cowgirl-book-intersex/https://www.waterstones.com/book/inverse-cowgirl/alicia-roth-weigel/97800632952855) Pidgeon Pagonis - Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoirhttps://pid.ge/https://www.npr.org/2023/08/15/1193862556/pidgeon-pagonis-reveals-a-long-held-secret-in-nobody-needs-to-knowhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/151908228-nobody-needs-to-know6) Jo on the Graceful Atheist podcasthttps://gracefulatheist.com/2023/05/07/joanna-johnson-silenced-in-eden/7) RAINNhttps://rainn.org/To contact us, email: reasonpress@gmail.comour YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:https://hollykirstensongs.com/https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

In December 2024 Matthew asked Amy and Greg who made them experts on what makes someone a Christian. They answered.In this episode Matthew takes their answer and explains why he's unimpressed. Especially because of the way their comments negatively affect LGBTQ+ people and those who want abortion to be a valid choice.1) The Jan 2025 episode being responded tohttps://www.str.org/w/-strask-who-made-you-the-experts-on-what-makes-someone-a-christian-2) the Dec 2024 episode that prompted Matthew's questionhttps://www.str.org/w/-strask-how-can-so-many-professing-christians-support-things-that-are-anti-christian-3) When the ‘Biblical View’ for Evangelicals Was That Life Begins at Birthhttps://religiondispatches.org/when-the-biblical-view-for-evangelicals-was-that-life-begins-at-birth/4) EP105 Answering the STR challengehttps://open.spotify.com/episode/54nXmumqLbErTTXE4PtYWD?si=glUJty8XTVadUfNvJwWW7g5) Godwin's Lawhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law6) Gay Men under the Nazi Regimehttps://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/gay-men-under-the-nazi-regime7) Trump curtails protections around diversity, LGBTQ rightshttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-sign-orders-ending-diversity-programs-proclaiming-there-are-only-two-sexes-2025-01-20/To contact us, email: reasonpress@gmail.comour YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@reasonpress2901Our Theme Music was written for us by Holly, to support her and to purchase her music use the links below:https://hollykirstensongs.com/https://hollykirsten.bandcamp.com/

Mark's account is chapter 16, it is the earliest, and also the shortest.There are no angels, no soldiers, Jesus is not there. Women are the only witnesses, besides the unidentified young man.Verse 9 onwards, reads differently, it contradicts the fear and silence of the women it includes hints and pointers to events described in greater detail in the other gospels. It's almost as though it was added after those stories were written.The note says some early manuscripts do not have verses 9 to 20. What it doesn't say is that manuscripts from as late the 4th century do not include these verses, they appear in manuscripts from the 5th century. This is strong evidence this text is forged. But you won't learn this from the bible. You have to engage with scholars. Why would christians downplay the truth here?Matthew's account is in chapter 28Matthew introduces an angel to roll away the stone, and an earthquake for added drama.Matthew also adds the soldiers for drama and conspiracy. Including the suggestion that Jews circulated that the disciples stole the body. Have you tried looking for evidence that the Jews actually perpetrated this? Apologists love to reference it, but I've never actually seen evidence that the claim is true. Matthew is the only one to make this claim, he is also the only one to reference guards. This is evidence of inserted fictionalisation. Matthew's account ends with the great commission and the familiar expression of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it's almost as if this was a well known phrase and the writer of Matthew incorporated it to help create familiarity.Luke's account is chapter 24No earthquake, the stone is already rolled away. The drama about the empty tomb has two unidentified persons and a longer conversation. The women are no longer silent and afraid. The alleged appearances of Jesus are more detailed. How did Mark know the details of the conversation on the road? who is Cleopas? Why is this the only place he is mentioned? Yet another clue to added detail as the story gains momentum! Why is it Mark had access to the words of Jesus rebuking the two men, but not the words said afterwards where he explained everything in the scriptures about himself?When Jesus appears to the disciples it is he who offers to them to look at his hands and feet. Thomas is not a feature of this dialogue. Like with the road to Emmaus, Jesus opens their minds so they can understand. We have no written record of what that understanding is. There is no actual book in the bible that details what it was that Jesus had them understand. This text does not exist, and given the context, it would be a very key piece of knowledge to put into writing, more important than the details of what food Jesus ate in front of the disciples that evening. This sort of thing is evidence that the gospels are not true accounts of history, they are fictionalised accounts of events that mostly did not happen.John's account is chapter 20John inserts himself as Jesus favourite disciple. And god forbid that the women are recorded as first seeing that Jesus has risen. It has to be the men! Mary does still get to have a conversation with the angels, two of them now. Then Jesus is in the garden.The meeting where Jesus appears gains added detail, he breaths on them to impart his holy spirit. Thomas was not there, so we have the convoluted conversation to bring Jesus back to them a week later. As time progresses, and each new gospel is written, the writing becomes more dramatic and more details are included. When you read the passages consecutively like this, it becomes absolutely clear that this is what is happening. The standard apologetics excuse that this is each writer having a different focus simply does not work. These accounts are not safe to believe.

Did Jesus really wash his disciples feet?Christian apologists like to make a point of the gospels being written by eye witnesses and that being written close to the original events makes then less likely to be polluted by the passage of time. The issue with this is that we don't know who wrote any of the gospels. That aside, using the logic that earlier is better, we should expect to see progression of the story, we should expect to see addition of details in the later accounts.Mark's account of the last supper is in chapter 14.A couple of things stand out in this passage, firstly, there is mention of the Festival of unleavened bread, it starts on the 15th day of Nissan, the day after Passover. How come they haven't had Passover yet? Why are they only now preparing for it? This seems odd.It has the very familiar account of Jesus predicting his betrayal, and the breaking of bread. Judas is not identified, even though the preceding passage is about judas agreeing the betrayal.Matthews's account of the last supper is in chapter 26.Matthew is almost identical to Mark. The same details, the same phrases and the same order. Some scholars do say that Matthew copied from Mark, and reading this I can see why. Notice too the extra detail. Verse 15 has the extra detail of Judas asking and Jesus responding. Reading this, and knowing that Matthew was written after Mark, and probably copied from Mark, this verse does indeed feel like a later addition, a piece of conversation that never happened but was inserted for the benefit of readers with a short memory.Luke's account of the last supper is in chapter 22.A new fact, but it's wrong. The festival of Unleavened bread is not the same as the Passover. It's almost as if this was written by someone who was not a practising jew, or who didn't pay attention to detail.This time, instead of just instructing his disciples, Jesus now instructs a specific pair. The story is evolving.Notice how this account has the bread and wine being shared out twice, and the part about betrayal isn't there.Even as an English translation, this version is more awkward to read, it doesn't flow and feels like it's had cuts and edits. Weird.The bit about swords, is plain odd. As if the next bit of the chapter requires a sword, and the editor realised that no one had one so they had to explain the presence of a sword so that the incident on the mount of Olives made sense.We also lost the singing of hymns.Then finally we get to John's account of the last supper, which is in chapter 13.This version feels a whole lot darker than the previous three. It's very different. As though it has had a longer period of time to evolve before getting written down.Little details like sending the disciples to find the room are lost, along with bigger details like the breaking of bread and sharing of wine. Instead there is a version of the judas scene, with judas now leaving the meal.What's odd for me is the rest of the chapter is Jesus preaching and interacting with the disciples, this goes on for so long that it extends into the next chapter, don't worry, I won't be reading it all, but there is a bit I want to draw attention to. Chapter 14, verse 22, Judas asks a question. But Judas has already left. Ah, this bit in parenthesis saying not Judas Iscariot. Did a later editor have an oh shit moment and hurriedly cover up the mistake. This is exactly what I'd expect from narratives that evolve over time, been subject to multiple embellishments from multiple contributors. I know that apologists have an explanation for this, and they have to explain it because on face value it is a problem, there is no other disciple called Judas. Invent an explanation they must. Any explanation is better than admitting it is fiction.The four versions evolve, progress, get darker and show clear signs of editing and embellishment. This is why I can't believe the bible is true and why I can't take Christianity seriously.