Season 2, Episode 52: Uncovering The Jesus Myth, Part 1, With Frank Zindler
Frank Zindler, author of The Jesus the Jews Never Knew, joins the show for a discussion about the historicity of Jesus; specifically the evidence, or lack of evidence, from often cited Jewish sources. This is the first part of what will become a multi-part series on the historicity of Jesus. Before the interview, Lamar and Eli talk about recent poll numbers inspired by the National Day of Prayer controversy, Catholic bishops taking a stand against ENDA, creationism in Russia and Bill Nye the Science Guy being named Humanist of the Year.
Stream this episode!
First Tom Merritt leaves Buzz Out Loud (amicably), now Joe leaves Chariots of Iron (amicably). And in both cases, it means double the content — bittersweet to say the least.
I love the Claim of the Day idea, have a pseudoscience claim to ask about, and a question. First the question: Where’s the best place to post questions/responses to episodes — here, the Atheist Nexus page, or the Atheiskeptihumanist forums? (I might put this same question in one of those places if I don’t get a response here.)
Now for the pseudoscience question: “EMF stands for electromagnetic field. The theory is that ghosts affect the electromagnetic field, and yadda yadda yadda.” This gets repeated so much on paranormal shows that it’s taken for granted. Switch your dial over to the skeptical podcast channel, and if this idea comes up, it’s immediately guffawed away as ridiculous.
I recently taught a course on logic, argument and conspiracy theories, and the material tilted into this direction, and I just didn’t want to deal with the ghost in the gaps arguments — we already had enough tin-foil-hat material with the Illuminati and ancient alien astronauts, Glenn Beck and chupacabras. But I’m a bit disappointed that for all the times I’ve heard skeptics take on paranormal claims, I have yet to hear a good explanation for WHY an EMF detector just can’t work in the way they’re claimed to work.
I understand that if you start from the position that ghosts don’t exist, then ghosts can’t be affecting any fields, electromagnetic or wheat or otherwise. I also understand the risk of the ghost-in-the-gaps counter-argument that it’s simply beyond current science. Let’s call that a wash; what I want to know is why such detectors couldn’t possibly be picking up what ghost chasers claim to be picking up, and tangentially if we then just write off instances where meters seem to spike in response to direct questions as hoaxes. (I have searched for this a bit, but didn’t find much more beyond wave-of-the-hand dismissals and a few claims that they’re simply picking up on normal everyday fluctuations.)
A second claim that might be kind of interesting to deal with has to do with the Science Channel’s new series with Morgan Freeman — Through the Wormhole, I think it’s called. The first episode tried to tackle the question of a creator. I was a bit put off by the build-up to the episode that suggested if we can’t find what came before the big bang, it just may be god — more spooks-in-the-gaps arguments. But the episode itself was fairly even-handed in presenting non-theist and theist perspectives. It even took on the claims that we were created, but not by any god, rather as part of a software program that we’re all living within. The scientist who discussed this (I can’t find his name) went so far as to suggest that the beings who wrote the program may be us from the future.
Anyway, the title of the first episode was “Is There A Creator?”, and it might be interesting to view and take on some of those claims.