Act I: The story begins with a Christian apologist named David Falk making some scathing comments about a Biblical scholar named Francesca Stavrakopoulou.
From what I’ve seen of Stavrakopoulou, she seems professional and competent. Falk, on the other hand, has something wrong with his brain.
Act II: a fellow named Dan McClellan replies and calmly minces him to a fine pulp. Wow, this is thorough.
Act III: Falk makes a pathetic not-pology.
Act IV: The Vancouver School of Theology, where Falk used to be employed, follows through with a finishing move.
Post-credits teaser: “I’ll have my revenge!” cackles a vanquished Falk.
Stay tuned for the sequel! Oh, wait, Netflix already cancelled it.
Classic christian POS. Of course he is spouting of on subjects he has no expertise in.
The books about evidence of child sacrifice is interesting, though not surprising. I’ll have to dig into that. I did read some years ago that in the “binding of Isaac” story there are textual indications that the appearance of the lamb is a latter redaction and that Abraham comes down from the mountain alone…i.e. without Isaac.
I find it amusing that after watching the video cited, I was then referred to another one about Jaqen H’ghar and the Faceless Assassins in “Game of Thrones.” I guess there’s some connection by way of arguments about ancient history and religious beliefs…
Unfortunately, angry misogyny is a seller’s market on youtube. So I won’t be surprised when he starts doing the dickbag tour circuit, and hour long rants about feminism.
I dunno, either dickbag tour or he’ll post dick electronmicrographs.
Oh, was that my outside voice?
That linked reddit thread was refreshingly clear of apologetics for the apologist.
Can someone clear something up here? When he says “weapons free”, is that wording for “fire at will” in some military branches? Because if not, he seems to be saying he’s lost his weapons…which is not the moment one would usually want to pick a fight.
robro@2–
Morally speaking, that (possible) redaction makes no difference at all. “See, it has a happy ending because at the last minute God told Abraham he didn’t need to go through with child sacrifice after all. But if God had told Abraham to complete the child sacrifice, he totally should have done it.” This is abuser logic.
chrislawson, yes. From wiktionary:
weapons free. (military) An order that weapons may be fired at targets (especially aircraft or missiles) that are not positively identified as friendly.
There is human sacrifice in the OT bible. Here is one example from a Google search.
Jephthah did in fact, sacrifice his daughter.
FWIW, a human sacrifice is the entire plot of the New Testament.
Jesus died for your sins, remember that part.
We all know god commanded and ran the genocide of the Canaanites.
He ordered the Israelites to kill everyone, men, women, children, babies, livestock, pets that is, everything that breathes.
That might not quite be human sacrifice but genocide isn’t any better either.
@11 That would be scorched earth warfare actually, in addition to genocide.
Keep in mind salting fields/earth was a thing in ancient warfare too–“we have no intention of living here but we’re going to make certain that you can’t either”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salting_the_earth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth
From the video:
“I’m not really a fan of her work”
So far, you sound like every entitled incel loser that a woman turned down whose go-to move is ad hominem attacks against said woman.
Ten bucks says this asshole propositioned, stalked or otherwise creeped on her at some academic conference.
Hadn’t heard of Francesca Stavrakopoulou before – at least that I remembered – but then actually I probly did see her on this ‘Weekly’ comdy news TV show before where she has this nearly 15 minute long interview and comes over very well. Regular viewer and fan of that show.
I suspect that Falk is simply jealous of the publicity and attention Stavrakopoulou gets and could well be that what silvrhalide suggested is correct too. That certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Raven @ #11 — According to things I’ve read, there is no archeological evidence of a Conquest of Canaan, no mass slaughter, no sudden population shifts at the assumed time. That aside, someone thought it worth writing about the idea of killing all their neighbors at the command of god.
I’m sure there’s more to it than jealousy. Yes, Stavrakopoulou has an enviable publication record, and Falk certainly wasn’t getting TV slots, but there are plenty of other Biblical scholars with TV shows and long bibliographies that he did not object to, and given the sexual specifics of his rant it is difficult to believe that he would raise the same level of contempt to any hypothetical attractive yet academically-lightweight presenter who was male.
Quite simply, this is misogyny. There may also be a side serving of sectarian defensiveness here because Falk is a Christian apologist and Stavrakopoulou is a secular Blblical scholar, so it would not surprise me if some her interpretations show insufficient deference to his religious convictions. Of course, rather than address (or even identify) any substantive issues in her work, he went on a spiteful rant about her bra size. As such, Falk’s religious motivation is to me merely a suspicion (and I have neither the interest nor the energy for a forensic trawling of his publications to find out) but the misogyny is clear and undeniable.
Well, sure.
It is even simpler than that.
The Israelites were and are…Canaanites.
That was always more or less known but we now have the DNA evidence that says that:
.1. The Jews were just a tribe of Canaanites.
.2. Not only did the Canaanite genocide never happen but the Canaanites are still alive.
These days we call them Jews, Lebanese, Samaritans, and Palestinians.
The data for these two conclusions is extensive and convincing and I’m not going to repeat most of it. One example from DNA sequencing data is below.
The DNA data is OK but it wasn’t needed. It was obvious long ago that the Jews were Canaanites. For one thing, there is no such thing as the Canaanite language. There are a series of closely related dialects or languages, one of which is…Hebrew.
And yeah, the Israelite conquest of Canaan in the bible is just a story. Most of the Bronze age cities supposedly destroyed by them had already fallen and been abandoned centuries ago.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/dna-from-biblical-canaanites-lives-modern-arabs-jews
Imagine having so little self-confidence that you need to picture yourself as some action movie hero to save your ego. “I’ll be back” was entertaining when a robot from the future said it. Falk saying it is just sad.
I don’t get PZ’s closing reference to Netflix. Did I miss something?
@imback
just another turn of Netflix cancelling very successful and much viewed shows after the first season.
This xtian terrorist, falk, and his kind, live in a world of hate, morbid fantasy and misogyny. I am disgusted by human society that is so stupid that it places Crapitallist corruption, religion and unsupported rumor on the same level as thoughtful, rational, analytical thought.
Loved the way that bloke methodically and coldly took his argument apart.
I must admit I wanted to check out Francesca Stavrakopoulou because David Falk mentioned she was attractive. So I watched this interview (after Dan McClellan’s evisceration of Falk) on YouTube.
Yes, she’s beautiful, smart, funny, and an atheist. Her scholarship on the Bible is based on…scholarship, without emotional baggage contaminating her conclusions or speculation.
I can see why David Falk can’t tolerate Stavrakopoulou; She’s his exact opposite.
@16. chrislawson : Fair call yes. Agreed – misogny and I think probly some jealousy too. But definitely misogyny.
@16. chrislawson : Fair call yes. Agreed – misogny and I think probly some jealousy too. But definitely misogyny.
And now, the satisfying sequel:
At the risk of lowering myself to Falk’s abysmal level I would like to say. What a fat, dusty, pompous, poser this poor excuse for a “scholar” is! I wonder if he has a ponytail with the last dying wisps of hair he has left.
He attempts to apologize for his halting, fact-less, rambling, criticism, misogynistic criticism of a real scholar. He does not even have the gonads to stand behind his useless opinion. No he winges on about how he did not mean what he so obviously said. The man has no spine.
One more thing he has is what appears to be a Gibson SG model guitar strategically placed in his video along with some Egyptian symbols to add interest to an otherwise sad little man. Can he even play guitar? And if he does he would know enough not to store an expensive guitar (if it is really a Gibson) propped up in living room to impress whomever! It’s a travesty against guitars on many levels!