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Summary: Scholarly review?
Review: I find it interesting that the review from April 24th says Callahan fails miserably because he is not a scholar. The reviewer then references a quote from a contemporary example: Callahan's examination of "The Passion of the Christ."
Fascinating!
Except he is not quoting Tim Callahan at all. He is quoting Michael Shermer's introduction to Tim Callahan's examination! This coming from someone who complains Callahan's " basic levels of argumentation" are flawed! Give me a break!
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Summary: Pure dynamite! So many mysteries explained
Review: Rarely can a single book answer as many questions as this one does. As the author explains, the mythical basis for Biblical stories is not really a secret, just knowledge that is rarely communicated outside of academic circles. Callahan does an outstanding job of catching readers up with several thousand years' worth of Biblical scholarship, history, and comparative mythology. Buy this book if you want to understand where the stories of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles come from and (as much as is possible) what they really mean -- or if you want to know more about the origins of the Jewish and Christian religions. For me, the sections dealing with the Genesis tales of Creation and the Fall were alone worth the purchase price.
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Summary: Reason & knowledge are more important than faith & ignorance
Review: Repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it even when you smack them over the head with the truth. It takes a special kind of fool to believe that the particular 66 (or 73 for the Catholics) books of the Bible just appeared inspired and in their final form to lead mankind for all ages. Like any ancient work, they have origins and it's refreshing to see someone look at the Bible as what it is: an organic outgrowth of even older religious ideas as well as multiple revisions to eliminate contradictions or censor unpopular notions (about 75% of the original books have been purged altogether and there isn't a single extant book in the modern Bible that has survived unaltered from its earliest forms).Unless you simply enjoy having your comfortable beliefs unchallenged, this book is a great read. Further, this is the sort of factual information needed to combat the often overwhelming ignorance in the world.
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Summary: Informative but somtimes tedious
Review: The Secret Origins Of The Bible contains a goldmine of information for those interested in a secular understanding of the origins and meanings of the Bible. Callahan's primary bogey is the fundamentalist Christian thesis that the Bible is a literally true and inerrant work inspired by a perfect god. This thesis he thoroughly rakes over the coals, skewers from a multitude of angles, and bludgeons with every historical tool avilable to him. And argue convincingly he does. Since many of his arguments are independent of one another, refuting one of them usually does not challenge the credibility of the others. He also does an excellent job of citing contemporary theologians' responses to his arguments and showing why they do not hold water (Gleason Archer is Callahan's favorite whipping boy).
Callahan's knowledge of the Bible is encyclopedic, frequently drawing from disparate texts to give a perspective on the ancient Israelites' views of the world and what they meant by some of the puzzling passages is the Bible. He presents convincing arguments that the concept of a universal, perfect God came around long after much of the Bible was written (that is to say, Yahweh was originally known to his believers as the tribal God of the Israelites, and prone to jealousy, vindictiveness, and all the other all-too-human flaws ascribed to regional deities of the time such as Zeus, Baal, El, etc.). Callahan reminds us that the monotheistic worship of Yahweh in pre-exilic times was rare, with a small minority of radical fundamentalists (represented by those writing the texts that eventually ended up in the Bible) continually fighting an uphill battle against the majority of Israelites who were polytheistic and worshipped Yahweh alongside Baal, Asherah, and a number of other gods.
Callahan uses the multitude of contradictions, shifts in style, and conflicting retellings of the same story within single books of the Bible to argue that many of the books had multiple authors. He shows that supposed prophecies are really not prophecies, but authors looking at present events and writing predictions into the mouths of their ancestors. How do we know? Because these prophets betray their own ignorance of the times they are writing about by making historical errors. He also shows that many of the stories of the Bible have antecedents in the mythology of other nearby cultures. For example, Callahan argues that the flood story was lifted from an earlier Mesopotamian myth. These arguments are sometimes convincing and sometimes not, depending on the particulars of the case. Sometimes the parallels are so general that they can be dismissed as coincidence, or myths representing a common human sentiment.
My main complaint about this book is that it desperately needs a thorough editing. Callahan is often at a loss to include all the information he wants to discuss without losing his focus. His train of thought meanders wildly as he speculates on a myriad of Biblical topics, often not reaching any definite conclusion. So unless you have a longer attention span than I, you will find yourself losing track of where he was coming from and where he is going. These idle ponderings get tedious and detract from the book as a whole. For a more focused skeptical treatment of the Old Testament I recommend Friedman's classic "Who Wrote The Bible?" and for the Gospels I recommend Helms' "Gospel Fictions". Both of these are extremely well-written books that Callahan references frequently.
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Summary: Great introduction to rational Biblical research.
Review: This book is an excellent layman's introduction to the "documentary hypothesis" and an excellent starting point for someone interested in a truly analytical analysis of scripture based on it's historical context. The author presents the scholarly debates and questions regarding the history of the Bible in enough detail to understand the arguments and yet maintain a level that is accessible to the layman. He also provides an extensive bibliography that provides an interested reader with ample opportunity to verify the material for themselves. Tim Callahan himself states in this book that this material is well known among scholarly circles and has been debated endlessly and refuted, without success outside their own clique, by apologists. This book is simply presenting core scholarly arguments that have been hidden behind, what the general public sees, as an incoherent and hopelessly daunting mountain of verbose and conflicting and outrageous interpretations of scripture made by apologists and mystics. This is the book the fundamentalists don't want people to see. It is a book that presents the scholarly criticisms, which fundamentalists have fought vainly against for decades, in a format that people can understand. Now people can read this book and use it's bibliographical references to pursue biblical research for themselves and not rely on the fundamentalists' arguments from authority. Now just a few personal words about some of the criticisms I have seen posted. Beware of the arguments of Christian fundamentalists and apologists. These people will argue that any evolutionary biologist with a strong background in evolutionary theory has been brainwashed by being too educated in his academic field to provide an unbiased interpretation of evidence, however, they don't seem to feel that a strong religious background taints scriptural interpretation at all. They feel it is necessary to understand the evidence. The same people that are criticizing Tim Callahan as "unqualified" to present an opinion on scripture because he does not present a dozen degrees from theological seminaries and a long background as a "Christian" scholar will argue endlessly against evolutionary theory without so much as a single respectable class in evolutionary theory. We usually refer to these people as hypocrites. Additionally Tim Callahan is quite correct when he attributes the roots of Christianity to the same roots as modern Islam and Judaism. Christians need to understand that radical Islamic fundamentalists are no different from radical Christian fundamentalists. In spite of the peaceful messages espoused by their mainstream followers religious, social and political extremists can be capable of acts of unspeakable violence and hatred like 9-11, medieval witch and heretic burnings, the KKK, the Holocaust and a million other examples throughout history. The author is not blaming Christianity for 9-11 but is, quite accurately, showing how any form of religious fundamentalism or extremism can lead to this form of horrific behavior. While the majority of Americans are Christians America was never a "Christian country', our constitution is not based on the 10 commandments and our founding father's were not, as a group, more religious than any other randomly selected group of Americans today. Our founding fathers were very careful to keep references to specific faiths or doctrine out of our governments founding documents. Our country was founded during a rebirth of rational thought and humanism and our, sometimes imperfect, adherence to those ideals is why our country is the land of freedom it is today. I defy any Christian fundamentalist to find anything in the 10 commandments that espouse freedom of religion, freedom of speech, right to bear arms, right to trial by jury, and right of The People to freely elect their leaders. The point Tim Callahan is trying to make is that fundamentalist Christians are just as dangerous to the freedoms America holds dear as fundamentalist Muslims. Tim Callahan's book is a rational and entirely American way to look critically at any material that proclaims divine authority. It is a great introduction to the rational and scholarly side of research into the origins of the Bible. It is not complete by any means but it is a very good place to start.
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Summary: I am a little skeptical
Review: This book is interesting. Rather reminds me of a wonderful book I read years ago about the lost continent of Mu.... Maybe everything in the book is true -- but I am not sure who Mr. Callahan is? Is he just writing opinions, or is he a scholar in the field?? I couldn't tell... Absolutely zero credentials were listed. For all I know, he is a street cleaner (no shame there) with interesting opinions, but no training in judging legitimacy of sources. All of that would be OK, but since the book is put out by the Skeptic Soc, I believe that it is reasonable to be a little skeptical. Right?? No matter, however..it is a fun book, even if rather unoriginal.
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Summary: The Evolution of the Bible
Review: This challenging book is very detailed in describing many sources of the bible and many parellel myths of other societies and religions. Callahan repeatedly documents ways to sort out anachranisms, and contradictory versions of passages of the bible such that one is forced to see the bible as an amalgum of myths and stories, at times centuries newer than originally presented in the bible or after-the-fact justifications for subsequent uses of various stories and histories . He points out geographic mistakes which could only have come from writers not familier with the actual geography of Israel, historical mistakes that must have come from writers who were not there when the histories are supposed to have taken place.
The selection of myths and histories, whether a "natural" selection or a politcally motivated redaction (look it up, it's a new word for me too), is shown to be the work of man, whether inspired by God or not.
This book has a solid point of view, which it documents well, a view which challenges and undermines a literal understanding of the bible. One comes away with confidence that it is not solely the work of an all knowing perfect God. Just as the eye is not the perfectly engineered organ of a perfect maker, the bible is not the consistent, logical, accurate, perfectly arranged story of the earth and mankind. With all the mixtures of styles and stories pointed out by Callahan, it can not be seen as accurate history. He points out the difference between narrative truth and historical truth, although he doesn't use these terms.
If at times a bit too detailed to read in big chunks, it is a book easily picked up, put down, and picked up again to learn about possible and variably probable understandings of the bible, Torah and New Testament.
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Summary: Satisfying delve into mythological origins.
Review: This is a wonderful book, and packed with research about the mythological origins of the bible. A great read for those who don't want to blindly accept the bible as some mystical holy writ, but as a conglomeration of many different mythological themes that
were floating about and/or were created directly by the first city-state of civilization in fertile mesopotamia. All religion can be traced to this wonderous valley of the crescent. Callahan does his work thoroughly in tracing bible origins old and new. His writing is easy to follow and interesting throughout, never too 'scholarly'. Quite enjoyable and not cynical or 'bible-bashing', this book respectfully satisfies any curious mind. It also confirms how detrimentally arrogant the folly and laziness of fundamentalist literalism is.
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Summary: And Biblical Scholars fly in black helicopters
Review: Tim Callahan's Secret Origins of the Bible is an absurd attack on the historical accuracy of the Bible. From his grassy knoll, Callahan, who apparently lacks any academic credentials, exposes what he sees as a dark conspiracy by Biblical scholars to only report on the Bible verses that "support their personal or political views." He claims to expose how the Bible is wholly based on plagiarized myths, which can be regarded as ancient fictional tales. Claiming that these myths are "distorted as literal truth, they are used by agents of repression, burdening society with unreasonable limitations and irrational directives." He makes the absurd claim that the massacre of September 11, 2001 was committed by fanatics whose religious beliefs were "based on the same mythic system out of which arose Judaism and Christianity." He argues the same mythic beliefs were responsible for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He is explicitly anti-theological throughout this book, and there is no question of his motivation in claiming the Bible as myth. Callahan rehashes Biblical controversies that have been debated among Biblical scholars in the very public arena for thousands of years. He presents another one-sided variation of a very old theme. These debates have been particularly intense since the Enlightenment, when historical-critical scholarship began to gain much appeal. Nothing at all in this book can even remotely be called a secret, or new. For example, the work of Julius Wellhausen, over a century ago, is presented as sensational and suppressed scholarship, concealed even before Wellhausen, yet every introductory college Biblical course covers Wellhausen, including the counter arguments. Where is the conspiracy of suppression? Callahan's other arguments are equally as lame. From the extreme modernist in biblical scholarship in the late 19th-20th century to the current revisionists and nihilist, the Bible's historical accuracy has been openly and publicly debated. If by suppressing the truth, Callahan is referring to those minority voices not being taken seriously, it is because true scholarship has overwhelming demonstrated them wrong, and it is not due to some dark conspiracy.
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Summary: Smart to be unique?
Review: To write a book revealing secrets being held for centuries and against the beliefs of billions of people is certainly all charming and true to the spirit of the Skeptic magazine. But so often it fails miserably. The fact that Callhan is not a scholar and does not have proper training comes through in his most basic levels of argumentation. Currently while analyzing the film "The Passion of Christ" (see http://www.skeptic.com/PassionOfChrist.html), Callahan makes the same flaws in logical reasoning. For example, he writes, " If it was not predetermined by God and was instead a contingent event that might or might not have happened, shouldn't we be thanking the Jews (or the Romans) for doing an unpleasant but necessary deed? After all, thanks to the crucifixion and the resurrection, all who accept it are born again, saved, and will have everlasting life. Shouldn't Pilate, Barabbas, Ciaphas, and the mob all get special dispensation from God?"
The fact that something painful and horrible must be done to someone, that someone must experience horrible plain, can it be the reason to compliment those who have chosen to do that painful and horrible thing to someone? This kind of charming (for sounding unique and smart) but logically weak and unfounded reasoning is the basis for this book. Any real skeptic reader would think twice about this book and reach a conclusion that is then all too obvious.
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