19th February 2008

Justinian and the Closure of the School of Athens

One of the most notorious examples of Christian anti-intellectualism was the closure of the famous Platonic academy in Athens.  As usual there is rather less to this story than meets the eye.  This essay examines the evidence, asks what the academy actually was and puts the event in context.  We find that Justinian's action was a fairly typical act of tyranny but enough to plunge Europe into the Dark Ages.

3rd March 2007

Review of the God Delusion

Yes, it's every bit as bad as you feared.  I've finally read it and so here is my detailed review of Richard Dawkins's poor grasp of history, logic and philosophy.   

18th April 2005

Bede's Library dedicated Yahoo group

Rather than use a combination of email, feedback and comments on the blog, I urge everyone to use this group from now on, so that we can openly discuss the issues raised.  Comments on the blog can get lost if they scroll off the front page and email is private, so it is better to have a searchable forum where we can discuss matters openly and keep our replies for later reference. 

23rd February 2005

Review of Letter to an Influential Atheist

A review of Roger Steer's book that aims to be a book length critique of the ideas of famous atheist Richard Dawkins.

16th January 2005

Books for and Against the Existence of Jesus

Chris Price and I have put together this page of books that deal with the Jesus Myth, however obliquely.  Again, we are not pretending to comprehensive and have not reviewed some of the more ridiculous books like those of Acharya S and Tom Harpur.

18th October 2004

Bede's Journal

Bede's Journal continues reasonably regularly so that is the place to look for my latest thoughts and writing.  I am definitely still here!  While blogging is not a complete substitute for proper articles, it is very convenient and can be edited from anywhere. 

Link's to Sites about the Jesus Myth and Historical Jesus

Here is a page of annotated links to various web pages for and against the idea Jesus never existed, put together by Chris Price and I. We are not pretending to comprehensive but many of the major mythologists and rebuttals are included.

26th May 2004

Bede's Journal

I am finding it very hard to find the time to write fully fledged articles that are suitable for the general reader so have decided to have a crack at blogging instead.  This will be a record of interesting lectures, links, books and other things I come across as well as random thoughts.  I will also use it as a way to reply to correspondence that I receive that might be of more general interest (with the sender's permission).  I'm not sure how this will work out and any comments would be gratefully received.

13th May 2004

Book Reviews

Here are two new short reviews of The Undiscovered Mind and The Ascent of Science as well as rather longer items on The Probability of God and For the Glory of God.  The Books Index is updated as well.

23rd April 2004

Hitler and Christianity

Occasionally we get people who try to claim that Hitler was a Christian (sometimes, admittedly in reply to people who claim he was an atheist).  Edward Bartlett-Jones who knows more about Nazis than most sensible people have any desire to, but remains a good bloke, has written this short expose of Hitler's religion that should settle the matter once and for all.  Edward has the distinction of being the only agnostic to contribute to the Library.

10th March 2004

A History of Scholarly Refutations of the Jesus Myth

Christopher Price continues his work on Jesus Mythologists by tracing the previous history of the controversy.  As it says in the book of Ecclesiastes "There is nothing new under the sun".  Price finds that this most certainly applies to the arguments of those who claim Jesus never existed. 

16th January 2004

Frequently Asked Questions on the Inquisition

The notoriety of the Inquisition (not wholly unwarranted) has led to a great deal of misinformation about what it was for and how it set about carrying out its function.  This FAQ gives the low down on the inquisitors, their job and their methods.  We find that the inquisition's job of stamping out heresy may be disagreeable to us, but the methods it used were at the cutting edge of legal reform for its time.

Table of Contents for Bede's Library

At last, a full table of contents that uses the wonders of Javascript to list all the essays and articles on a single easy to browse page.  Also, I am coming out from behind the veil and using my real name, James Hannam.  Information on my background and credentials is on this page.

10th January 2004

Did Josephus Mention Jesus?

The controversial reference to Jesus in the Jewish Antiquities of Josephus is carefully examined by Christopher to determine how much of it is genuine and what it tells us about the historical Jesus.

Fine Tuning in the Language of our Genes (updated)

I have updated this article after some further thought and finding that a similar argument is used by David Hume in his Dialogues on Natural Religion.

6th December 2003

Did Jesus Exist?

The internet has become obsessed with this question as it seems to represent an excellent way to attack Christianity.  The only problem is that professional historians, quite rightly, refuse to take the matter seriously.  So it is left to gifted amateur writers like Christopher Price to answer the objections of Earl Doherty.  His work is presented here, together with my own face to face encounter with GA Wells and other relevant articles from elsewhere on the site.

The Great Libraries of Alexandria

I have finally converted by scholarly paper on this subject for the web.  It is long, detailed and heavily annotated.  As it is intended as an academic work, it is not so user friendly as many of the articles here, but for those who have previously asked me to email it to them, I now present it on-line for the first time.  Full footnotes and a bibliography are provided.

Modern Physics and Ancient Faith

This is a review of Stephan Barr's excellent book on the interaction between religion and modern science, especially his own field of quantum mechanics.  His main aim is to defeat the rather loose argument that the triumph of science must be a defeat for religion.  This he does very successfully.

18th October 2003

Copernicus and his Revolutions

This is the final essay written for my Masters degree. It examines the famous work of Copernicus and dismantles many of the myths that surround it. Copernicus's heliocentric system was not notably more simple nor more accurate than the ones that went before it, and neither did he inspire much clerical opposition. Given all that, this essay asks where he got the idea from and why he stuck with it.

9th September 2003

The Mythical Conflict between Science and Religion

There can be little doubt that most people still cling to the idea of a great conflict between science and religion.  Current disagreements over creationism should not disguise the fact that most Christians have had a harmonious relationship with science and many have been great scientists.  This article examines the myths of conflict and looks at the real source of disagreement.

12th June 2003

On the Development of Scientific and Religious Ideas

Here are two more essays that have been written as part of my academic studies.  Both have been re-edited to be accessible to that mythical being, the educated layman.  The first is largely theoretical and deals with how we can actually do history given that old fashioned ideas about progress have been widely rejected.

Medieval Science, the Church and Universities

I have been involved in many debates about the relationship between science and religion. This essay sets the context for the debate about how the two subjects interacted in the period leading up to the Scientific Revolution, as well as making yet another attempt to kill off the old 'conflict hypothesis'. My introductory article on how Christianity might have helped science has been moved to the 'Christianity' section as it does not really belong with academic history.

25th May 2003

The Decline and End of Witch Trials in Europe

After far too long, I have finally got around to posting this essay.  There are a few more in the pipeline on the conflict between science and religion, the work of Copernicus and science in the Middle Ages.  Hopefully, I can format them for the web and up load them in the not to distant future!  This essay was written for my Masters course and deals with one of the most contentious areas of history.

1st July 2002

Christianity and Paganism

Guest writer Justin Martyr is a professional classicist who specialises in myths.  He is familiar with the latest scholarship (which is more than can be said about the authors of some articles on the internet comparing Christianity to pagan myth) and explains why the alleged parallels are illusionary or irrelevant .  He includes some in depth comments about Dennis MacDonald's work on the epics of Homer and Mark's Gospel.

Theories and Methodologies in the Study of the Historical Jesus and Christian Origins

This essay was written for my Masters and is an attempt to present a neutral picture of the current methods of critical scholars working on Jesus and early Christianity.

6th April 2002

Update on Bede's Library

Yes, it has been a very long time since I've updated anything. Unfortunately the time I used to devote to this site is now taken up by trying to complete a History masters while also holding down a full time job. As you can see, I've finally ditched the background pattern and the odd font colours. I liked the old look but sadly no one else did... I've also added some minor edits here and there where kind email correspondents have pointed out errors.

Do Science and Christianity Conflict?

Guest writer Kenneth Boyce, like me a Christian with a physics degree and also with one in philosophy as well, explains how the popular perception of conflict is mistaken. He takes us through the historical and methodological background to arrive at a much clearer understanding of what the relationship between science and Christianity actually is.

11th November 2001

Christianity and Pagan Literature

This article examines the common perception that the shortage of classical literature today was the fault of the Christian church. It examines the sources and looks at the real reason that so much perished during the Dark Ages. Also The Myth of the Flat Earth has been moved to the History section where it belongs.

31st October 2001

Science and Christianity

Guest writer Hieronymus issues a powerful plea for Christians not to be on the defensive about the advances of science or listen to atheists who claim there is an inevitable conflict between faith and reason.

The Myth of the Flat Earth

Debunking a popular myth, this article explains that Columbus was not opposed by Christians who thought the world was flat and in fact no one at the time thought this anyway..

6th October 2001

The Fine Tuning of the Genetic Code

This is a short essay examining the similarities between human languages and the language of our genes. It asks if both could be the products of minds.

Consilience by Edward O Wilson

A review of Wilson's love letter to science. Links to more reviews of this book can be found at my Review Index.

The Myth that Jesus Never Existed.

The Internet is awash with atheist fundamentalists who try to prove Jesus never lived. This theory is scorned by even the most liberal of academic scholars but has taken on a life of its own. This light hearted article looks at the methods of the Jesus Mythers and also has a go at applying their ideas to another ancient figure.

22nd June 2001

In Defence of the Fine Tuning Design Argument

After a very long delay I have finally something new to offer. The Secular Web is hosting an essay of mine on fine tuning that I have also linked to my Philosophy Index page. This is the 'Design Argument' essay that many of you have asked why there is a dead link to! Richard Carrier has already written a rebuttal.

27th March 2001

A debate on whether belief in a god is reasonable

Net atheist Cygnus and I had this debate in early 2001 and it is reproduced here in full and unedited. The debate took place on his discussion boards and I hope you will agree it was a worthwhile exercise.

18 March 2001

Seekers' Guide to the Bible - Old Testament

At long last I have finished the Seekers' Guide to include the Old Testament. I have covered what we find there, what we don't, the different versions and questions about who wrote it and how much we should believe.

8th February 2001

Links to History sites

This page contains links to some of the most valuable reference recourses on the Internet with my comments and commendations. Also included are some sites that give a good introduction to medieval science and the role that Christianity played in bringing about the scientific revolution.

New look

The Library has been getting too big and unwieldy so I have, like any good librarian, split it into sub-sections. I hope the new look is to everyone's liking and makes the Library more user friendly and easy to navigate.

28th January 2001

Reviews of History of Science books

Been a while since the last up load and a major reorganisation is on the way. Meanwhile, here are reviews of some books about the history of early science and religion that I have been reading. This has been a really fascinating subject and I hope to be able to study it in more depth some day. These books are mainly undergraduate textbooks which give overviews of the subject (because we all have to start somewhere).

The Gospel of Peter

This is a transcription of the extant fragment of the Gospel of Peter with some commentary to show why everyone (bar, it seems, John Dominic Crossan) realises it was written after the three synoptic gospels.

Links on the Bible and Historical Jesus

I have gathered all the links on the Bible together onto one page and added a few new ones. These may be controversial as they include pseudo-Christians and those who deny the existence of Jesus altogether. However, I remained committed to including links to all shades of opinion as well as to sites that I think are actually right.

3rd December 2000

Review of John Dominic Crossan's The Historical Jesus

This is the most controversial of the many books about the Historical Jesus and because it rejects much of what we take for granted about the New Testament has become prime material for atheist propaganda. My review is mixed because I cannot help feeling that Crossan above all wants to string together a good theory rather than come to the truth.

5th November 2000

Index of book reviews

As well as there being over fifty book reviews on this site the Internet has thousands. So I have searched high and low for other people's reviews of the books that I have covered and put them all together in this index. I hope this will be a useful resource to those interested in the huge variety of opinion on some of the more contentious books of recent years. And if there are reviews I have not found myself I would be very grateful to anyone who lets me know about them with the feedback form or by email.

2th November 2000

Christianity and the Rise of Science

A long essay on how Christianity helped bring about the rise of modern science. I have given a brief history of science in the Middle Ages with particular reference to those factors that brought about the over throw of Aristotlelism. On the way a few myths about the alleged anti-scientific bias of the church are disposed of.

28th October 2000

Opinions, beliefs and biases

Added the Apostles' Creed as a statement of faith.

18th October 2000

Christian links

Updated the Christian links page to include a not terribly flattering review of CARM.

Feedback

Added a feed back form to allow instant anonymous feedback. It remains to be seen whether anyone will use it.

10th October 2000

The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria

A long essay examining all the ancient source documents to do with the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria. We find that early Christians had nothing to do with it, Edward Gibbon's myth-making notwithstanding, but that Julius Caesar might be responsible.

Why I am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell

A review of Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian.

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Last revised 08 December 2009 .