Bart Ehrman vs. James White Debate

Dr. Bart D. Ehrman debates Dr. James R. White on the question "Did the Bible Misquote Jesus?" This debate took place at the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Sheraton Airport Hotel on January 21, 2009. The discussion stems from Bart's book, "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why." The book which made the New York Times Best Seller list, introduces lay readers to the field of textual criticism of the Bible. Ehrman discusses a number of textual variants that resulted from intentional or accidental manuscript changes during the scriptorium era. James White provides a detailed rebuttal to counter Bart's claims.

Albania Hit by Most Severe Earthquake in Decades | DW News

At least 13 people have been killed in Albania and hundreds more injured in the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in decades. The 6.4 magnitude quake struck 30 kilometers northwest of the capital Tirana, causing buildings to collapse and sending panicked residents out into the streets. It's the second earthquaketo have hit the country in the past two months.

Documentary: When the Moors Ruled in Europe

Spain's Islamic Legacy Source of Controversy | Focus on Europe

Andalusia has a rich Islamic past. Its Mosque of Cordoba is world-famous. But now that some Arab countries have donated money to restore such architectural treasures, Spain's right-wing populists are stoking fears.

In Search of the Spirit of Al-Andalus

With the Moorish architecture of Granada's Alhambra and Córdoba cathedral as a backdrop, Marcel Theroux meets a group of Spanish Muslims who are drawing on the area's Islamic legacy to a promote a new religious tolerance

Chuka Umunna Attacks PM for 'Following the Trump Playbook'

THE GUARDIAN: Boris Johnson epitomises new populist rightwing politics, says Lib Dem candidate

Chuka Umunna has warned that an election win for Boris Johnson would represent a further victory for populist rightwing nationalists such as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán, saying the prime minister’s dishonesty and prejudice made him unfit for No 10.

Umunna, who speaks on foreign affairs for the Liberal Democrats, used a speech to liken Johnson to leaders also including Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying they shared “a certain type of politics – rightwing, conservative, nationalist and authoritarian”.

He also further acknowledged the Lib Dems’ position would be at least to prevent a Conservative majority, saying voters should bear in mind “the parliamentary arithmetic” of the next House of Commons over issues such as Brexit. » | Peter Walker, Political correspondent | Monday, November 25, 2019

Prince Charles Set for Angry Showdown with Prince Andrew over Ongoing Epstein Scandal

THE TELEGRAPH: The Prince of Wales will this week demand what is likely to be a heated showdown with his younger brother, over the continued fallout from the disastrous Newsnight interview.

The Prince, who returns from a 12-day tour to India, New Zealand and the Solomon Islands on Tuesday ), is expected to order the Duke of York to Clarence House to discuss the ongoing furore.

Sources have claimed the Prince of Wales is furious that his important visit to the South Pacific - which had been intended to highlight a number of environmental issues such as climate change and rising ocean levels - has been completely overshadowed by the row over the Duke's relationship with the paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. » | Martin Evans and Victoria Ward | Monday, November 25, 2019

Tony Blair Says Tories and Labour Engaged in ‘Populism Running Riot'

THE GUARDIAN: Former PM lambasts parties and says upcoming election is ‘weirdest of my lifetime’

Tony Blair has said neither Labour nor the Conservatives are seen as fit to win the general election, accusing both parties of peddling “fantasies”.

The former prime minister, one of the architects of New Labour who was speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event in London, said Britain’s biggest parties were engaged in “populism running riot” and it would end in tears.

Blair has repeatedly called for Brexit to be reversed and said the right thing would have been to hold a second referendum followed by a general election.

He described the poll on 12 December as “the weirdest of my lifetime”, adding: “The truth is: the public aren’t convinced either main party deserve to win this election outright. They’re peddling two sets of fantasies and both, as majority governments, pose a risk it would be unwise for the country to take.”

Blair, who guided Labour to three election victories, said people “rightly” did not trust Boris Johnson with a “blank cheque”. He said though Labour were promising a revolution, “the problem with revolutions is never how they begin but how they end”. » | Haroon Siddique | Monday, November 25, 2019

Freedom From Religion Foundation Lecture

Juul Says Its Focus Was Smokers, but It Targeted Young Nonsmokers

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The company planted the seeds of a public health crisis by marketing to a generation with low smoking rates, and it ignored evidence that teenagers were using its products.

SAN FRANCISCO — In the face of mounting investigations, subpoenas and lawsuits, Juul Labs has insisted that it never marketed or knowingly sold its trendy e-cigarettes and flavored nicotine pods to teenagers.

As youth vaping soared and “juuling” became a high school craze, the company’s top executives have stood firm in their assertion that Juul’s mission has always been to give adult smokers a saferalternative to cigarettes, which play a role in the deaths of 480,000 people in the United States each year.

“We never wanted any non-nicotine user and certainly nobody underage to ever use Juul products,” James Monsees, a co-founder of the company, testified at a congressional hearing in July.

But in reality, the company was never just about helping adult smokers, according to interviews with former executives, employees and investors, along with reviews of legal filings and social media archives. » | Julie Creswell and Sheila Kaplan | Saturday, November 23, 2019

The Gospel Truth: Sometimes a Little Hazy

Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio (NPR). She interviews Bart on March 4th, 2009 and centers the discussion to reflect on Bart's book "Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them)." The conversation addressed such questions as; what is the story of Jesus' birth? How did Judas die? What did Jesus say when he was crucified? The answers to those questions vary depending on which Gospel you read, says Bible scholar Bart Ehrman. He says that each Gospel writer had a different message — and that readers should not "smash the four Gospels into one big Gospel and think that [they] get the true understanding."

Netanyahu Indicted on Corruption Charges, But Won't Step Down

Is this the end of the 13-year Netanyahu era? What is Trump learning from Netanyahu’s unprecedented response to the charges against him?

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) International Leadership Award Presented to Sacha Baron Cohen at Never Is Now 2019

Sacha Baron Cohen: Facebook would have let Hitler buy ads for 'final solution' »

Plaid Cymru Says Wales Can Be Cradle of a Global Green Revolution

THE GUARDIAN: At manifesto launch, leader Adam Price compares vision to that of John F Kennedy during space race

The Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price, struck a defiant note at the launch of his party’s manifesto, claiming that an independent Wales could become the cradle of a global green revolution.

Price announced a range of ambitious policies including three power-generating tidal lagoons, a barrage and an offshore wind farm as well as new rail lines and metro networks.

Comparing his dreams to those of John F Kennedy at the time of the space race, Price said the plans were audacious but achievable if the people of Wales pulled together and freed themselves from the control of the Westminster government. » | Steven Morris | Friday, November 22, 2019

Duke of York Clings to Pitch@Palace Business Role

THE TELEGRAPH: Duke refuses to give up role where he can take cut of every deal

The Duke of York has refused to step aside from all public duties by staying at the helm of an initiative set up at Buckingham Palace that allows him to make money out of tech deals. The Duke, who founded Pitch@Palace, which matches investors with start-up tech companies, is expected to host an event at St James's Palace next month, although a planned trip to Bahrain was cancelled on Thursday night amid the furore. It comes as he resigned from his position as patron of the Outward Bound Trust as the catastrophic fallout his Newsnight interview continues. Royal sources said Pitch@Palace would move to his "private portfolio". Terms and conditions for Pitch@Palace Global Ltd reveal the company – of which the Duke is the "significant" controller – is entitled to a share of any investment deal for three years. Read on for the details. » | Chris Price | Friday, November 22, 2019

Exclusive: Bolsonaro Is Turning Back the Clock on Brazil, Says Lula da Silva

THE GUARDIAN: The former union leader and two-term president said his mission now was to “battle for democracy”

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to spearhead opposition to the country’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, warning that his country is backsliding on years of hard fought progress.

“Bolsonaro has already made clear what he wants for Brazil: he wants to destroy all of the democratic and social conquests from the last decades,” he told the Guardian.

In his first interview for a foreign newspaper since he was released from prison two weeks ago, the two-term president said his mission now was to “battle for democracy”.

“The Worker’s party is preparing to come back and govern this country!” he said, slapping the table. But Lula made no clear indication he would run for president in the country’s next general elections.

“In 2022, I’ll be 77. The Catholic church – with 2,000 years of experience – retires its bishops at 75,” he said. » | Sam Cowie in São Paulo | Friday, November 22, 2019

Prince Andrew’s Friendship With Epstein Joins a List of Royal Scandals

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A highly scorned televised interview by the prince was only the latest upheaval to befall Britain’s royal family over the past century.

LONDON — The British monarchy has survived public crises before — religious schisms, revolutions, murderous kings — but this week the royal family scrambled to confront a relatively new opponent: the embarrassing televised interview.

The Duke of York, better known as Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, struggled to defend himself during a < ahref=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/world/europe/prince-andrew-epstein.html?module=inline target=_blank>50-minute interview with the BBC as he talked about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of sex trafficking.

His interview, widely criticized in the British press as disastrous after it was broadcast last weekend, catapulted a long-simmering controversy into a full-blown scandal for the royal family, among the worst in its modern history.

Reacting to the backlash, the prince announced on Wednesday that he was indefinitely stepping away from public life, with permission from the queen. But over the past century, a number of scandals have rattled the British royal family. » | Megan Specia and Alan Yuhas | Thursday, November 21, 2019

Prince Andrew’s Behaviour Has Put the Very Future of the Monarchy in Doubt

THE GUARDIAN: The Queen has been a point of stability in a precarious world, but the prince’s misjudgments over Jeffrey Epstein have refocused scrutiny on the institution that produced him

The institution of the monarchy, said Boris Johnson, is beyond reproach. It was such an odd response to the scandal engulfing Prince Andrew – so stiff, so forelock-tugging, so initially lacking in sympathy towards the teenage girls abused by the prince’s late friend Jeffrey Epstein – that it stuck in the mind long after the televised leaders’ debate ended. Perhaps, I thought, he was simply afraid of offending the Queen any further after dragging her into a shabby, unlawful prorogation of parliament.

Yet now one wonders if Johnson had an inkling of what was coming, when he chose to defend not Prince Andrew personally but the institution from which the prince has essentially resigned. For it is the institution itself that is now in danger. » | Gaby Hinsliff | Thursday, November 21, 2019

The toxic prince: Andrew handed royal P45 after tipping point reached »

Farage Under Fire for Conspiracy Claims Linked to Antisemitism

THE GUARDIAN: Brexit party leader tells evangelical Christian TV channel of threat from ‘globalists’ and mass migration

Nigel Farage has faced renewed criticism for discussing tropes and conspiracy theories associated with the far right and antisemitism after it emerged he said migration would “imperil the future of our civilisation” and called Goldman Sachs “the enemy”.

In an interview earlier this year with a tiny UK evangelical Christian TV channel, Revelation TV, the Brexit party leader alleged that banks and multinational corporations were trying to created a dictatorial world government.

The discussion, uncovered by the group Hope Not Hate, saw Farage single out Goldman Sachs, the investment bank founded by Jewish immigrant to the US that is often the focus of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

Farage also repeatedly used phrases such as “globalists” and “new world order”, which regularly feature in antisemitic ideas.

Discussing the necessity of preventing migrants who cross the Mediterranean into Europe from entering the UK, Farage said: “If we allow it to continue, we will actually, through our compassion, imperil the future of our civilisation.” » | Peter Walker, Political correspondent | Thursday, November 21, 2019

What is Christianity? Ehrman-Harris Podcast

Professor Bart D. Ehrman is interviewed by Host Sam Harris on podcast called "Waking Up" on May 1st, 2018. In episode #125 of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks to Bart Ehrman about his experience of being a born-again Christian, his academic training in New Testament scholarship, his loss of faith, the most convincing argument in defense of Christianity, the status of miracles, the composition of the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus, the nature of heaven and hell, the book of Revelation, the End Times, self-contradictions in the Bible, the concept of a messiah, whether Jesus actually existed, Christianity as a cult of human sacrifice, the conversion of Constantine, and other topics. The interview mentions Bart's book "The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World."