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- 488: Even More Problematic Ezra Edition June 23, 2022In this week’s episode, the foremost exporter of child molesters has strong opinions on which flags to fly, Ted Cruz warns us about the Chinese plot involving cartoon space lesbians, and Don Ford will be here to advance that plot. But don’t tell Ted. --- Come see us at QED in Manchester! Find tickets here: https://qedcon.org/ To make a per episode donation a […]Puzzle in a Thunderstorm, LLC
- 487: Running Up That Hillsong Edition June 16, 2022In this week’s episode, A Christian terrorist realizes too late that burning down Hell doesn’t even make sense, Christians ignore the Norse God of Thunder in the Marvel universe but have a full meltdown about a Muslim girl, and Anna Bosnick joins us to run up that Hillsong. --- To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com […]Puzzle in a Thunderstorm, LLC
- 486: Grand Unified Edition June 9, 2022In this week’s episode, Christian leaders will tell their members to take pride … from somebody else, Marjorie Taylor Greene Republicans into a camera again, and Tom and Cecil will be here to discuss the stupidity Voltron of modern American culture. --- To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheist To buy o […]Puzzle in a Thunderstorm, LLC

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Live Blogging the Bible: Leviticus Preface
by Noah Lugeons
On the suggestion of a professor that Carl interviewed on the Post Rapture Looting Atheist Podcast, when I set out to read the bible, I purchased the 4th Edition New Oxford Annotated Bible. It was a bit more of an investment than many of my other bible options, but the annotations, reading guides, maps, apocrypha and summaries made it well worth the investment.
Each book in the New Oxford is preceded by a series of short essays that deal with authorship, interpretation, structure, history and a short “reading guide” aimed to help the student appreciate exactly what they’ll be reading. Thus far these essays have been rather useful in structuring the discussions we have on the books as well as giving me a bit of a life raft while I’m drowning in the prehistoric insanity of this tome.
The reading guide for Leviticus contained a rather interesting suggestion that basically said the best way to read Leviticus is to not read it. After a brief and desperate attempt to downplay the raving lunacy of this section of the bible, the scholars offered the following advice:
In keeping with the theme of our “Holy Babble” segment, of course, I ignored this advice and dove right in. And it didn’t take long to figure out why they discourage such activity. I would submit that it’s all but impossible to maintain the internal fiction of divine authorship after reading even the first several verses in Leviticus.
It’s also no wonder to me that while most of us our familiar with many of the stories in Genesis and Exodus, we don’t know a damned thing about Leviticus. It certainly wouldn’t do well for the “divinely inspired” camp to try to rationalize the crazy shit in this book. Let’s just say it’ll be a long damn time before some creationist group opted for the moniker “Answers in Leviticus”.
I’m sure it’s not the most fucked up book in the bible (I hear tell that Deuteronomy trumps it early and often), but it is certainly the most fucked up thing I’ve ever read. There can be little doubt that this is a simple amalgamation of horribly misguided, pre-scientific tribal customs codified in a time before we understood medicine, meteorology, biology or succinctness.