[irrelig]This time around we tackle a listener’s email and then delve straight into some of the craziest shit you’ve ever heard, straight from the word of Almighty God himself: the Bible.

Crazy, crazy shit.

And for some reason, Leighton wants me to post this image, even though we barely touched on 2nd Kings:

[irrelig]Oh yeah, Satan’s holiday is over and we’re back in a big way. For this episode of ANN, we cover the Vatican’s views on Halloween, some lunatic Christian’s views on Halloween, and Orrin Hatch’s measure to include prayer as an insurance-reimbursable, tax-deductible form of medicine.

There has been no shortness of crazy while we’ve been away.

[irrelig]In this guest podcast, we interview renowned New Testament scholar and Jesus Seminarian Bob Price about a wide array of topics, including the Testimonium Flavianum of Josephus, New Testament authors cribbing from Old Testament sources, and a little-known fellow named Apollonius of Tyana.

Laughs, insights, and Leighton’s annoyances abound in this episode. Don’t miss it!

[ann]For this episode, we discuss a few topics left over from the flood podcast in a little more detail. We also debut our Noah’s Ark commercial, which was excluded from the last podcast to ensure a kid-friendly environment. Finally, we discuss the curious case of a man who brutally murdered his wife and five children, but is afraid to kill himself because suicide might prevent him from getting into Heaven.

Let me help the guy out a bit: if characters like Abraham, Joshua, Noah, and Jesus got into Heaven, the entrance requirements must be pretty low.

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[irrelig]In this podcast, which was delayed due to all the beeping required to make it kid-friendly, we go over all the evidence that relates to a worldwide flood 4400 years ago. We describe various creationist interpretations of that evidence, and then we describe reality.

A couple of caveats to this podcast: first, even though the subject matter is (mostly) clean and suitable for children, refuting creationist claims requires talking about real science, and that can sometimes get complex. So the podcast, as it turned out, will probably not be suitable for children because depending on their age, they might not understand what we’re talking about — just like church. We have a solution for that in the form of an upcoming podcast, which, unlike church, will be easily understandable and enjoyable to listen to: it’s going to be about “crazy Bible stories.” I have a hunch adults will like it too.

Second, when Leighton and I are discussing the creationist “evidence” for the flood in terms of large boulders carried off far from their point of origin, we got off track making fun of the creationists. Our point was that just because no obvious solution immediately presents itself doesn’t mean there isn’t one. We focus on humans moving boulders around in the past (which for whatever reasons they did do) but forgot to mention the most obvious solution: glaciers. Glaciers could certainly have moved massive boulders for miles and then receded, leaving the boulders in place without much in the way of clues as to how they got there. This is speculation on my part, but I imagine it would be easy to determine whether the boulders were deposited by flood or glacier by taking a peek at the environment on which the boulders rest.

Next week: Bob Price!

[ann]Listener Chris sent us a link to a discussion about marketing Jesus to improve our Lord and Savior’s brand image for the current generation. We give you a peek at the fruits of their campaign in the form of two inane commercials, and then we give it the old Irreligiosophy treatment with a commercial of our own in response.

We also discuss Ray Comfort and Mike Seaver’s attempt to invade college campuses in advance of Darwin’s 150th anniversary and infect our centers of higher learning with their own brand of stupidity.

Don’t miss it!