Author: Mark Rubinstein
Mark Rubinstein is a retired professor of finance who taught at the University of California at Berkeley. He now writes on early Christianity and humanism.
The Christian Moral Code, Part 5: Love
By the time of Jesus, the commandment to “love thy neighbor” was already part of most religions and also Greco-Roman philosophy.
The Christian Moral Code, Part 4: Hell and Achievement
The idea of Hell encapsulates much that is contradictory and perverse in Christianity.
The Christian Moral Code, Part 3: Humility
“Once formed by making the last first, the Catholic Church then became dedicated to keeping the first first.”
The Christian Moral Code, Part 2: Forgiveness
In the context of New Testament theology, forgiveness is incoherent and ultimately contradictory.
The Christian Moral Code, Part 1: Sin
“Where does an egoistic faith such as Christianity take us? It leads to . . . a morality that is frozen in place as human experience accumulates.”
God’s Voting Record: Quanitfying Inconsistency
If we count biblical inconsistencies as subjects on which God voted against himself, the scope of biblical errancy becomes stunningly clear.
Application for the Position of Biblical Evangelist*
A scrap from the dawn of the New Testament. Um, not really.
C. S. Lewis and Proof by Metaphor
Christian writer C. S. Lewis is not right; he is just much better than you are at inventing literary comparisons.
What Happened When Jesus Died? A Fictional Firsthand Account
How might a follower of Jesus write about the events surrounding his death? Be prepared for some surprising revelations.
Jesus, the Christian Seneca
As a moral thinker, Seneca leaves Jesus in the dust. Why do we never hear someone ask, “What would Seneca do?”
The Rape of the Classical World
Despite early Christians’ efforts to destroy it, the ancients—especially the Greeks—had much of value that contemporary society could stand more of.
Anticipating Hamlet in the Gospels: God’s Plan, Mere Coincidence, or Intentional Deception?
By the same principles that prove the Old Testament a precursor of Jesus, Jesus is just as obviously a precursor of Hamlet.
I Believe in Superman
“While we hardly know anything about Jesus before he was thirty, we have hundreds of hours of video-recorded testimony about Superman growing up in his hometown of Smallville, Kansas…”
This article is available for free to all.Faith: A Disappearing Concept
In the last analysis, faith is the last defense shielding the believer against introspection.
What Paul Revere’s Ride Tells Us about Jesus
According to best estimates, the first Gospel recording the life of Jesus (Mark) was composed about forty years after his crucifixion and quickly became firmly believed by hundreds if not thousands of people. Surely this is too soon, and its success too stunning, for Mark’s account to be largely fabricated. Yet, we don’t have to …
Twenty Christian Questions
So you think you know your Gospels? Test your mettle with this multiple-choice quiz (answers appear on page 54): 1. What year was Jesus born? A. 4 BCE, when Herod the Great ruled over Judea B. 6 CE, wh en Cyrenius (or Quirinius) was governor of the province of Syria 2. Was Jesus born …