Sociocultural analysis, the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, and Manners and Customs of the Bible. Yes, they do have a connection...

Last month, OT scholar John Walton gave a public lecture entitled “Do believers have to make a choice between science and faith?” at which he “explore[d] how we might faithfully read Genesis 1 and 2, in light of its Ancient Near Eastern context”. [1] Unsurprisingly, as Christadelphian - Origins Discussion noted, [2] Walton’s eminently sensible approach was met with unremitting hostility by an ultra-conservative part of the Christadelphian community which to date has twice attacked Walton, accusing him of denying the inspiration of the Bible and promoting an intellectual, elitist approach to the Bible. Christadelphiain - Origins Discussion has ably refuted these criticisms of Walton so there is no need for me to beat this particular dead horse into the dirt. However, the ongoing argument in the US about interpreting the Second Amendment of the US constitution provides a fascinating insight into the need for sociocultural analysis to more fully understand the Bible, which unlike the US constitution was written thousands of years ago in three different languages by people living in an alien culture to ours.

When YECs share Israel-related archaeology news without recognising how it undermines their worldview

A few weeks ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced [1] the discovery of the largest neolithic settlement yet found in Israel. Located near the town of Motza just west of Jerusalem, the 9000 year old settlement would have numbered around 3000, making it the Neolithic equivalent of a city. Given that anthropologists believed that at this time the area west of Jordan was largely empty, with large settlements on the eastern side of Jordan, this discovery is understandably being hailed as momentous.

I've noticed over the years that fundamentalist Protestant Christians, particularly those with an obsessive interest in eschatology who see every geopolitical or sociocultural event that even tangentially affects Israel as an alleged fulfillment of Biblical prophecy will reflexively share Israel-related news. Recently, I noticed that one obscure website had shared a Times of Israel article commenting on this discovery. Browsing the website quickly made apparent to me its evolution denialism, which immediately raised the question of why a website maintained by people who appear to believe the entire universe is 6000 years old bothered to report the discovery of a Neolithic settlement that is three thousand years older than the age of the universe according to their view of reality.