Dr Robert Beckford's 'Who Wrote The Bible?' (107mins)

Theologian Robert Beckford goes on a historical journey to uncover the true origins of the Torah and the New Testament. He finds that Moses may not have authored the books attributed to him, and that the New Testaments accounts of Jesus were written long after he was dead by people who never new him.
benjeesays...

A channel 4 documentary aired last year - a recent comment on another vid reminded me of this. I think Robert Beckford's fantastic, an academic theologian who repeatedly sets out to tear-apart his own christian faith. Long documentary (the fool who uploaded it hasn't removed the adverts!), but worth it for all the juicy information entertainingly presented inside...

westysays...

Robert Bedford's not the brightest person i watched all of these programs and felt thay lacked alot of information and wer not very intresting to watch. the opaning statement to this film "the world we live in is a dangerouse place" gives you an insight to his generick atitude on the world i personaly belive the world we live in today is far safer than it has been for over hundreds of years.

benjeesays...

I think it's interesting as he's actually dismembering his own beliefs, piece by piece (not very neutral in this respect - but even more fascinating for what he finds). As he's an academic theologian; TV presenting is his not his profession (although the subject of it is).

My favourite bible fact: it's second only to the Ikea catalogue in world readership. Finally: a reassuring statistic for modern life and religion!

benjeesays...

I think it's impossible to summarise the bible into 30 seconds. So summarising who wrote it & how its been edited over 2000 years wont be possible in under a minute. I'd start watching it and surf with him talking in the background, if you don't have time to watch (most visuals are sites he's visiting).

Whoever posted it to Google Video (ironically, as Islamic propaganda - even though that religion sources the bible too!) has left in a couple of advert breaks. Plus Dr Bedford does pad out his research with personal views etc - but I think these are needed to understand what he's doing.

siftbotsays...

Saving this video from queue deletion, sending it to the top of the queue for one more try. Originally submitted on Wednesday 27th September 2006 (save called by gold star member farhad2000)

benjeesays...

Thanks for the save Farhad...Although, I don't think the un-justified downvoters [Christians?] are as appreciative for it.

EDIT: Fletch accidently downvoted and I guess Raven doesn't like the dismembering of Christianity.

Benjee, I think I down-voted your "Who Wrote the Bible" vid accidentally. I can't check it because the comments page won't load for me for some reason. Anyway, if I did... sorry about that. I meant to up-vote it.

choggiesays...

Hey-Brilliant-C. S.Lewis did the same thing, always questioning. Fundamentalists of any creed, do themselves a disservice when they say to themselves, "I have the answers"

-a rough translation of the last statement, "I am quite comfortable, in my ignorance, and am done thinking."

Each morning, upon waking, try this mantra: "Everything I Know is Wrong!"...then the gods will shine down and shower upon you, untold blessings!

"Professing themselves wise, they became fools"-Rom. 1:22

Christians, automatically justify their bullshit ideas of God, without applying this statement to themselves. Jesus forgives sin, he does not give you the ability to decipher scriptures, like reading cereal box ingredients.
the answers, grasshoppers', is not even as easy as.."This life is all there is" or "when you die that's it"...if you are comfortable with this, then you too, fair sifter, are a dupe!
because, when day is done, you must admit, that is is faith which allows you to believe this!
(oh what, did your cousin send you a message from the afterlife??)

YoDaDeeOhsays...

As a Christ-follower AND a skeptic, I often struggle with the same issues as Dr. Benford. I appreciate what he is doing here, and that he is in a postion to go places and speak to people I am not able to. I am grateful to him for sharing some of his learnings. The path of the "faithful doubter" can be a pretty lonely journey sometimes...it's a nice feeling to know that there are others out there for whom the journey WITH God is the important thing, and to become militantly entrenched in any particular point of view is to cease journeying.

EMPIREsays...

Although the origins of the bible are important, what is really importante is how gullible people are about it.
Believers (not all of them I'm sure but still the majority for certain) actually take as the word of god, texts written in an obscure age, by obscure figures, with obscure intents, who in many cases weren't even eye witnesses to the events. A time when ignorance was the rule, very few knew how to read or write, stories were passed down in tellings, not in writing (and I'm sure we can all agree, that after you pass a short story through 10 different people, the result at the end is quite different from was originally told. Now imagine that with hundreds or thousands of people, through out the ages. I'm sure the core of the story is totally corrupted at the end).
You wanna believe in a god.... sure. Why should I care?
But you have to be pretty feeble minded to actually believe that a book so old, with so many errors, mistakes, and omissions is actually from god trying to tell you something. Stop being drones.
Not to mention the obvious things in the story of Jesus (like the birth on the 25th December, being the son of god, being from humble origins, dying and rising again, being cruficied, etc) are also the characteristics of many other "messiahs" in the world, a whole lot before Christ came to be.

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