Jesus trashes the OT? — Podcast List — THE UNCENSORED UNPROFESSOR

Jesus' Hard Sayings, Jesus said. . . That?!

"Unless you hate your parents and siblings, and even your own life, you cannot be my disciple," Luke 14:26. What a harsh statement! We have to hate our parents? Our sisters? Children? Why was that utterance even more severe in the first century than it is today? Was Jesus being literal? How does that square with "love your enemies"? We're to love enemies but hate our own family? That seems upside down, absurd even. We first explore this brutal statement in its literary and historical context. Then we show what it can mean in our own world today. At the show's beginning I reflect, again, on consciousness and mind. Do computers think? Do they remember? Experience? What has caused us to view computers with such awe? And, why do so many hope for an A.I. utopian future? All of that is unpacked in this rich episode. Give the Lord your mind and come and think with me!

Uncensored Unprofessor

Jesus said. . . That?!, Jesus' Hard Sayings

Hindus who've never read four Gospel sentences and Wiccans all know he said it, "love your enemies." But since we know Jesus was not trying either to lay down a new ethical code or teach pacifism, what was his point? What did his words mean in a first century business framework of amicitia? What did Jesus' words mean in light of the Old Testament teaching on enemies? Just how should one pray for one's enemies? How have these specific words of Jesus reshaped western civilization? In the show's opening I also reflect on how Daniel Dennett, a leading evolutionary philosopher, explains away consciousness and mind. Moreover, I lament the global Church's leadership vacuum; what do we do in light of the dearth of leaders?