I just finished reading God: An Anatomy. For all the decades I was a Christian I thought I read the Bible deeply, with my concordances and commentaries and such...but her book was an eye-opener. So many things I'd never noticed, so much context that I never grasped (even with my history degree). Great work!

Thank you for having Francesca on your show. Many are in the angry atheist stage. Some will never move past it. I was stuck in it for quite awhile. People like Francesca and Bart Ehrman are giving us the gift of history.

" You believe in a book that has talking animals,wizards,witches,demons,sticks turning into snakes,burning bushes,food falling from the sky.People walking on water, and all sorts of magical,absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?"~ Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"Insight into the ancient imagination" perfectly worded, that's why I find the bible so interesting as well even though I'm an atheist. It really is like time travel. Just ordered her book, can't wait to read it.

As always, Prof. Francesca delivers: facts mixed with her unique humor... Love Francesca!

Another must read and addition for my library! Thanks so much, Francesca - and you, too, Andrew!

Thank you for this. I've just bought a copy of her book. I'm grateful to her for promoting the study of the Bible for its own sake. I'm also an atheist and I love studying it. My reasons are: 1. Its primary importance in Western civilisation. The Bible is a profoundly important historical and cultural artifact. 2. Its continuing predominance in contemporary religious practice. 3. It rivals Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Maharashtra, the accounts of the pantheons of Greece and Rome, the Norse and Icelandic Sagas, the origin myths of China and Japan and others. The continuing cultural influence of these mythic stories is strong. So it deserves to be read and appreciated as great mythic literature.

*Brilliant Prof. Dr. Francesca Stavrakopoulou. Beauty and brains! ♥️ 🧠 🙌*

I've just bought the book after watching your podcast. Francesca is a breath of fresh air in a crowded and often hostile group of 'believers' and 'non-believers' arguing for and against the pantheon of deities that have come to dominate the lives of billions. I come from a generation where religious belief was assumed and an atheist was as strange a being as a vegetarian. How times have changed ... or have they?

Francesca needs to write more books...I need her knowledge

So happy you are on the planet! And on the topic of “not truly grasping the truth of the text” is classic cult tactics. Thanks again for your courage and diligence in studies!

Great podcast. Love both of you. Defying the myths of atheism, two of the most genuine, nicest, sweetest, kindest, most benevolent and altruistic people on the planet...both extremely intelligent as well. :)

What a brilliant discussion. Thank you Humanists UK and Prof Stavrakopoulou. I’ve started the book and it’s great!

Love this. Really added colour to the religious debate and helped me articulate why I’m a non believer. But also that doesn’t stop you benefiting from the messages and enjoying the stories within

Saw the book; bought instantly (well, as long as it took Amazon to deliver); loved it; this interview gives you a very fair account of the book! Charming, provocative, informative, questioning. Thanks, Francesca!

I just bought a copy myself. Prof. Francesca is a master of her craft, I wish I had the ability to enroll in some of her classes.

One of my earliest memories is asking Dad why there wasn't a picture of god in my bible. Super interesting to learn about what the original version of yahweh was meant to look like. A bit funny that in reality a depiction of him would've been too explicit for my children's bible. The fact that I have access to brilliant information like this makes me so grateful born in this era :) Subscribed!

I'll have to get Francesca's book now, ive always thought shes fascinating to listen to,especially when shes questioned by people with religious certainty

These billions of people now, and even these billions and billions of people who once lived and never believed in this god, those who couldn't know anything about this god, had satisfying and contend lives too. I'm pretty sure of that because I'm one of them.

Loved every second of this. Love the book too, started and a long way to go. We need humanism for neglected and abandoned humanity not religions or god/s. Keep up your good work!

So like her aprouch to this theme - and its so needed. Read the book in English, but whould have loved it to be translated in to Norwegian ( or Danish - easy to read for us). Thank you Prof Stavrakopoulous !

Professor Stavrakopoulou I can't enough good things about you. You're wonderful. Not only are you a gold plated academic but your demeanour when talking on your topic is a disarming mix of playful, childlike, feminine and complete grasp of your field. As a humanist you rock my boat big time and it's so easy to learn from you. Your students are so lucky! Paul Old guy New Zealand

Just ordered the book, and found the links (youtube videos) about it by chance. Can't wait to read it and get a better understanding of our history. Love the passion that Prof. Francesca puts in her work and explanations.

Incredibly intelligent lady. I can't remember the last time I heard so much common sense and logic, when religion is the topic of conversation. Refreshing, enlightening and.... ooooohhhh, spicy!!!! Brilliant presentation, will get the book asap!

Have ordered the book. What a treasure FS is.

Got it on Audible today! Professor Starvrakopoulou is always FANTASTIC! Awesome sense of humor too! Thank you, Professor!

A brilliant volume by a brilliant scholar! Great work, Prof. Francesca!

i found this book on Amazon as an audiobook in the US. Congratulations Professor!

Thank God for people like Francesca

Thank you Francesca 😊 I have just bought your book 😊

We love Francesca.

This woman is my new obsession! Greetings from Brazil ❤️🇧🇷

What a fascinating discussion! Thank you

Great academic. Will check out the book when I can.

The book is great. Loved it.

fascinating. TY.

Brilliant interview. Thank you both.

I would absolutely fall in love with Francesca after a good conversation on Hebrew Bible....well, I think I'm in love now BEFORE that conversation

love this

“Red” likely doesn’t refer to what we call red in English. In many parts of the non-western world (even in African American English) someone’s skin tone being red just means they have lighter skin. So light brown skin tone would be referred to being red or “redbone”.

Uproariously funny ~ divine comedy ~ Thank you so much guys for that ~

Henotheism is the term I’ve always heard for a group that accepts that other gods are real but choose to worship one over the others. And by that terminology, the Israelites who wrote the Bible seem quite Henotheistic, believing that many other gods/angels/demons all exist in a very Mt Olympus like hierarchical system.

I have to get that book. Francesca Stavrakopoulou is fantastic

Reading the Bible cured me of my belief in the Bible. I've met few christians who know what the bible says. They normally know what their teacher said.

41:37 Professor‘s grimace here makes me giggle a bit very interesting interview btw, hope we can hear more from Prof Stavrakopoulou in the future

A brilliant speaker... especially when she stresses her point of view... look at her eyes and teeth and lips movement ... amazing

My imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

To fix the flaw , Brilliant

So the serpent in the garden of Eden could be interpreted as Lillith returning to talk Eve into disobedience. It makes more sense to me than the serpent being Satan since the devil wants to destroy humankind, not use a subtle ploy to give god and her estranged husband the finger in an epic way.

I found her book on Amazon but it has a red cover instead of this cover, anyone know why that is?

Very interesting conversation. I definitely experienced god's wind.

All evil starts with 2 things. 1. Is seeing people as things. The moment you stop seeing people as people but start seeing people as things you open your mind to 2. Greed and the idea that the needs of your small group are more important than the needs of another small group. Christianity creates a belief that those who are not saved through their own gullibility are somehow evil and evil people are just trash because their evil My interpretation of humanism says that people make mistakes because of lack of knowledge and that if someone saw how being immoral really just hurts yourself (even if your immoral deeds never get found out) they would leave behind those immoral behaviors. There are no people that should be thrown away. Just educated.

God = Life Jesus = Humane Humanity Christ = at One with Life Empty of ego (separateness) = Full of Life Holy Spirit = Eternally actualizing Infinite potential Dream it, feel it, do it.

Okay, I've ordered the book, mainly because I want to know how Yaweh has aged. Was he born an adult? Does he look like an incredibly old man now, or does he remain young and handsome?

So glad she mentioned that book. I read it 20 years ago and loved the ideas within. And then Willem Defoe played Jebus in the movie of it.

Marvellous interview, love her book! It helped alot with my research. Monotheistm is destined to return to politheism and to its animal forms again, it's its natural course

I like Dr. Stavrakopoulou's innocence in her approach to dissecting the scriptures. Being an unbeliever, she does not have to un-learn what she has learned, but rather follow the evidence to wherever it leads. Platonic philosophy was popular in the later Rome era, and Christianity had split into scores of sects by about 200 CE with the Roman sect mixing Platonic philosophy therein. Constantine didn't legalize all of Christianity, rather only the Roman sect of Christianity which had neutered God.

Not sure about her explanation of why people remove(d) their shoes before entering holy places, in many cultures. I don’t think that was about “connecting”; rather, it was about dirt. Everything from dust to excrement was part of the environment, and it makes much more sense that this is why one takes the shoes off. In Islamic tradition, one washes the feet, too, before entering the prayer room. This a more likely reason for that custom. Sometimes, dirt is just dirt.

Wonderful women

The word Life fits in very well instead of the word God in all aspects for the Universal being we are.

We exist/operate as a trinity. There is our body, the outer world, and our mind. The father, the son, and the holy spirit.

A sky wizard of Oz,becomes a zombie carpenter to save us all from a magic apple curse?That people is why mankind is doomed

I wonder Doctor Stavrakopoulou, based on your studies, can we match celestial events (comets, eclipses, etc) with the scriptures somehow? That could bring a whole new sphere of knowledge.

Ah ha... so then, Jesus, Yahweh, etc. were apparently "trending" in their time. The ever-present generational gap, elders-wise. The phrases, "Jesus movement..." and "fill the gap to fix the flaw." Both telling and thought provoking. Thanks Humanists UK ~~ :)

Lovely juicy Braaiins 🧟‍😊💞🥇AWESOME book 🏆

Neville would smile about consciences wrestle each other.

My parents were indifferent to religion, but as a Greek, we were studying both Jesus and Hercules stories in primary school, so I thought they were brothers from different mothers. Their stories were so similar. They both lived in ancient times, had god as a father, traveled around and performed miracles. I was ridiculed in class when I said they were half brothers, but as I grew up I realized I wasn't exactly wrong!

25:44 Did Francesca just let it rip?

Exceptionalism

“We are monotheists, unlike those pagans. We have only one god, & also an evil spirit, & also the son of god, & the holy spirit, & the holy mother.”

On the subject of Paul not saying anything about Jesus being on earth... isn't the most obvious explanation that Paul had never heard of Jesus being on earth?

I was curious if in your research have you encountered the idea of "Yahweh" literally being the sound we humans make when breathing. This concept comes from the idea that "God" breathes life into humans and is considered the "breath of life". Ever come across any of that, Francesca?

Stavrakopoulou means "woman of the (Holy) Cross" THE irony.....

If there’s a video of how Moses parted the sea or Jesus Christ walking on water I’d like to see them please 😅

“The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy “, Mark McCutcheon something new under the sun!

25:35

I thought i was christian as a nieve kid, became an athiest as i got older and saw gaping holes in the gospel, and as an adult id call myself a agnostic, being rather open minded about who and why we are here, and im yet to settle on 1 individual idea of the human condition. I grew up in a plymouth brethren family. We were excommunicated and turned brethren, until a difference of opinions caused a parting of the ways, and we became open brethren. My fathers fire n brimstone sermons and hour long winded prayers were not appreciated, and we moved on to the gospel hallers, where we made a home. Talk about pius and hypocritical wankers. Lol. I have forgotten more of the bible than i can ever remember, ( i earnt my pocket money learning and reciting verses that were randomly chosen) and now having done considerable research, i believe the cover story of the bible is plagerised from other previous texts, but underneath there is a hidden code that tells the true story. One thing i can say is that the book of revelation has nothing to do with the return of christ.

51:24 well, I do think most prominent women of that time of transition is also complicit on this

The Bible has incredible scientific accuracy like round Earth and jet streams and quarantine.

I am wondering when YHWH stopped being a tribal god for a specific tribe in the Levant, and became a universal god for all humanity, although still a bit exclusive within Judaism.

Jude 1:4/paraphrased... "for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who perverted and turned the Grace of God into LASCIVIOUSNESS/LEWDLINESS (sexual immorality) and denying the deity of the Lord God (YHWH) and Lord Christ Jesus." ... Amen.

Was the dream dreamt by Isaiah or Ezequiel?

Why are you not covered by main stream media?

● My First QUESTION for; *FRANCESCA STAVRAKOPOULOU* 👇🏿 Was *PONTIUS PILATE*, who was, The Fifth Governor of the ROMAN Province of JUDAEA, and served under the Emperor, CAESAR AUGUSTUS a FICTIONAL Character in history or a FACTUAL Character in history ❓🤔💭

It’s called Organizing religion for a reason

Spirit translates as breath.

This is a woman that I think is beautiful, but I'm not certain it isn't because I love her brain and her laugh. "The God of the Jews is the *_big dog_* of the heavens."!

one might almost say the idea of Augustine is at some fundamental level Jewish, we live in time we can imagine time, hence (obviously viscious cirle logic) think our way forward as one 'community' of 'believers' etc etc

I got the idea of god’s body when I read that Yahweh was going to show his backside to Moses in Exodus 33.23.

700 bc. Starting median Empire . United whit babilonian defit asurien. Its signifisen episode in that era.

“Misogyny” is an anachronistic term when speaking of an ancient context. The question needs a much more nuanced take than is given here. This thumbs-up/thumbs-down approach is very culturally coded, and colors her discussion in a way that’s surprising for someone at her level.

"The triune God Christianity presents - what a scam..." Right on!! I would like to note that not all christians buy into that scam...😇

If I lived in UK, I swear I would make this woman my wife! I love when she crushes fundamentalists

But considering that there are many religions and they all have a God there are many Gods

Modern Israel is not the land of the Gospels.

Enlil versus Enki. Which is the genocide and which cares about humans? What were they? Where did they come from? Are they returning?

When people use sheep droppings and camel droppings to fuel their cooking fire. I believe they had smoked something akin to mushrooms.

"When we say…Jesus Christ…was produced without sexual union, and was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended to heaven, ***we propound nothing new or different*** *from what you believe regarding those whom you call Sons of God. [In fact]…if anybody objects that [Jesus] was crucified, this is in* ***common*** *with the sons of Zeus (as you call them) who suffered, as previously listed [he listed Dionysus, Hercules, and Asclepius].* Since their fatal sufferings are all narrated as not similar but different, so his unique passion should not seem to be any worse." *Note how Justin (Martyr) is less of a fool than modern Christian apologists. He admits that differences don’t matter.* Since each and every one of the suffering and dying gods are slain by different means, one cannot argue the mytheme requires exactly the same means of death. “But Osiris can’t have inspired the Jesus myth because Osiris wasn’t nailed to a cross” is a stupid argument. The mytheme is simply death. Being killed. Suffering and dying. The exact mode of death can vary freely. It makes no difference to the existence and influence of the mytheme. It’s simply the particular instantiation of a generic abstraction. *And Justin’s argument (that Satan invented these fake religions to confuse people) entails Justin agreed the mytheme existed: indeed, it was demonically promulgated, multiple times. Intentionally.* *Likewise, Justin notices the mytheme is not virgin birth, but sexless conception. Of which many examples had already been popularized in pagan mythology (there just happens to also have been examples of actual virgin born gods as well). And by his argument (that the Devil was deliberately emulating the Jesus mytheme, in advance), Justin clearly accepted the same principle for “rising again” after death:* the particular exact metaphysics of the resurrection could, like the exact method of death or conception, vary freely. The mytheme consists solely of the abstraction: returning to life. Somehow. Some way. We will say bodily, at the very least. But what sort of body (the same one, a new one, a mortal one, an immortal one), didn’t matter. *If it had, Justin would have made the argument that “those gods” weren’t really resurrected. But that argument, never occurs to him. Nor did it to any other apologist of the first three centuries.* *Ancient Christians well knew there was nothing new about their dying-and-rising god. Not in respect to the mytheme.* Their claims were solely that his particular instantiation of it was better, and the only one that actually happened. *They didn’t make up the stupid modern arguments that dying-and-rising god myths didn’t exist or weren’t part of a common mytheme everyone knew about. For example, in the same century, Tertullian, in Prescription against Heretics 40, makes exactly the same argument as Justin. Funny that. They had better access to the evidence than we do. They knew what was really and widely the case. We should listen to them.* Google *"Dying-and-Rising Gods: It's Pagan, Guys. Get Over It. • Richard Carrier"* ------------------------------------------------------------------ Google *"Ehrman Errs: Yes, Bart, There Were Dying & Rising Gods - atheologica"* Watch *"Dying & Rising Gods: A Response to William Lane Craig"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica. Watch *"Asclepius: The Pre-Christian Healer & Savior"* by Derreck Bennett at Atheologica Google *"Virgin Birth: It's Pagan, Guys. Get Over It. • Richard Carrier"* Google *"5 Pagan Parallels to Jesus That Actually Aren’t Bullshit - Atheomedy"* Google *"Christian Apologetics: The Art of Deceit - Atheomedy"* Google *"Defending the Resurrection: It’s Easy if You Lie! - Atheomedy"* Google *"Majority of Scholars agree: The Gospels were not written by Eyewitnesses - Escaping Christian Fundamentalism"* A good site written by an actual Biblical scholar. Google *"Contradictions in the Bible | Identified verse by verse and explained using the most up-to-date scholarly information about the Bible, its texts, and the men who wrote them -- by Dr. Steven DiMattei"* Google *"How do we know that the biblical writers were* ***not*** *writing history? -- by Dr Steven DiMattei"* Also: Google *"How Did The Gospel Writers Know? - The Doston Jones Blog"* Google *"Yes, the Four Gospels Were Originally Anonymous: Part 1 - The Doston Jones Blog"* Google *"Gospels Not Written By Matthew, Mark, Luke or John - The Church Of Truth"*

I'm curious as to why Jesus was baptized if he was perfect to begin with and always perfect I thought baptism was for sins and repentance what was Jesus repenting for and what was his sins this is just getting more ridiculous the more I think about it