Dennis Prager has released a commentary on Leviticus as the first of his commentaries on the Torah. The series is titled The Rational Bible, and I’ve heard some really interesting things about it. It’s probably going to be my next Kindle purchase.
But, I would gladly purchase this volume as a free gift for Dan, in exchange for his solemn promise to read the entire thing and provide detailed responses to Prager’s scholarship.
13 comments:
...and the gauntlet is thrown...the challenge made.
We may await the response with baited breath, but we will not hold it
Everything I've read by Prager has made him sound like a self-important wealthy buffoon, repeating the shallow thinking of older self-important buffoons (not all of whom were wealthy).
Why would I read such?
Prager:
"America is engaged in two wars for the survival of its civilization. The war over same-sex marriage and the war against Islamic totalitarianism are actually two fronts in the same war — a war for the preservation of the unique American creation known as Judeo-Christian civilization. One enemy is religious extremism. The other is secular extremism. One enemy is led from abroad. The other is directed from home."
He is a fear mongering anti-reason bully. He's part of the problem with conservatism today. I would not want to do anything so support someone like that, including adding to his wealth by having somebody buy more of his pablum for my sake. I would like to DISCOURAGE anyone from reading such fop-doodlery.
Am I clear?
If you'd like to find some more level-headed, even-handed conservative writing on Leviticus, I'd be glad to read that, I'm not opposed (obviously) to reading the opinions of the "other side." I just don't want to encourage pablum or bullying.
What a cowardly response...and so much false attacks on the man's character. He never "bullies" anybody. Rather, you're an example of how those for whom truth and logic are inconvenient respond when faced with truth and reason. And so you attack the man rather than deal with his reasoning. It's no different than how you respond to us, but to a greater degree of vitriol because he's better than us at defending conservatism. It is for people like you for whom the expression "the truth hurts" was conceived.
Shocking, Dan is faced with a reasonable, rational challenge, and responds with ad hom attacks on Prager’s personal credibility.
FYI, the point of suggesting this is the fact that he claims to be doing what you suggest is vital, using Reason. I guess that only counts if the Reason agrees with you.
The strange part is, that if Prager was really the foolish, shallow, idiot Dan’s ad-hom attacks potray him as, it seems like Dan would jump at this challenge. One has to wonder what it is that is really behind Dan’s refusal.
I’m going to point out that I’m making this offer from a position of financial scarcity, I’m in the midst of a career switch which is taking a while to generate significant income, yet am willing to gladly engage in this challenge.
It's no different, really, than what we've routinely seen time and time again...the "I don't buy it" response that comes completely devoid of explanation. Another case of the guy who demands so much providing nothing. I'm dealing with it over Sola Scriptura.
We both are. The problem you have is that Dan won’t commit to anything beyond “my opinion”, which allows him to mostly avoid claiming he’s right. But at the same time he had little problem claiming that others are wrong. Either that or the “You’re welcome to believe whatever you want, but your beliefs clearly don’t align with reality.”.
Both of those two allow him to act as if he’s not making claims (or to hide behind them when he screws up and does so), while essentially making claims of fact. But as long as he has the out, he doesn’t have to live up to the level of proof he demands of others.
I’m a nice guy, so while I think the Prager would cause much difficulty for Dan, and would be instructive for the rest of us, I’ll give Dan two more options.
A Peculiar Glory or Reading the Bible Supernaturally by John Piper.
I’m really torn, I think that pushing for Dan to engage with the Prager book, is just making it too easy on him. Clearly, he should be able to wipe the floor with such a buffoon. Which makes me wonder why, he jumps right into the as hom attacks instead of taking such an easy path.
But I’m afraid if I push the Piper too much it will be so much more difficult that he won’t engage.
Ultimately, I guess we’ll have to see if he’s up to any of them.
I'm not even confident that he reads any links I post, about which he would have less excuse due to personal time constraints. But an entire book would be difficult for anyone to squeeze into one's schedule.
I believe he just deleted another comment of yours, though I don't think it was an important one, if I'm recalling it correctly .
Of course he did, I think it was an excellent reference to Jesus telling the religious leaders that if they don’t believe Moses, they won’t believe Him. I asked Dan that question, you’ll note how he chose to respond.
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