How To Best Attack Ancient Religious Mythological Beliefs
When we take seriously an idea we give it some sort of respectability just by doing so. For instance, I doubt very much that philosophers would try to show why Mohammad could not have ridden a horse around the solar system by offering a detailed analysis of physics and horses.
There is a two pronged attack we shouldn't neglect. When we're dealing with an ancient religious belief we should first attack it by linking it to the mythological past where it belongs, and then we can attack its philosophical coherence. If I were to do just one and not both, I would link the belief to the mythological past. If my focus was on the philosophical coherence of the concept I would still write a paragraph or two about its mythological origins and footnote a few books on it (seen below).
Jaco Gericke, who has Ph.D's in Philosophy of Religion and in the Old Testament, wrote an example of what I mean in my book The End of Christianity.
Consider the following books on these mythological beliefs.
Yahweh:
John Day, Yahweh and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan.
Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts.
Satan or the Devil:
T.J. Wray and Gregory Mobley, The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots.
Walter Wink, Unmasking the Powers.
Elaine Pagels, The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics.
Hell:
Alice K. Turner, The History of Hell.
Alan E. Bernstein, The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds.
Virgin Births:
Robert J. Miller, Born Divine.
Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth.
John Shelby Spong, Born of a Woman: A Bishop Rethinks the Virgin Birth and the Treatment of Women by a Male-Dominated Church.
On Christs:
Gregory J. Riley, One Jesus, Many Christs: The Truth About Christian Origins.
On resurrections and the afterlife:
Gregory J. Riley, Resurrection Reconsidered: Thomas and John in Controversy.
A general account of the origins of Christianity:
Gregory J. Riley, The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins.
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See also the many books written by Bart Ehrman.