Dr. Dan McClellan is a public scholar of the Bible and religion. He received his PhD in theology and religion from the University of Exeter, where he wrote his dissertation on the conceptualization of deity and divine images in the Hebrew Bible through the methodological lenses of cognitive linguistics and the cognitive science of religion. Since March of 2021, he has been confronting misinformation on social media related to the academic study of the Bible and religion.
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’ll be talking about 1 Esdras. It’s a book you won’t find in most Bibles these days, yet you will find most of the stories it contains. And if Esdras sounds a lot like the name of another Biblical book to you, that’s not a coincidence. So what is…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’re going to figure out what the heck a Maccabee is. That is, we’re covering both history and a couple of books in the apocrypha. That’s right: we’re discussing the Maccabean revolt. What do we know about the actual historical event? Who were the main players, and how did…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’re breaking down the Prophetic Critique, but we’re doing it with a twist! Has Dan McClellan been missing something in his discussions of this concept? He was called out by a listener–will he accept the criticism, or clap back? Find Simone’s critique of Dan’s critique of the Prophetic Critique…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode we’re talking about something that is in your Bible… but isn’t. Multiple books of the New Testament make explicit references to this, and even quote it, but because first Enoch didn’t make the canonical cut (with one exception), most readers would never know it. And yet, the idea that…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’re talking about Hagar, the enslaved handmaiden of Sarai (and later of Sarah). Being enslaved is never a good thing, despite what some apologists might have you believe, but Hagar is done pretty dirty in a few ways. We’ll explore not just her nonconsensual heir-making with Abraham, but also…
From Data Over Dogma. It’s time for bunnies and chocolate, and recounting stories of brutal murder! For Christians around the world, Holy Week is an incredibly important time. But how well do you actually know the good, the bad, and the ugly of the last days of Jesus? But also… they weren’t the last days,…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’re covering some spurious apologetic ground. If you’ve ever listened to a Christian apologist for more than a few minutes, you’ve likely heard the idea that "No one would die for a lie." This idea is either preceded or followed by descriptions of the horrific deaths endured by the…
From Data Over Dogma. There have been some disturbing things happening in the world lately, and some of the people most heavily involved in those things are invoking even more disturbing parts of the Bible as a rallying call. When world leaders remind us of biblical genocide when they go to war, you know we’re…
From Data Over Dogma. Look out, Cecil B. DeMille, because the Dans are coming for you! That’s right–making absolutely zero apologies to Messrs DeMille, Heston, or even Kilmer (for all you Dreamworks fans), we’re letting the data run roughshod over the story of the biblical exodus. The tale is beloved: a man of lowly birth…
From Data Over Dogma. This episode, we’re diving into that elaborate system of laws and rules known as the Covenant Code. Specifically, the part where we learn how the ancient Israelites were supposed to handle an ownership dispute. What does it mean when it says they were supposed to "come before God" to decide the…