National Public Radio has done some fact-checking about claims made by David Barton, whose view of history is so congenial to the right wing. He has made numerous false claims, according to NPR's research. Other authorities have also questioned his scholarship.
The truth speaks for itself. It doesn't need to be defended with inaccuracies or distortions, and such are generally counter-productive.
Update, August 14: Evangelical scholars have also criticized Barton's methods and conclusions. See here.
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Musings on science, the Bible, and fantastic literature (and sometimes basketball and other stuff).
God speaks to us through the Bible and the findings of science, and we should listen to both types of revelation.
The title is from Psalm 84:11.
The Wikipedia is usually a pretty good reference. I mostly use the World English Bible (WEB), because it is public domain. I am grateful.
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The posts in this blog are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You can copy and use this material, as long as you aren't making money from it. If you give me credit, thanks. If not, OK.
2 comments:
I honestly think those are nitpicky things that maybe some take without the hyperbole, but there's not really much wrong with what he's saying.
I don't think he's distorted history rather giving opinions on historical facts.
I'm not defending him, I don't know him … it just seems the "right wing label" and "historical inaccuracies" labels to what he's saying seem to be piquing rather than legitimate fact checking.
To say that the Bible was quoted may not necessarily mean word for word.
Well, I'm not a historian, either, and am personally not equipped to evaluate Barton. However, when something seems too good to be true, it usually is, and some of the things he says seem too good to be true.
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