Episodes

  • Episode 96: "Render Unto Caesar" with Congressperson Eric Swalwell
    Feb 3 2025
    This week we're talking government on the Data Over Dogma show, and woof! It's a doozy! First, we're going into the belly of the beast and talking to and actual, honest-to-goodness United States congressperson. Eric Swalwell has a D next to his name, which, if you ask some in our country, means he's a godless communist. In fact, he's a professed Christian who is nevertheless concerned about the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism here. He's come on the show to talk about secularism in government, and how his religion guides him as he makes decisions in Congress. Then the Dans will dive into a discussion of the Biblical take on the interplay between religion and government. If God is over all, then should God's people submit to a secular authority? Did Jesus have anything to say about that? (You already know he did, so why are so many Christians acting like he didn't?) ---- For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    58 mins
  • Episode 95: Uh-Oh, Jericho
    Jan 27 2025
    "Hey- it sure is raining a lot, do you have a boat?" "No, but I *Noah* guy." That's right, on this week's episode of Data Over Dogma, we're going diluvian all up in here. It's the story of Noah and the great... vinyard? Here's the twist: It seems that the account of Noah we get in our version of Genesis may not be exactly what we were told it was! Then, call Richard Wagner, because we're talking about the power of a strong horns section. It's Joshua's time to shine as he leads the Israelites into battle against the great city of Jericho. But, you know, did he though? ---- For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    58 mins
  • Episode 94: Getting to Gnow the Gnostics
    Jan 20 2025
    Sometimes on this show, big ten-dollar words show up like apotropaic or etiology or deuterocanonical, where, unless you're pretty well-versed in this stuff, you may not know what we're talking about (ok fine- you may not know what Dan M is talking about). This week we're tackling two ten-dollar concepts in one show, so buckle in and bust out twenty bucks! First, we're diving into Gnosticism. We've glanced off this topic several times, but never stopped to talk about what it is. Who were the Gnostics? Where did they come from? What did they believe? Did they know that that's what we would end up calling them? What's with the spelling? Next we're taking a look at a very important manuscript. Codex Sinaiticus--a Latin name for a Greek book about Hebrew people--is a very important manuscript. But why? Where did it come from? What is it? What makes it so vital? ---- For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Episode 93: Banning the Bible?
    Jan 13 2025
    Better get a lawyer, because Data Over Dogma is getting all kinds of legalistic! There are many who claim that all modern law has a direct lineage back to biblical law. This week, we're going to show several reasons why that probably isn't the case, not the least of which being that biblical law... it's really bad. We'll start by talking about the covenant code. This is the set of laws laid out in Exodus that were meant to govern how the ancient Hebrew people interacted with each other (it's all the commandments that come after the big 10). It's a fascinating series of rules that get increasingly granular to the point of preposterous specificity. After that, we dive into modern law. We're looking book bans that are cropping up around the United States (BOOOOO!), and how many of them may have accidentally caught up the banning lawmakers' favorite book in the process. Should we be protecting the children... from the Bible itself? For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • Episode 92: The Curses of Cain and Ham
    Jan 6 2025
    Genesis has no shortage of confusing, misleading, and bizarre stories, but this week we're tackling two separate stories that share a particularly ugly history. First, we tell a story in third person. Or rather, a story about the third person. It's Adam and Eve's firstborn, Cain, who killed his brother and was cursed by God. But God also gave him a mark of protection- something on his person that everyone could see, and would ensure nobody would hurt him. But what was that mark, and could the idea of it somehow be used to prop up racism? Of course it can. Then we'll discuss the curse of Noah's son Ham. Ham did a bad thing (did he, though? We talked about this in a previous episode), and was also cursed. Well, his kid was cursed. None of it makes much sense, really, but the upshot is that somehow, people found a way to deploy this story for racist purposes again. As a palate-cleanser from all this cursing, we're getting apocryphal. It's a cute little book that was once included as part of Daniel, but has been ejected by Protestants: Susanna. For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Episode 91: Star Spangled Christian Nationalism With April Ajoy
    Dec 30 2024
    When you hear the phrase "Christian Nationalism," what do you think of? A harmful set of ideologies that threaten democracy? A buzzword phrase used by bad people to demonize good Christians? April Ajoy has had a journey of conscience from being a full-throated Christian Nationalist to someone fighting against the damage she now sees in that set of dogmas. The real trick of it was that at the time, she didn't know that phrase, or why it would have applied to her. She just thought she was being a faithful Christian. On this week's show, she'll talk about her new book Star Spangled Jesus. It tells the story of growing up the daughter of a prominent pastor, and touring the world to evangelize the gospel with her family. She went from absolute certainty in her Christian faith and it's unbreakable connection to Republican party politics, to a massive moral crisis and painful deconstruction. Find Star Spangled Jesus wherever you buy your books, and look for her online content on TikTok and Instagram @aprilajoy For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Episode 90: With Counter-Apologies
    Dec 23 2024
    Did NASA confirm the date of the birth of Christ? Are most translations of the Bible wrong about the order of the creation? Will Dan M ever be able to say the word smorgasbord? This week on the Data Over Dogma show, we're honoring the Bible by shredding some bad apologetics! As we say every week on the show, one of our goals is to combat misinformation. Sometimes that means that we combat bad attempts to refute the Bible, and sometimes that means we go up against bad attempts to make the Bible seem more irrefutable. This week, it's the latter. For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Episode 89: Spare the Rod... Please!
    Dec 16 2024
    Does the Bible really say that parents should beat their children? Yes. Yes it does. AH! But couldn't that verse in Proverbs mean something else? Something a little less abuse-y? Something about a shepherd guiding their sheep? On this week's episode, we'll look at what the author of Proverbs REALLY meant when they said that a parent who spares the rod hates their child. Then, what is Satan's job? Is it to enact the eternal torment of sinners? Or is it possible that Satan's lake of fire has a far less sinister purpose? We'll explore what Paul wrote about this, and you won't be surprised to learn that it's nowhere near as obvious and clear-cut as we'd all like it to be. For early access to an ad-free version of every episode of Data Over Dogma, exclusive content, and the opportunity to support our work, please consider becoming a monthly patron at: https://www.patreon.com/DataOverDogma Follow us on the various social media places: https://www.facebook.com/DataOverDogmaPod https://www.twitter.com/data_over_dogma Hey! Don't forget to pre-order Dan McClellan's upcoming book The Bible Says So https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/bible-says-so-9781250347466/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGLTkpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQY4Ahs0Hi289IcnsQMh_0OAVf3oGefyUsWkLjhfB8OF8nio1fmroJbXxA_aem_v_4sISp8Zt43zsKfDjx1aA This episode was sponsored by BetterHelp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    57 mins