TAOI (these aren’t our ideas)

This is Part One of our series on the Gospel of Mark — and we’re going straight to the texts themselves. Why do Jews reject the Gospel of Mark? Not because they’re stubborn. Not because they’re spiritually blind. But because when Mark is read as a Jewish text — in its original scriptural, theological, and covenantal context — it repeatedly breaks Jewish law, Jewish expectation, and Jewish theology. We’re going to look at the passages. We’ll examine Mark’s opening citation of Isaiah. We’ll look at the moment Jesus declares sins forgiven. We’ll examine the declaration that all foods are clean. And we’re going to ask a historical question — not a devotional one: Is Mark preserving Jewish scripture… or repurposing it? Because when you read Mark carefully, something startling emerges: The Jesus of Mark often makes perfect sense in a Greco-Roman religious world — but becomes deeply problematic inside a Jewish one. This isn’t anti-Christian rhetoric. This is historical analysis. #GospelOfMark #JewishChristianDebate #HistoricalJesus #BiblicalScholarship #Torah #SecondTempleJudaism #GrecoRomanWorld #BibleAnalysis #ChristianOrigins #InterfaithDialogue

Is morality something handed down from God—or something we built ourselves? For many Christians, morality only makes sense if it comes from God. Without divine commands, they’re told there’s no objective good or evil—only opinion, chaos, and moral collapse. But is that actually true? In this episode, we examine the claim that morality depends on Christianity. We ask whether moral truth requires God, whether the Bible offers a coherent moral framework, and whether religious belief has actually made humanity more ethical—or simply more obedient. We explore where moral instincts come from, how cultures develop moral systems, and whether ideas like good, evil, justice, and human dignity stand on their own without divine authority. If morality is real, does it point to God—or does it point to us? #Christianity #Deconstruction #BiblicalScholarship #QuestioningFaith #BibleCriticism #FaithAndScience #Exvangelical #ReligiousDeconstruction #Genesis #BiblicalLiteralism #ChristianPodcast #ScienceVsReligion #BeliefSystems #Theology #CriticalThinking #TheseArentOurIdeas

In this episode, Jacob continues the presentation for Divine Inspiration from the Bible. Humans are the only creatures who know they’re going to die. That awareness shapes everything — our fears, our identities, our tribes, and maybe even our gods. In this episode, Jake explores a difficult question: What if religion isn’t primarily a revelation from heaven, but a human response to mortality? Drawing from anthropology, psychology, Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, and Terror Management Theory, we look at how death anxiety may influence belief, tribalism, worship, certainty, and even theological development. We revisit Genesis as adults — without childhood conditioning — and examine how ancient texts describe God in ways that feel deeply human. We also reflect on evangelical worship culture, identity formation, and the emotional power of conviction. This conversation isn’t about mocking belief. It’s about asking honest questions. If death anxiety disappeared tomorrow… what would happen to religion? Topics Covered: Death anxiety & religion Ernest Becker & Terror Management Theory Genesis as ancient myth Psychological roots of belief Evangelical worship culture Identity, purpose, and fear Re-reading the Bible as an adult Truth matters. Your life is short. Think deeply. #ReligionAndPsychology #DeathAnxiety #ErnestBecker #TerrorManagementTheory #Deconstruction #BibleStudy #Genesis #Exvangelical #FaithAndDoubt #ReligiousTrauma #WorshipCulture #PhilosophyOfReligion #QuestionEverything #HumanNature #TheDenialOfDeath

In this episode, Jacob takes a look at Divine Inspiration from the Bible. Humans are the only creatures who know they’re going to die. That awareness shapes everything — our fears, our identities, our tribes, and maybe even our gods. In this episode, Jake explores a difficult question: What if religion isn’t primarily a revelation from heaven, but a human response to mortality? Drawing from anthropology, psychology, Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, and Terror Management Theory, we look at how death anxiety may influence belief, tribalism, worship, certainty, and even theological development. We revisit Genesis as adults — without childhood conditioning — and examine how ancient texts describe God in ways that feel deeply human. We also reflect on evangelical worship culture, identity formation, and the emotional power of conviction. This conversation isn’t about mocking belief. It’s about asking honest questions. If death anxiety disappeared tomorrow… what would happen to religion? Topics Covered: Death anxiety & religion Ernest Becker & Terror Management Theory Genesis as ancient myth Psychological roots of belief Evangelical worship culture Identity, purpose, and fear Re-reading the Bible as an adult Truth matters. Your life is short. Think deeply. #ReligionAndPsychology #DeathAnxiety #ErnestBecker #TerrorManagementTheory #Deconstruction #BibleStudy #Genesis #Exvangelical #FaithAndDoubt #ReligiousTrauma #WorshipCulture #PhilosophyOfReligion #QuestionEverything #HumanNature #TheDenialOfDeath

Fifteen years after leaving Christianity, Josh reopened the Bible — starting with Genesis — and read it as an adult, without inherited assumptions. What he found wasn’t the timeless, unchanging God he was taught to worship. In this episode, we examine the evolving character of God across scripture — from the embodied, reactive deity of the Book of Genesis, to the wrathful potter of Epistle to the Romans, to the modern evangelical God of “radical love.” Is the biblical God consistent? Is divine love really unconditional? And does it make moral sense for a God to create people for destruction and then punish them? We’ll explore predestination, wrath, sacrifice, obedience, and the psychological need to create meaning in a world where we know we will die — engaging the provocative idea from Nancy Huston that perhaps we are not God’s creation — He is ours. If God’s nature appears to change with culture, what does that say about where our ideas of God come from?

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This episode begins there—and then asks whether that beginning can withstand scientific scrutiny. In this conversation, a former evangelical fundamentalist—now a career scientist and research professor—examines Christianity, the Bible, and divine inspiration through a scientific and analytical lens. Raised to believe the Bible was inerrant, literal, and fully inspired from cover to cover, this episode explores what happens when that foundation begins to crack. We look closely at: • Biblical literalism and fundamentalist Christianity • Genesis, Adam and Eve, and the doctrine of original sin • Whether Christianity stands or falls on a literal creation story • Claims that science affirms the Bible • “Scientific facts” in scripture and why cherry-picking fails • Ancient cosmology vs modern scientific understanding • Whether the Bible provides knowledge of the physical or spiritual world • Why science progresses without religion—and religion retreats before science This episode argues that science does not affirm the Bible, and that biblical descriptions of the universe reflect ancient mythological worldviews rather than divine knowledge. It challenges the idea that inspiration can be selectively preserved while error is dismissed—and asks how we would even determine which parts are divinely inspired and which are myth. Finally, we look ahead. If the Bible fails as a guide to the physical world, does it still succeed spiritually? In upcoming episodes, we examine God’s nature, original sin, salvation, prayer, heaven and hell, and whether the Bible’s spiritual claims hold up under logic and rational inquiry. These aren’t our ideas—but we’re finally willing to examine them.   #deconversion #exvangelical 

Christianity often presents itself as unshakable truth—but what if it’s more fragile than we’ve been told? In this episode of These Aren’t Our Ideas, we examine Christianity as a house of cards: a belief system built on layered assumptions—biblical inerrancy, theological certainty, historical claims, and inherited interpretations—that depend on one another to stand. We explore what happens when just one of those cards is questioned. From the formation of Christian doctrine to the authority of the Bible, the Gospels, and tradition, this episode looks at how Christianity maintains coherence—and why questioning any single foundation can cause the entire structure to wobble. This conversation isn’t driven by anger or rebellion. It’s driven by honesty. Many believers are taught that doubt is dangerous, but what if refusing to question is what actually makes faith fragile? If you’ve ever felt that asking honest questions threatened everything you believed, this episode is for you. #Christianity #Deconstruction #QuestioningFaith #ReligiousDeconstruction #Exvangelical #BiblicalScholarship #BibleCriticism #FaithAndDoubt #ChristianPodcast #DeconstructingFaith #BeliefSystems #Theology #ChristianDoctrine #SpiritualDeconstruction #CriticalThinking #TheseArentOurIdeas

Welcome to Episode One.  Before we start questioning ideas, doctrines, or traditions, we need to explain why we’re here. Hi, we are Jake and Josh, and we grew up fundamentalist Independent Baptist. This first episode isn’t about theology, arguments, or scholarship. It’s about our stories. We grew up inside Christianity. We didn’t arrive at our beliefs randomly—we inherited them. Church, worship, certainty, fear, comfort, community. For a long time, these ideas didn’t just shape what we believed… they shaped who we were. In this episode, we share our personal testimonies—how faith gave us meaning, how doubt crept in, and what started to fracture the certainty we were taught to protect. Not because we wanted to rebel. Not because we were offended. But because honesty demanded it. Deconstruction isn’t a moment. It’s a slow unraveling. A series of questions you can’t un-ask once they appear. This podcast exists because of that process. These aren’t our ideas. They were handed to us, taught to us, defended for us. And now, for the first time, we’re willing to examine them openly—without fear of where the questions might lead. This is Episode One: our stories, our backgrounds, and the journey that brought us here. #Christianity #Deconstruction #BiblicalScholarship #FaithAndDoubt #QuestioningFaith #BibleStudy #HistoricalJesus #NewTestament #TheologyPodcast #ReligiousDeconstruction #Exvangelical #PhilosophyOfReligion #ChristianPodcast #BibleCriticism #BeliefSystems #SpiritualDeconstruction #DoubtAndFaith #ReligiousTrauma #BibleHistory #JesusStudies #CriticalThinking #Theology #DeconstructingFaith

Hosts Jake and Josh invite listeners to explore ideas as invitations rather than possessions, encouraging curiosity over certainty. Drawing on science, philosophy, psychology, and religion, this episode models open, respectful questioning and the willingness to sit with paradox in pursuit of truth.