I too, often find myself searching around for some kind of sane, rational, inclusive, non-toxic group, with some solid outlines and sense of purpose and social activism (as you described), and would definitely be signing up to such a movement if it was available. Will definitely check out this A+ thing!

Furthermore, regarding the generally disturbing levels of said toxicity in anonymous online communities (I often find myself quite shaken by the sheer volume and popularity of it).... What do you think are the causes of this? Is it just a permanent part of the human condition which is exponentially more visible since the invention of online forums? Or do you think factors such as modern education/media/parenting/society etc. have had some sort of negative effect?

Perhaps it is just a result of some sort of compartmentalism and willful blindness caused by the anonymous/remote nature of online communication which dampens natural human empathy and rationality – some people seem to have the capacity to get 'whipped up into a frenzy' of... amoral post-irony, and separate themselves from the morals they hold to in the off-line world (I think perhaps that a lot of people who make rape jokes about a 15-year-old girl on the internet would feel uncomfortable making the same jokes when confronted by a 15-year-old girl in real life, let alone actually consider enacting the rape they threaten). And if this is the case, I feel like the internet community at large needs to take a look at itself as time goes on, and step up its levels of awareness and self-regulation – I see so many incidences like the closure of BlagHag where interesting, genuine voices are being stifled by idle and extremely unwarranted abuse..

Anyway, thanks for the inspiring blog post!

Yeah, one of the things I like about the Human Bible is the fact he goes through topics like the different text sources in enough detail that you really feel like you get it, or at least get the point that there's something important and non-obvious to be understood. I'm basically a fan of any smart, educated person who loves their work talking about their stuff in a way I can understand without being patronising. And Robert Price is definitely one of those people.

If you're a fan of Dr. Price, there's also a listeners "fan" page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/thebiblegeeklisteners/) which is pretty active.

As far as I know, he is in fact respected as a scholar, even if some of his views are admittedly fringe. Nobody doubts (I assume) is knowledge of the Bible nor understanding of the intent. But I'm a huge fan of his, so perhaps I'm rather biased!

And while the rich aren't that rich, corporations are often that rich, right? Yet we seem to throw away billions because the government dare not lift a finger against the richest corporations, or else they don't even want to.

To this end, even if one is to buy the "we're all in this together" line, the pain being inflicted on the middle and working class through public spending and wellfare cuts stings all the more when there's this huge corporate sector of tax-dodging über-wealth. Maybe fair taxes won't solve every monetary problem, but they'd sure help a lot in balancing the books, and the coalition's not even trying it. Cutting public spending was their first choice because they hate it as a matter of principle; what other explanation can there be?

If this country was sinking and it was all hands on deck, fine. It would hurt everyone but we'd have to take it. But the wealthiest are barely taxed, according to Meachers. In fact their wealth is growing year-over-year, rather than that of the lower classes. The cuts have been deep, but also swift — they were itching to bring down the axe — and that really stings too.