27
Apr
2012
Tom Woods & Friends Launch “Liberty Classroom”
The internet just keeps getting cooler. Tom Woods has launched his Liberty Classroom, where he and other liberty-loving lecturers guide you through world history. (An economics program is coming soon.) There is a modest fee that gets you access to everything. However, you can view some freebie material before deciding whether to steer some of those Federal Reserve notes Tom’s way.
I’d like to say I am going to be disciplined and work my way through the whole thing from the beginning, but I’m going to cheat and skip ahead to the lecture on Hebrew history.
Just wondering, do you have any plans to put any lectures there yourself or are you just going to stick with teaching courses at the Mises Academy?
Just to throw my opinion in there. I would imagine that Bob is contracted to do Mises U for some time, as well as other responsibilities, so he doesn’t have the time. Plus, you never know, the Mises contract might be exclusive. Another thing is that Liberty Classroom is more for the general masses. Bob is awesome and I always like his speeches and lectures, but let’s be honest, he isn’t exactly the easiest guy to “get” if you’re a layman. That’s why I thought that Herbinger was an awesome choice, because he is probably one of the best guys at taking an extremely complex subject and explaining it so that the layman can understand it.
I was surprised at first that Bob wasn’t a part of Tom’s project. However, then I looked at the above and said, “yeah, that makes sense”. Who knows, maybe the plan is to have Bob come in later.
I gotta say that I was a bit hesitant to buy in at first. But, $100 for a yearly subscription is dirt cheap, so I went for it. So far I am extremely impressed with Jason Jewell. He’s very clear, sticks to the meat and has certainly kept my interest through about 15 videos. He was the only guy that I wasn’t familiar with, so I am pretty certain that I’ll enjoy the lectures by the others, as well.
excuse me, that should be 25 videos.
I look forward to hearing what you learn about Hebrew history from Doc Woods’ site.
I am reading Adolf Von Harnack’s (1851-1930) treatise on the codification of Christianity. He argues that the early Church attempted to encompass a broad range of traditions and practices, and with that it ended up with a schizophrenic dogma (my term): e.g., God is peaceful and loving, yet God murders enemies of Israel, etc.
His thesis makes sense to me, that the O.T. is incongruous with the original N.T. He argues that the true, original N.T. is markedly different — slimmed down versions of Luke and Paul’s letters — from what was codified 1600 years ago by the Catholic Church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Rome). The bible that was codified by the Catholic Church in the late 300s is what is used (largely) by Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox today.
It is clear in many portions of the N.T. that Jesus is at war with Judaism, and its focus on legality instead of loving neighborliness. Harnack shows — and my modern Catholic study bible admits — that there are many incongruous additions (‘interpolations’) in the canonical N.T.
This is fascinating stuff and a topic that I am just beginning to research. As a Christian who’s belief system is in doubt and crumbling I am eager to dig into the historical record of the Bible. I’m finding it more and more difficult to reconcile the Old Testament with the New and with the modern evangelical characterization of God’s divine nature. I mean you can always explain things away by changing goal-posts, re-interpreting scripture and falling back on the age-old “we’ll never know everything until we get to heaven”, but at some point it just becomes too ridiculous for me to accept anymore.
This is very interesting, and I tend to agree. however, I dont find secular humanism to have much of a foundation either, so I find myself more of a nihilist than anything at the moment.
Uncle Sam, congratulations on embarking on a search for truth.
If you are so inclined, I found these articles fascinating:
http://www.original-bible.com/articles.html
Sorry to throw in something off topic, but the Greeks go to election in one week. This is the first chance for the people themselves to have their say on the debt crisis and the unsustainable size and inertia of their government. Whether to default or pay up, and how they feel about Big Brothers EU & IMF. It’s going to be interesting, with no easy win for anyone here, and huge levels of disgruntlement.
In the background of course, also French elections (Socialist-heavy v Socialist-lite) not so interesting but still hard to call, I’m expecting the lite to nose it in. Worth keeping an eye on.
(Not really sorry, just being polite)
I thought you might have been one of the lecturers Bob, but you’re probably too busy now. Maybe there will be opportunities in the future.
Don’t forget to do more ECON MOMENTS when you find the time.