Glad to hear of your great travels thru Arizona and Utah, with some beautiful pics to go with. I have been to some of these places, and like you, find them spectacular. I love this part of our country.

As i was reading your blog, I noticed and became interested in (as you might imagine) your sections on the Bible, esp. referring to Bart Ehrman. I am somewhat familiar with Dr. Ehrman, having listened to his New Testament series lectures via “Great Courses,” and having read his book “Misquoting Jesus.”

While there are many scholars who agree with him, including many I studied under at Vanderbilt, I have also begun to see that there are many scholars, no less credentialed, who disagree with his conclusions. As one example, there’s good reason to believe – though there’s no 100% proof – that the writers of the four gospels in our Bibles are indeed the ones named – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. This includes testimony of the early church fathers, as well as a good question: “why would the early church choose the name of a tax collector to be placed on one of the included gospels if that person didn’t indeed write it?” A much better choice would have been Peter or Mary – which as you probably know, were some of the names chosen for the later gnostic gospels, which were not written by the said authors.

I’m interested in more dialogue, but only if you would like.

Hope you and Helen are doing well, and look forward to seeing you again.

Dave