Dan McClellan's Book Debuts At Number 7 On The New York Times Best Seller List

[Marcus]

Perhaps he hasn’t said anything about McClellan’s new book yet because he hasn’t found someone else’s words sufficiently in line with his views as to be worthy of plagiarizing.

[I Have Questions]

What are some of the things you’ve underlined, and why did you find them important? (I’m gonna need page numbers)

If you read the book, I would be happy to share back and forth some of the underlined stuff.

But it's not a one way street. Sorry.

Do you have the book? Are you reading it?

Regards,
MG

That’s what I thought…

[MG 2.0]

If you read the book, I would be happy to share back and forth some of the underlined stuff.

But it's not a one way street. Sorry.

Do you have the book? Are you reading it?

Regards,
MG

That’s what I thought…

You either don't have the book or haven't started reading it.

That's what I thought.

Regards,
MG

[I Have Questions]

You either don't have the book or haven't started reading it.

That's what I thought.

Regards,
MG

That’s certainly my thinking based on your avoidance of my simple request. I could be wrong. But so far, there’s no evidence I’m wrong.

[MG 2.0]

You either don't have the book or haven't started reading it.

That's what I thought.

Regards,
MG

That’s certainly my thinking based on your avoidance of my simple request. I could be wrong. But so far, there’s no evidence I’m wrong.

It wasn't a simple request.

What are some of the things you’ve underlined, and why did you find them important? (I’m gonna need page numbers).

I think what I'm asking is within reason...to communicate with someone who has the book and is reading the book.

Today I read the chapter called, "The Bible Says God Lies". I don't think it is reasonable for me to give you the 'underlined' portions or discuss what I've read if you don't have the book or have not been reading it as I have.

You can say lots of 'stuff' sitting upon the pedestal that you seemingly have set yourself upon. My experience has been, however, that there isn't anything much going on behind that facade of superiority. The fact that you set yourself up as a mighty example for asking questions but not answering them says a lot.

Do you have the book? Are you reading it?

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

Jana Reiss' interview with him about his book was very interesting. Some excerpts:

By Jana Riess
April 28, 2025

(RNS) — “Data over dogma.”

That’s the tagline of Dan McClellan, the TikTok and YouTube star who had about a quarter-of-a-million followers when RNS first profiled him in 2022. Today, his combined social media presence has nearly 1.4 million followers spread across platforms.

But some things haven’t changed. The biblical scholar with two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. still sports his superhero T-shirts on camera as he seeks to debunk the various kinds of bunk people claim about the Bible. His humor and approachability are a big part of the appeal. And, he’s part of a far too small subset of humans who can both read Ugaritic and nerd-out on comic books.

In his first book, “The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues,” to be released by St. Martin’s on Tuesday (April 29), McClellan sets the record straight about a number of hot-button topics he’s featured on his TikTok and YouTube channels...

As an opener, the book points out that what we know as “the Bible” as a single unit is largely an invention. Rather, it’s a hodgepodge of ancient books — including more than the 66 that are in the Protestant canon — written individually over hundreds of years and only gathered together much later. Knowing this history “kind of disarms a lot of the ways the Bible can be weaponized,” he said.

“There are so many people out there who think that if ‘the Bible says so,’ that’s the end of the story,” he said. “I wanted to show that there is so much more to the story than ‘the Bible says so.’ Frequently, the Bible does not say that. Or even if it does say that, it might say the exact opposite as well somewhere else.”...

And this excerpt was very informative:

[McLellan] is open about his religious affiliation but said he keeps his personal beliefs “firmly compartmentalized when I am engaging in scholarship."

However, he said he still gets knee-jerk responses from viewers of his content who think his LDS identity tells them everything they need to know about how he’s going to approach the Bible. Some have accused him of being a Mormon apologist, a charge he said is “laughably uninformed” since his scholarly views of the Bible often disagree with the church’s official positions on Scripture...

All excerpts from
https://religionnews.com/2025/04/28/in- ... on-topics/

[MG 2.0]

Jana Reiss' interview with him about his book was very interesting. Some excerpts:

By Jana Riess
April 28, 2025

(RNS) — “Data over dogma.”

That’s the tagline of Dan McClellan, the TikTok and YouTube star who had about a quarter-of-a-million followers when RNS first profiled him in 2022. Today, his combined social media presence has nearly 1.4 million followers spread across platforms.

But some things haven’t changed. The biblical scholar with two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. still sports his superhero T-shirts on camera as he seeks to debunk the various kinds of bunk people claim about the Bible. His humor and approachability are a big part of the appeal. And, he’s part of a far too small subset of humans who can both read Ugaritic and nerd-out on comic books.

In his first book, “The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues,” to be released by St. Martin’s on Tuesday (April 29), McClellan sets the record straight about a number of hot-button topics he’s featured on his TikTok and YouTube channels...

As an opener, the book points out that what we know as “the Bible” as a single unit is largely an invention. Rather, it’s a hodgepodge of ancient books — including more than the 66 that are in the Protestant canon — written individually over hundreds of years and only gathered together much later. Knowing this history “kind of disarms a lot of the ways the Bible can be weaponized,” he said.

“There are so many people out there who think that if ‘the Bible says so,’ that’s the end of the story,” he said. “I wanted to show that there is so much more to the story than ‘the Bible says so.’ Frequently, the Bible does not say that. Or even if it does say that, it might say the exact opposite as well somewhere else.”...

And this excerpt was very informative:

[McLellan] is open about his religious affiliation but said he keeps his personal beliefs “firmly compartmentalized when I am engaging in scholarship."

However, he said he still gets knee-jerk responses from viewers of his content who think his LDS identity tells them everything they need to know about how he’s going to approach the Bible. Some have accused him of being a Mormon apologist, a charge he said is “laughably uninformed” since his scholarly views of the Bible often disagree with the church’s official positions on Scripture...

All excerpts from
https://religionnews.com/2025/04/28/in- ... on-topics/

That's what makes him fun to read.

A number of insights so far.

Do you have the book? Are you reading it for yourself?

Regards,
MG

[I Have Questions]

That’s certainly my thinking based on your avoidance of my simple request. I could be wrong. But so far, there’s no evidence I’m wrong.

It wasn't a simple request.

What are some of the things you’ve underlined, and why did you find them important? (I’m gonna need page numbers).

I think what I'm asking is within reason...to communicate with someone who has the book and is reading the book.

Today I read the chapter called, "The Bible Says God Lies". I don't think it is reasonable for me to give you the 'underlined' portions or discuss what I've read if you don't have the book or have not been reading it as I have.

You can say lots of 'stuff' sitting upon the pedestal that you seemingly have set yourself upon. My experience has been, however, that there isn't anything much going on behind that facade of superiority. The fact that you set yourself up as a mighty example for asking questions but not answering them says a lot.

Do you have the book? Are you reading it?

Regards,
MG

Forget me, why can’t you explain some of what you’ve underlined and why you found it important (with page numbers) to those people following the thread but who haven’t read, and who aren’t reading, the book?