Hey Tracie -

Great comic! Informative and entertaining at the same time; I look forward to more.

However, I do have an ulterior motive for writing to you that doesn't really have much to do with the merits of your comic. I'm a sort of closet de-convert right now; I have a thread on the 'Atheist Community of Austin' section of the Message Board titled 'I need advice about deconversion' that goes into more detail about all that. The thing is, I've recently run across information about the Ugaritic tablets on some other websites, and on some of those sites I've seen that you've contributed some comments, so I thought I'd go to the source as it were. Of particular interest to me is KTU 1.1 IV 14, which translates as "The name of the son of god, Yahweh". The Israelites simply assimilated some of the Canaanite pantheon of Ugarit; is it not so? Yahweh was a Canaanite demigod instead of what the bible says he was. Have I got it right?

I find this at once deeply disturbing and refreshingly liberating. It undermines so much of what I have held as sacred and inviolate for so much of my life. It's not quite a crisis for me, but it is a lot to process. Can you recommend some books or other reference materials that go into greater detail about this? I'm not that well 'versed' in the history of the bible as I'd like to be, but I now have a desire to change that.

Will--I am so sorry for the delay in this reply. I don't know if you're still "out there"; but if you are, Karen Armstrong's "History of God" is a good book for this type of info. And you are right regarding the Ugarit text and how it applies to Yawhweh/El. Bascially, the Bible records that the Hebrews spent a great deal of time in Canaan (which is where Ugarit is today). Their pantheon uses the same symbols and gods. You might also look into Asherah and Nehushstan. Asherah specifically was the wife of El. El is another name for Yahweh in the Old Testament texts. "El" was both a name and also sometimes just a generic term for "god." It was _both_. Some apologists claim it was only a generic term for god. This is not correct.

The references to pantheons in the Old Testament--such as "let us make man in our image" are easily explained with this model. Certainly apologists will say "us" and "our" might have been Jesus and the Holy Spirit--or god speaking to some other Heavenly Host; but knowing that the stories are brought out of a pantheon in Ugarit that included both El and Yahweh (two names also attributed to the Hebrew god)--offers a far more plausible and realistic alternative.

Thanks for writing. I get so few posts at this spot I just failed to check it for a very long time. Again, if you happen to ever see this, apologies for that.

Tracie -

Thanks so much for writing back. Yeah, I'm still around. I found Karen Armstrong's "The Bible" and Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus" at the library; pretty good reading. It's turning out to be quite an education for me. I also read your testimonial recently and I must say that I relate very deeply with it.

I'm sort of in an angry place right now, which I'm accepting as a normal reaction for now. Like how no one hates alcohol more than a reformed alcoholic.

Hello, I'm Will. I'm a godoholic.

Anyway, thanks for the good info.

Glad my post wasn't too late for you to see!

oh my brain! hahaha (instead of omg) i almost fell off my chair when i saw the term "godoholic", hope to see many more of you guys in the future i personally never consumed god in my life, must have been hard to get off the drug.. i feel for you, and all of the godoholics around, i hope you won't relapse! Though once you turn your brain on its hard to fall back for the fairy tales

i wouldn't have spammed in such an old topic but this was too funny and on another note, i wanted to use the chance to second it, really cool comic, beautiful messages, cute drawings, all to the point just wonderful, can't wait for the next issue, and the next one, and so forth :) also i will try to find the books you guys mentioned, it is a bit of a problem here in Bosnia.. but the internet might be of help anyhow, Tracie keep up the good work and thank you for the entertainment and the perfectly wrapped up messages for the "in-infidels"

Totally welcome!