UsefulCharts

Creators, YouTube

UsefulCharts is a YouTube channel primarily concerned with the creation of charts to help explain history in a visual way.

UsefulCharts I also dislike, though I won’t go into excessive detail…yet.

The thing that needs to be stated about UsefulCharts is that he’s an academic first and, besides that, he’s a Jew.^A) I’m mentioned that because he does often talk about religion and he brings up the fact he’s Jewish regularly. I also feel that he allows his personal beliefs to cloud his judgment. Though, notably, not in a way that necessarily favors the Jews, but rather the academic side. It should be noted though that he’s a convert.

It may sound odd, but I feel as though he’s a bit…eagerly dismissive of Jewish beliefs and practices. This suggests to me that he belongs to the Progressive Jews, rather than the Conservative or Orthodox Jews.^B)

For example, in the video on the Historicity of Moses, UsefulCharts presents a lot of evidence about whether Moses was a real guy. The conclusion he comes to, however, is in direct opposition to the evidence he had presented. His conclusion is that Moses was a mythological figure, rather than a historical one. However, the evidence presented actually suggests that Moses was real, but some details aren’t known.^C)

UsefulCharts is also possibly an atheist. Though I don’t have anything besides vibes to go off of here. He does seem to agree with the idea that an atheist god-hater can’t exist. For context, that’s a type of atheist who hates God as a concept or as an individual. On a rational basis, it’s impossible for an atheist to hate God (something the atheist doesn’t believe is real)…except that that’s a nonsense argument. You can hate something you think doesn’t exist even if it’s irrational to do so.

More to be written later.

^B) Who, in turn, are dismissive of fact.

^C) More specifically – which I may bring up on the Moses article later if it comes to exist – the evidence suggests that a man named (or called) Moses went from Egypt to Canaan, taking a bunch of people with him. Other details about him are not known, but this is what the pre-Jewish sources state. The details of why he went and who he was exactly do vary, but there is still a general agreement there.
Another thing to point out is that the Levite names (which include Moses) have Egyptian etymologies, strongly suggesting a connection there.
This is all based on the evidence he provides, though I’d have to check again to make sure later. And I think the conclusion he comes to is in discord with the evidence he has, which suggests he made up his mind before (really bad, but unsurprising, for an academic) and possibly suggests an eagerness to dismantle tradition. That doesn’t look great for someone who converted to Judaism.