Here's a guy who spent 30 years studying the Bible - was long a fundamentalist, literalist - attended prestigious divinity schools and is now chair of the religious studies department at UNC. But what did all that Biblical research do for him? Caused him to lose his faith:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030401369.html
2007-11-13 09:45:07 · 9 answers · asked by Brendan G 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
bambino: that's hilarious! thanks!
2007-11-13 09:51:58 · update #1
What I find interesting and unforgiveable is that biblical scholars, for example, the masters students in some of his classes, hear this stuff and consider it new and earth shattering. My logic is as follows:
If you are fundamentalist Christian then the Bible is the word of God - I'd expect you to have studied it somewhat. If I believed as most fundies do; I'd have every nuance down pat.
The rapid fire comments Bart throws at his students have been around for quite some time. They are also incredibly easy to spot for yourself. How can anyone who reveres the Bible fail to have noticed the differnt tone of John, for example.
The other material he raises such as the 20,000 discrepencies and the texts that are presumed added to Mark and John and other books. It takes less than half an hour on the Internet to find tons of examples of this sort of material and it is most readily verified.
So how the heck can Christians be surprised by this. How can he write a best seller with this old and public domain material.
I can come to only one conlcusion. Fundamentalists don't read the Bible; they already "know it all". And this, I find hypocritical to the max. When they see with their own two eyes or hear of discrepencies, they cover their eyes and ears like the proverbial "see no evil" monkey trio. Every now and then one peeks out behind their hands and sees the truth and goes "Holy crap!" and converts to atheism or "gets puzzled and troubled".
Take the hero of this article. How did he go through seminary and teach courses without realizing these things which were exposed by the Jesus Seminar decades ago and likely by biblical scholars for decades before that. Issac Asimov knew of them (see first posters response - great quote) and he's been dead for quite some time now.
2007-11-13 10:15:55 · answer #1 · answered by davster 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I own most of his books, have quoted him in numerous papers, and have read all of his books..
The problem is just as the article says: Many, or most, or all Christian sects today teach you that the Bible is All, all answers are in this book, nothing else matters, believe only what we tell you is true. There is no looking or investigating for yourself or critical analysis of the texts - Biblical, gnostic or otherwise. This causes a major let down when and if a person does their own reading.
Luckily for me I didn't know much about Christianity when I got my Bachelors in Religious Studies and reading his stuff and the gnostic stuff opened up a whole new world for me. Sadly, I no longer take the Bible verbatim anymore. I think the gnostic stuff Prof. Ehrman works on, as well as other scholars, hold much more weight in Jesus' teachings than anything else.
2007-11-13 10:01:31 · answer #2 · answered by SisterSue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Apparently you never took a course or read a book by him. He is agnostic. When you learn the truth you absolutely lose faith. The key word is TRUTH and he has learned it.
He does a brilliant job - does not take sides nor does he make it boring. You might learn something by reading just one of his books, you apparently have not done so.
As usual - knowledge is something that you cannot comprehend, or afraid to learn. Stay with your sky god...
2007-11-13 10:20:57 · answer #3 · answered by Tricia R 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are a lot of teachers at those prestigious divinity schools who are not Bible believers so of course that is where he was led.
2007-11-13 09:49:09 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
He has a number of Teaching Company courses.
http://www.teach12.com/store/professor.asp?ID=150
2007-11-13 09:49:47 · answer #5 · answered by S K 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
~Isaac Asimov
2007-11-13 09:48:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 6⤊ 0⤋
More Christians should read his book "Misquoting Jesus" they could learn a lot.
2007-11-13 09:51:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Then, you would be most interested in reading about this guy.
http://www.ex-atheist.com/
So who would this guy be a tool of?
2007-11-13 09:49:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
No mortal it means he is intelligent.
2007-11-13 09:49:06 · answer #9 · answered by A Traveling Barbarian Immortal 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋