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"I started out as an evangelical Christian. I got interested in Biblical Studies because I was a fundamentalist as a late teenager. As I developed my scholarship through graduate school, I realized that my beliefs about the Bible were completely wrong, that the Bible is not some kind of inerrant revelation from God. For years I was a liberal Christian -- I still went to church, I still believed in God, but I didn't believe that the Bible was the inspired word of God. After many years of being a liberal Christian I finally became an agnostic for reasons unrelated to my scholarship, reason having to do with why there's suffering in the world if there's a God in control."
Good vid. I'm glad my often-wonky connection let it play through.
He's a wise man.
I hope a certain CD Pastor watches it. And his fundamentalist cronies.
PS - I didn't name names.
To me the most wonderful thing he said was when he was talking about how he no longer needed to try to bring people to his point of view. Just wanted to make them think.
Quote:
The unexamined life is not worth living...........
Socrates
Quote:
The unexamined faith is not worth having...................
I am a Christian, but have no disagreement whatsoever with his choice to believe as he pleases. The Bill of Rights gives each of us the right to choose our religious beliefs or the right not to believe. IMO it is great that that there is an increasing diversity of views regarding religion these days and more tolerance.
Last edited by chessgeek; 06-02-2014 at 01:18 AM..
"I started out as an evangelical Christian. I got interested in Biblical Studies because I was a fundamentalist as a late teenager. As I developed my scholarship through graduate school, I realized that my beliefs about the Bible were completely wrong, that the Bible is not some kind of inerrant revelation from God. For years I was a liberal Christian -- I still went to church, I still believed in God, but I didn't believe that the Bible was the inspired word of God. After many years of being a liberal Christian I finally became an agnostic for reasons unrelated to my scholarship, reason having to do with why there's suffering in the world if there's a God in control."
Nothing wrong with Christianity, most study scripture remembering verse and chapters.
These are intellectuals. The bible is beautiful if you don't study it, just scan it and you will see what is for you in this moment.
Scripture says, "The letter killeth". The spirit of the word giveth life. Not the letter.
I hope you can understand a little better now.
I owe a good percentage of my deconversion to Ehrman.
I had been an atheist for decades before first encountering Ehrman in the '90's. I cannot credit him for my disbelief in a deity, but his works did alter my thinking regarding who Jesus was and what his intentions were.
I had developed the idea that while Jesus was no god of any sort, he was an idealistic philosopher with a formula for improving life which centered on civility and self sacrifice. There wasn't a huge distinction between Jesus and the peace/love/dove counter culture folk of the '60s and '70's.
Ehrman's evidence based approach, along with my reading of the Josephus books, led me to change that opinion and I now interpret Jesus as what Ehrman says he was...an apocalyptic prophet who came to believe that he spoke for god, and that his purpose was to prepare the world for the very near destruction of life as everyone knew it, in favor of replacement by the Kingdom of Heaven where the roles would be reversed. The poor, the powerless and the downtrodden would be elevated while the rich, powerful and corrupt would be cast into suffering.
It made sense of Christianity for me where it had baffled me before. Only if you believe that corporal life on earth is but a prelude to an eternal existence where rewards and punishments are distributed on the basis of how well you behaved while alive, does the life of severe sacrifice and passive reaction to the exploitations of others, make any sense.
I've read four of Ehrman's books and I am indebted to him for greatly expanding my knowledge of the gospels and what went into their creation.
VIDEO: Bart Ehrman explains his personal beliefs and de-conversion from Christianity
The fundamentalists and 100% Bible believers are not exposed to the extensive scholarship available about the Bible and its contents. That is how they can maintain their belief that it is ALL the inerrant and infallible word of God in contravention to ALL reason, logic and evidence. They refuse to even entertain the reality and the "sausage-making" that produced what they use today in blind ignorance of its genesis. They credit this attitude to faith in God and are immune to the truth that is widely available. Those who promote this fiction about the Bible are IMO either evil or misguided . . . thinking they are promoting something worthwhile (kind of like "lying for God.") It is the sad result of thinking that an inerrant and infallible Bible is needed to support belief in God. It is not!
The fundamentalists and 100% Bible believers are not exposed to the extensive scholarship available about the Bible and its contents. That is how they can maintain their belief that it is ALL the inerrant and infallible word of God in contravention to ALL reason, logic and evidence. They refuse to even entertain the reality and the "sausage-making" that produced what they use today in blind ignorance of its genesis. They credit this attitude to faith in God and are immune to the truth that is widely available. Those who promote this fiction about the Bible are IMO either evil or misguided . . . thinking they are promoting something worthwhile (kind of like "lying for God.") It is the sad result of thinking that an inerrant and infallible Bible is needed to support belief in God. It is not!
Hurrah ,I have written this so many times ,but when your perspective of God is so narrow,the slightest
change becomes a threat.It means that it is "on stony ground ".
Many people in the world have, and have had a relationship with God simply through living 'holy lives' in tune with God's laws and then He reveals himself to them. The shrillness of some evangelicals is a sure sign of non believe at bottom.
Having said All That, as a late comer to most of the old testament ,I find it fascinating..
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VIDEO: Bart Ehrman explains his personal beliefs and de-conversion from Christianity
