A Scholar's Revelation: Bart Ehrman's Reasons for Not Being a Christian | The Rational Roundtable

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[jdf]

I grew up a JW. And people sometimes just think you can wake up and just stop believing. Even when you come to that point to realize that none of it makes sense, the manipulation and family pressures can truly devastate someone emotionally. Its taken me years of therapy working through those layers. Everyday I am grateful I woke up and walked away but I did have to leave who I thought was family only to realize it was conditional love I walked away from. It’s a challenge everyday and not an easy path and these perspectives and realities for people transitioning out are very important for people to hear.

[lady_draguliana]

"they're suffering b/c that's what god must want" s/l a Rich person ignoring starving children and justifying their greed... and it's a distressingly common trope...

[frankiemiller]

I really appreciated Steve pressing Bart on the topic of biblical interpretation and application in comparison with how it’s used 👍🏻great discussion

[dislecsyk]

I kind of sympathise with his point that people would do bad things to each other with or without the bible, but only in that the argument has to go both ways. If you don't think it influences people's tendency to badness, it follows that it also doesn't influence people's tendency to goodness.

[manolgeorgiev]

It's great to hear from an educated ex-theist such as this man.

[mikean]

While I understand the point Bart was making about homophobia being common even in places that aren't heavily influenced by the Bible and think there is some merit to it, I also don't think it's a coincidence that the areas that are most heavily influenced by the Bible tend to have higher rates of homophobia than places that have more secular humanist type ideals. The variations of Christianity which condemn homosexuality vastly outnumber the variations that are more progressive. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam aren't the only religions that promote homophobia so it's not surprising that areas that haven't been heavily influenced by the Bible or Quran will also have widespread homophobia.
Religion obviously isn't the only factor in homophobia but it certainly provides a strong cultural justification for promoting and maintaining it and can make it difficult for people who have been raised to think that way to realize how wrong it is.

[llpolluxll]

When I was raised Mormon, I was taught all kinds of contradictory things. Some of the things that I could not make sense of was the idea that god knew me in and out and he would not present me with any temptation that I could not handle, and yet, we are supposed to come to this earth and have a body as a test of our faith. If god truly knows me and who I am inside, why do I need to be tested?

[animal]

My problem with Bart is that he says the issue is that people cherry pick what they get out of the Bible, and then he immediately proceeds to cherry pick messages he likes. Yes, Bart, we know the Bible says to love your neighbor, it also says other terrible things that don’t align with loving your neighbor.

[aaronbono]

I'm going to have to disagree with this premise that people are going to do bad things whether there's a Bible or not and the Bible has no impact on it. The Bible gives people ideas and sways them to do bad things they would not have done otherwise.

[urielpolak]

700 years of inquisition is quite the harm and the bible is culpable

[jeremiahbullfrog]

Wow what a great discussion, I love how you firmly but gently moved the conversation forward and then circled back at the end. Cheers

[numbersun]

Bart sounds pretty suspect when he said that he believes that homosexuality is a 'modern phenomenon'. He bends over backwards to justify the moral failings of the bible and it is extremely transparent.

[dj_tika]

"You only live once (at least as far as we know), do your best, that's your legacy." I really like that ❤

[FakingANerve]

I don't like the "it's just a book and books don't hurt people" argument with books that have _specific_ orders for violence. The same could be said for words, and if that were taken to its logical conclusion, how would anyone be prosecuted for, say, ordering a hit on their wife? They didn't kill her... they just told someone that they wanted her dead.

[rapchee]

regarding homophobia in (edit:)*far eastern countries - they are homophobic because of christians, most places were very ok with homosexuality before they got influenced by puritans

[lreadlResurrected]

The Rabbi’s deal with child death by saying that the kid was so extraordinary that it accomplished the entire purpose God gave it so quickly.
Talk about trying to polish a turd…

[iKrivetko]

15:04
> it was pretty bad in the Soviet Union
Quite a weak argument considering how christianised the population was behind the atheist state facade (and was even less atheist in the historically muslim parts)

[Mr.PeabodyTheSkeptic]

Bart goes on to disparage people cherry picking then goes on to cherry pick the 'message' of 'love they neighbor' out of thousands of other things the Bible says.

[jhunt]

The issue with Bart saying the bible doesn’t cause harm is that people can quite easily get bad interpretations from it, even if their are ways around the harmful content. If the bible read like the human rights act, no one could read it and conclude to get the stones out and find some gays.

[MalachiMarvin]

I don't understand what he means by "misuse the bible". I get that people use the bible to justify what they already believe (about homosexuality), so by "misuse" does he mean using it for that purpose?

If Jesus taught some good thing, like "love your neighbor" or something. If I used the bible to justify why people should "love their neighbor", would that also be a misuse of the bible?

Edit: I posted too soon, Ehrman gave "love your neighbor" as an example later, but he still doesn't define what it means to "misuse" the bible. I get that people "cherry-pick" it but what does he mean by "misuse the bible"? Or, to turn it around, what is the right way to use the bible?