Bart Ehrman

#god #bible #jesus #agnostic #atheist #atheism

[americanearthling]

How could a god leave so little evidence of himself

[bernardtan]

How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one.

[paulashe]

The Roman kept records of wine transactions. Not one mention of an Israelite territorist.

[davidfitnesstech]

And yet believers still want to get mad at skeptics for needing to question the veracity of an ancient book of fantastical claims and stories.

So I guess wanting to make the most informed decisions possible, is a bad thing ?

[concordance]

Even more remarkable then that the story of Jesus has travelled through the centuries to reach us today. Despite all the odds, so to speak.

[richross]

Absolutely brilliant speech. He has dismantled them completely

[AtamMardes]

"Religion began when the first scoundrel met the first fool."
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere."
-Voltaire

[davidfitnesstech]

Growing up, I was proud to be a Christian.
But as of several years ago, I can say I'm *proud to be a skeptic.*
And every time I hear a believer speak about the 'reasons' for their 'faith', it only makes me feel even stronger and more secure about my stance.

Question Everything ;-)
Information and education are the enemy of gullibility.

[VerochkaEltz]

When one points out perceived mistakes, additions, or seemingly illogical aspects of the Bible, believers often respond by saying that they interpret it differently and possess the correct version of the Bible. They may also express a sense of salvation through their belief in Jesus, affirming 'Jesus is King.' It's observed that adherents of every Abrahamic religion may hold beliefs that appear nonsensical to outsiders. A notable distinction between Abrahamic faiths and other religions is the absence of a concept of eternal punishment or delight in the suffering of others in the latter.

[BrewMeister]

His argument assumes that anything written about Jesus would have been copied, preserved for 2000 years, and found by archeologists. The fact that we have non-christians writings about Jesus within 80 years of his death is, quite frankly, amazing.

[szaharfy]

We know for a fact Paul wrote letters that were included in the Bible within 20 years after his experience. The other books were past down by oral tradition which very common. Also when have you ever heard of a book being written a year after something happened. All the books were written in the first century. More over the different stories leave gaps that support the others. Things you don’t hear is the evidence supporting what he saying, this guy built his career making atheists feel better about the decision. God loves you, don’t reject him.

[davidfitnesstech]

The fact that we don't have any firsthand eyewitness accounts of Jesus during his lifetime, started my deconversion years ago.

And the only place fantastical biblical claims can be 'corroborated' are *within its own pages.*
That's not good, and it just got worse from there.

The Bible is a *stand-alone book which lives in a vacuum;* in a world or realm conjured for it to exist by its various mostly unknown authors.
And this realm has very little to do with actual reality.

If the Bible is inspirational to some, that's fine :-)

[helpmaboab]

Do we have any documents of any kind from the first century, Greek or Roman, so I could check if Jesus is missing?

[AIcrg]

So many false statements here, there are literally hundreds of fragments in Aramaic, the language of Jesus time not to mention Josephus the Jewish historian who also wrote about Jesus.

[DerMeisterEdits]

That's untrue. Josephus wrote a brief report on his execution (not the interpolated "he is the Christ" version). There is pretty much consensus among historians, Atheist and Christian alike, that Jesus was a real man who lived around that time and received capital punishment. The rest along with the divinity aspect are the things you need to question. There were other "messiahs" back then too so it's not hard to believe that one of them was Jesus.

[InformationIsTheEdge]

The fun bit is watching the believer brain short circuit, trying to figure out how the bible is still right when it self evidently cannot be.

[simeon]

Ngl, have yet to see a good argument from Bart

[agamemnonn]

Jesus wouldn't be mentioned because to the Romans he was just a random rebel that wasn't worth mentioning.

[enlight_]

I agree with him, but I’d like for the contradictions to be pointed out so that I may reference them

[ModernGentleman]

So angry for no reason about something that doesn't affect him in any way.