I love this: The Ehrman Project. Short promo video:
It’s Campus Crusade for Christ, UNC-Chapel Hill’s response to the infamous professor’s popularized attempts to tear apart the New Testament. It features scholarly responses on video to Ehrman’s major works. (His newest, Forged, does not appear to have a response posted there yet. I’m confident it will come.)
And there’s a blog there with these recent posts (to give you a flavor of the topics):
- Does Academia Lead to Losing Your Faith?
- Are the Bible’s Errors Part of God’s Plan?
- Did Jesus Claim to be God?
- To Avoid Evil, Why Not Prevent Sin?
- ‘Problem of Evil’ or ‘Argument from Evil’?
- The Influence of Worldview on Morality
The posts so far have been written by a pair of academic theologians, meeting Ehrman head to head on that ground.
More info here from the Seattle Times. Excellent work!
(Full disclosure: I’m a Campus Crusade for Christ staff member, and I have friends on staff there in North Carolina’s Research Triangle.)
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Thanks Tom. This is a great resource with several relevant video’s.
For example, here is an interesting debate between olegt’s favorite Biblical scholar, Ben Witherington III, and New Testament scholar Michael Shermer.
I love Shermer here. If Strobel had hired an actor to present the easily-rebutted skeptical talking points – to serve up softballs to Witherington – he couldn’t have fulfilled the role better.
Shermer isn’t actually a New Testament scholar. He is a scientist and editor of Skeptic Magazine. And I would love to meet him in a public debate.
From the Seattle Times article quoting Erhman:
“”Look at their credentials,”said Ehrman, 55. “None of them teaches at state universities, Ivy League schools or prominent four-year liberal-arts colleges,” he said. “People with those views would never get a job at UNC.”
What is ironic, of course, is that “state universities, Ivy League schools or prominent four-year liberal-arts colleges” occupy the bottom rungs on the theological ladder. Interesting how he immediately defalts to a genetic fallacy. We certainly wouldn’t expect him to actually adress their arguments. It probably rings true to many and must certainly warm the cockles of at least one poster here.
Shermer isn’t a scientist. He got a doctorate in history/philosophy of science, and is a professional skeptic now.
Thank you for that further correction.
I was being sarcastic. In other words, put “New Testament scholar” in scare quote’s.
I wonder, would Shermer would have been as presumptive and condescending if he had been having a discussion with an expert Egyptologist? I have read a couple of things Shermer has written I find his understanding of Bibilical studies and religion to be very one sided and very shallow. It appears that his homework consists of little more than reading one or two one sided books on the subject. Witherington, on the other hand, has solid credentials as a New Testament scholar. It’s amazing that Shermer would even think that he had some knockout arguments in his back pocket. But to be fair he comes across the same way in other debates, I’ve seen him involved in. Superficially, Shermer always appears to be confident and self assured. But in my opinion this is little more than a facade for someone who is underneath it all is just arrogant. Unfortunately, for Shermer, after a while people start to see through the facade.
Some people need to get out more; Shermer might consider doing the opposite.