I prefer the Monty Pythons version,The Life of Brian….blessed are the cheese makers.

Thank you Mr. SHerman for posting this talk without commercials.

Wow! What a great conversation! I thoroughly enjoyed this. I laughed along with these two guys so much and had a lot of fun. Very entertaining and informative. Thank you so much to both of you.

I have numerous relatives who REALLY believe they see and talk with Jesus on a regular basis. But he never seems to be there when I'm around.

Michael Sherman is the very first person I have ever seen who puts his finger on one or two of the most fundamental credibility discrepancies in the most basic Christian belief (and then spurs Bart Erhman to discuss the third!) Thanks very much for this.

I’m a Christian and I really appreciate both of these guys.

Bart, or rather his talks, fascinate me. I am so looking forward to this and glad I happened to see the thumbnail. Good stuff like this makes housework so much more tolerable!

Every day this podcast is getting better, alittle better all the time.

Ehrman is a true patriot. The way he has taken a blowtorch to the ignorance and stupidity that is Christianity is a gift to this country. No reasonable person can assert the Bible is reliable after seeing Bart obliterate it with evidence. Cannot understand why he has not received the presidential medal of freedom for all of his work in freeing humanity from the nonsense that is religion. A true hero.

The world needs more HONEST & critical scholars like Dr. Bart Ehrman. I'm so glad he has been on so many platforms lately!

KZfaq has officially been hijacked by Dr. Ehrman's jolly laugh.

This was a great interview. Shermer did a good job at asking questions and keeping the conversation moving at a good pace.

Two of my favorite you tube notables! Thanks! Hope you both had a great holiday.

Wonderful program. Maybe this answer is weak, but I was taught in my church that all-natural disasters and war and rapes, murder etc. are the works of Azazel and the powers of darkness that overwhelm certain open people. It maintains that God does not send evil. They also teach that God is not all-powerful, all present, or knows all, but we are to pray for His kingdom to come for the current earthly kingdom is ruled by Azazel. Ehrman rocks. We reject the atonement, the resurrection, the Virgin birth, trinity, and deity of Jesus we agree with Bart that all people by treating others with kindness will be welcome in the world to come; if there is such a place.

Having read Erman's Did Jesus Exist and Sanders's The Historical Figure of Jesus, I'm grateful to Erman for providing all this scholarship and insight into the foundational elements of Christianity. He works from data, evidence and educated extrapolations to get as close to factual and reason-based conclusions about the Christ figure as anyone logically can.

Great interview. I really enjoyed that. Thanks for organizing and uploading. Note to Michael Shermer - IMO, it seems that you've mellowed in recent times. If you're now having friendly exchanges with Deepak Chopra, then you should also reconsider your previous hostility towards Rupert Sheldrake. Note to Bart : Richard Swinburne is the Oxford professor you couldn't remember.

Another great lecture series can be found a Centre Place.

A historical figure is revealing himself in such a way people are changing religions and are so full of joy and peace.

Is there a way to listen to the Christmas lectures since i missed the seminar?

In Islamic nations, if you question Islam, bad things will happen to you. We are lucky to have the freedom to question religion in this country. Good conversation.

I was recently diagnosed with bipolar 1 and had experienced my first manic episode. All my life I was a man of science. But during this period, I began to believe in different aspects of life. One belief was a belief in God and had "memories " of the afterlife. Another belief was I was the messiah. I ended up in a mental clinic and began my medication treatment. I'm normal now, but one of the things I learn and believe is humanity belief in the supernatural can be explained by the wiring of our brains. And not only famous religious figures but those claiming some spiritual event, may suffer from a mental illness. Jesus may have been bipolar.

"Why can't it be a hangnail?" Dr. E, that was the funniest thing you'd ever said!

This space makes it enlightening, expands thought and invites debate. Questions are part of being HUMAN, trying to understand the essence of spirit , a force that is a mystery. Why do bad things happen to good people? Where wa God during the Holocaust? These significant questions hold the human race perhaps more accountable for what they do, instead of leaving it to a deity of sorts.Thank you Michael Shermer and Bart Ehrman 1:03:51

Good one, Michael -- thanks for having Bart on.

Thank you kindly for every question asked and every answer given. Both, the interviewer and guest are greatly appreciated.

Awesome chat! Thanks guys!

This was a blast - as pretty much everything Bart Ehrman is part of.

Dr. Ehrman is one of my favorites.

My daughter (who was a believer) was raped and it lead to many years of PTSD, physical suffering and ultimately her death at 39. If all things work together for good...it is impossible for me to see it. I am looking forward to the end of life so my pain can also end. Glad I gave up believing I n God before she died so I don’t have any anger towards he who does not exist.

Modern Unitarians today are Universalists. A quip among Unitarians, "The Unitarian Church is a place for atheists to go on Sunday morning. " Humanists .

Take a shot every time Shermer tells his Ken Miller story.

Great conversation. Very enlightening. Two places that I was disappointed: 1. As it pertains to "why did Jesus have to die?", there seemed to be a presupposition that God killed Jesus in order to appease some anger he has towards us. While there are many Christians who believe that (especially in the West), that is a minority view in Christianity, and I would have liked to have heard the topic explored without that assumption. 2. At the very end, Shermer mentioned that maybe, "God just can't do it. He's limited". I think that's a far more plausible explanation and wish it would have gotten more than one passing line.

14:01_ No the Romans did not "crucify everybody for anything" , what an ignorant statement and sadly Ehrman just nods agreement ..good grief.

learning a lot from Dr Ehrman.

When I read the Gospels and Acts, I am really taken in by the story -(probably because of wishful thinking,) but I cannot reconcile the story about the Holy Spirit when comparing the theology/belief against actual Church History… Right from the beginning of Acts through to today. If the Holy Spirit/Comforter was released to guide the Church after Jesus left the Church to carry on the mission, why were there so many early debates about what to believe… why were there so many supposed heretics… why so many denominations… why do so many ministers profess that they are in tune with the Holy Spirit, yet do not bare the biblical fruits to show the Holy Spirit is guiding them… and so on. I have had a few explanations for the lack of Holy Spirit guidance… but they don’t seem to add up… Just have faith… 😄

Utterly delightful conversation, thank you both!

thanks for another interesting conversation michael

Dr. Bart. Some guy who is born of a virgin and whose birth was signaled by a star or conjunction of planets and whose birth caused wise men to travel from afar to give him gifts and also caused Herrod to order the slaughter of the innocents and who, in some stories was able to kill people and resurrect people even as a child should cause Jews living near him to reconsider what the messiah would accomplish. At the very least, he should have been treated as a special person or prophet but, for some reason, they seemed to mostly ignore him. What is the reason for that? The only reason is that the whole birth story thing is made up.

So glad that you did this.

Great conversation 💕

I loved this interview. On suffering apart from the Rabbi's book, there is Theologian Dr Thomas Oord who says God can't stop suffering or evil even if he wanted to. I do like his argument.

A lot of people would like to see Bart Ehrman debate Richard Carrier on the historicity of Jesus but he refuses to do it for some reason

1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

It would be interesting to have input from a competent physician on the question of whether Jesus died on the cross and what might his contemporaries have witnessed if he didn't.

There is 8.0 billion people with 2.4 billion (30%) declaring they are Christians and 5.6 billion (70%) declaring they are not. Problem is there is no one Christian unified religion. In fact there are over 350 different religions using over 100 different bibles preaching different interpretations of scripture through 1 million churches. Some believe in a pre-trib rapture while most do not. Most rejoice in song and dance while a few forbid the practice. Some teach Genesis 1 as being the exact word of God while scholars state Genesis 2 contradicts Genesis 1 and both are stories. So if Christians can't agree on Christianity then why should anyone else?

Kept drifting off topic toward the end of the interview, but I suppose they couldn't give away too much of the actual lecture. Still an interesting discussion nevertheless.

I read Dr Ehrman’s book, ‘Misquoting Jesus’, several years ago and can certainly understand his disillusionment with many of the ‘inerrant word of God’ folks, like R. C. Sproul for example, and his frustration with the strict-literalist/creationist types. These folks often make claims that aren’t supported/contradictory - or gloss-over important questions and just say, “believe me”, while they themselves are ‘mere humans’ that offer differing opinions from each other (often while enriching themselves in a conflict-of-interest kind of way - pick “money” or “God”, but, when a conflict comes, you can’t pick both). A few observations while watching this interview: 1. “1 in 8 claim to have seen a dead relative after they died”. What if a whole neighborhood saw the dead neighbor after they died? And for several weeks after? This is an obvious, unaddressed question: yes, the resurrection can’t be proven unequivocally - this is understood about many historical events (see recent stories about evidence of a meteor exploding over the historical Sodom and Gomorrah site) - but it’s captured that hundreds saw Jesus alive after his death. 2. Old vs. New Testament: he makes a comment about them being ‘different Gods’ in the context of believing in Jesus. Really, these are two stories about humanity in its social/moral Infancy vs. the effort to move it into Adulthood. ‘Belief in Jesus or you go to hell’ and the New Testament approach is more about your internal values: changing the nature the individual as well as humanity as a species. It’s not about just ‘going through the motions’, but rather fundamentally transforming an intelligent, often violent and self-destructive animal, that is quite adept at rationalizing (self/societal/species) destructive behavior. And attempting to keep this species from going extinct by their own means: in fact, “living in a Hell of their own making”. This requires a fundamental change in human nature: not just a legalistic one, similar to the Jews then (and today), but at a grass-roots/emotional level. (See ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, e.g., by H.G. Wells as a fictionalized illustration of a failed attempt: a metaphor of ‘what if it doesn’t work’). 3. Concerning, “why did Jesus have to die to forgive my sins”: this is more of a philosophical question. C. S. Lewis alludes to it in his book, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, where God’s infallibility - his character - is challenged by the White Witch, in that she lays claim to Edmund for his betrayal. The Resurrection is, in a way, a ‘literal metaphor’ in which God cements the nature of His relationship with us, as well as his intentions for us, as we strive to grow into moral ‘adulthood’. It is the ultimate message of what we should strive to be, shown through Jesus’ example: “Doing” is much more impactful than “Saying” - not “do as I say” but rather, “do as I do” in order to save the human species.

My question for Dr.Ehrman: Are scholars laughing at Dr.Carrier after reading his peer reviewed book "On Historicity of Jesus"? And how do scholars react on your own peer unreviewed book "Did Jesus Exist?".

Please provide the full date, day, month and year.

Christmas is a time when were all go a little bit crazy. It's a time of story telling, usually on the telly these days. The wizard of oz will be on again and a couple of ghost stories. It's nice for the kids and a chance to eat, get drunk and sleep a lot.

Not feeling his attitude about mythicism vs historicity. "We just laugh at them" is not a good argument, nor is it the kind of thing people say when they have a good argument.

Love you man you are great keep it up we need you as a wise professor

always enjoy Ehrman. not entirely sure wire. but ive devoted whole nights to his biz. i guess we all still fight w christians etal on occasion. -JC

Well, if suffering and evil are somehow necessary to play out this grand plan that is far beyond human understanding, then why pray? Honestly, sometimes I think all this "barking madness" is just used today as a rationale for having an imaginary friend as an adult. Since we are all ultimately alone, in a sense, I guess I understand desiring the comfort of someone powerful and loving, who has our backs and is there to "save" us, listening to our private pleas and worries. It is kind of a haunting idea, when you think about it.

"RESURRECTIONS BY DEFINITION ARE NOT PROBABLE" (nervous laughter). I'm not a Christian but why the nervous laughter. I love laughter when appropriate; why does Erhman puntuate statements with laughter. To lighten the tone, embarrassment? Apart from the four gospels there's no independent evidence for Jesus (Greek for Joshua). I guess this is entertainment; Bart's getting paid and no script writer is needed.

Instead of asking why God permits evil ask instead why do so many humans do evil. It started in then beginning with Cain. People commit evil not God. Perhaps good is an antidote to evil and people have the moral choice to choose their response. Can evil even exist without good as an alternate choice?

On a modern map, what areas are included in the reference to, "North Africa"?

Jesus would have looked so normal to the average people around him then that the Romans needed someone to identify him among the small crowd.

Fascinating I love this interview!!

When I was in Catholic elementary school, Catholics did not believe that Jesus had a brother and Joseph was an old man. This maintained the story of “Holy Mary, Ever Virgin.” I am no longer a Catholic, but Mary is still my mother.

Thank you!

Two of my favorite scholars.

Love Bart.

Thanks for making this video! 👏 👏 👏

Thanks so much

what about al the prophecies in the old testament i did not hear mr Ehrman talk about that

As for the problem of evil - we have Epicurus - “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

What I'd like to know is how did Joseph of Aromatherapy remove the nails ?

...as always... any Bart Ehrman discussion is always enlightening...my only complaint is so little of this one involved the details of the Nativity history...I suppose Bart wouldn't want to steal his own Thunder from his upcoming Xmas Webinar...at any rate it Shermer was asking the questions...

37:00 I thought that around that time there were all kinds of people claiming that they were messiahs?

Bart Ehrman's defence of an historical Jesus amounts to a "vast number of independent sources" that "talk about Jesus in the same way". There's actually a single independent source: the gospel of mark. The rest can be traced to that.

Please read, "Dear and Glorious Physician" by Taylor Caldwell. She worked on this book for 50 years, a telling of the life of St. Luke, a doctor, researched his life in libraries all over the world The story is remarkable and unforgettable because it gives us facts. These people did exist Luke never met Christ, but he did meet with Christ's mother, Mary, toward the end of her life.

Mathew took his book to the publisher who said go and beef it up. Four revisions later publisher thinks more money if we sell it under assumed names.

Why can't simply saying, "God, if all this IS actually true, I accept it."? Answer: "NO! You have to BELIEVE it's true!"

excellent show ,,,

Thanks.

When the moral Arc translated in french?

God of parking spaces is named Squat, sometimes requires sacrifice of a pedestrian.

I thought the Romans kept crucifixion specifically for crimes against the state, like treason or slaves revolting.

You referenced Mark 2. I didn't see what he was referring to.

Why are there so many Christians? Leaving aside the forced conversion argument it is really simple - Christianity asks for the least (just believe) and offers the most in return (a place in heaven? It is as simple as that.

10:34 How do you know? Maybe he was like Kojak? Maybe he had blue eyes. Assad has blue eyes

Rather long video, when history actually barely talks about Jesus. I only see the first more massive reports being of the already established Christian communitiies.

As for suffering this is minutely explained in Buddhism.

When are you going back on Joe Rogan?

Bart Erhman tickling Michael Shermer’s ear.

I almost wish Mike and Bart could skip some of the "problem of evil" exchange. Like Bart said, the shallowness of thinking in attempts to explain this is staggering. OK, if so just move on. Otherwise, great exchange. Bart as a historical scholar is fun and education to listen to. Looking forward to his reading his last book on Armageddon. Jewish apocalypticism is so important to understanding Jesus. We need a good overview of Jewish thinking under the Roman yoke.

Love when Bart laughs after making point.

Listening to this as I head to a Christmas Eve service with the fam 😂😂 need to balance out the BS I’m about to hear with some real scholarship. Thanks Michael & Bart for the great conversation!

We'll never know whether He existed and the same goes for Mohammad. But it doesn't really matter as long as there are enough people who think he did. J. is reputed to have said, "Blessed are the peacemakers" and whether that is important to all Christians is an entirely differrent matter. Right? I gotta go; they're starting the collection.

Please share my two brief videos with other people. Thanks!

What’s the difference between Christian paradox’s and Orwellian Doublespeak? The similarities are confusing me…

I’ve learned a lot from Ehrman and enjoy his debates but, please explain to me why he’s comfortable in believing that Paul actually knew Jesus’s brother? Because of that, Jesus as a person must have been real? I’ve never met the boogie man but I knew his younger brother; therefore, the boogie man is real. Am I missing some Ehrman logic?

What about Poesis?

No mention when was Jesus born ? Was is it miracle? How was Mary saved from accusation of adultery ? As she was sinless like Jesus How much message is of Jesus and how much from trinitarian unknown authors? In the 100 times revised bibles

Gods not dead. I'm celebrating his birthday. Merry Christmas to all!

A question. What about the stories about Jesus in India?

Of course Jeebus exists - I saw him longboarding on the weekend!

1:04:02 Richard Swinburne

Certainly we have some valid topics here. My favorite is that the Gospels record that Jesus had the authority here on earth to forgive sins. That is made clear. So then, why would Jesus have to undergo such a severe torture for anyones' sins to be forgivern? That does not make sense. Jesus could have (and still can) forgive anyone's sins without the necessity of being scourged and crucified (not nice things.) There seems to be a deficiency in Christian theology. Maybe Jesus' suffering and painful death is not about "our sins being foregiven," but about creating a lesson for humanity.