"Christ Myth" Scholars Strike Back at Bart Ehrman

Ever since Bart Ehrman's Did Jesus Exist? came out in March 2012 arguing for an historical Jesus, the "Christ myth" scholars he criticized in his book have struck back hard. Their latest endeavor is a new book called Bart Ehrman and the Quest of the Historical Jesus of Nazareth: An Evaluation of Ehrman's "Did Jesus Exist", which is a collection of refutations from several different scholars including Robert M. Price, Richard Carrier, Acharya S (D.M. Murdock), Earl Doherty, and Frank Zindler.

When Ehrman's book was published it was almost immediately lambasted by scholars who hold the mythicist position, also called the Christ myth theory - the view that Jesus was not an historical figure, but was instead a mythical/fictional character who only later became historicized.

Historian Richard Carrier wrote a blistering critique of Ehrman's book on his blog titled "Ehrman on Jesus: A Failure of Facts and Logic" in which he says the book is "filled with factual errors, logical fallacies, and badly worded arguments. Moreover, it completely fails at its one explicit task: to effectively critique the arguments for Jesus being a mythical person."

Recommended scholarly books on the Bible

Here's a list of scholarly books I can recommend on the Bible.

These focus on the Christ myth theory - that Jesus was originally a fictional/mythical figure and only later was historicized:

1. The Christ Myth Theory and Its Problems - Robert M. Price.
2. Jesus: Neither God Nor Man - Earl Doherty.
3. Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus - Thomas L. Brodie.
4. The Jesus Mysteries – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
5. Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All - David Fitzgerald.
6. The Jesus of the Early Christians: A Study in Christian Origins - G.A. Wells.
7. The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold – Acharya S.
8. The Pagan Christ – Tom Harper.
9. The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man – Robert M. Price.
10. The Jesus Puzzle – Earl Doherty.
11. Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled - Acharya S.
12. Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection - Acharya S.
13. Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ - Acharya S.
14. Jesus and the Lost Goddess – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
15. The Laughing Jesus – Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.
16. The Jesus Legend – G.A. Wells.

Robert M. Price: Why religions demand belief

On Bible scholar Dr. Robert M. Price's excellent podcast "The Bible Geek", he answers listeners' emailed questions. On one episode a listener asked why religions demand something as odd as belief. He noted that there doesn't seem to be anything moral or ethical about it, it doesn't feed the hungry or help the poor, etc. It just seems bizarre that faith-based religions revolve around this idea that belief is so important.

Dr. Price responded with this:

It does seem that they're asking for the one thing that will throw you off the path of any kind of critical thinking. If you start this way you're starting off on the wrong foot, on the path to intellectual dishonesty. If you believe the slate of things for which there is no evidence, well, if they can convince you they're authoritative on that, you'll believe anything they say. 

And just to take a step back, why is it that the whole thing is based on something for which there's no evidence? Why do you even need faith in this unless there's some kind of a scam being pulled? I mean, what's commendable about believing something when there's no evidence for it? Why is credulity a virtue?

Robert M. Price: Debunking Christian apologetics and the "historical" Jesus

I recently saw a video of my favorite Bible scholar, Dr. Robert M. Price, in which he joked that he was working on a new book on devotionalism which he planned to title "Have You Accepted Jesus as Your Imaginary Playmate?".

Price started out as a Baptist fundamentalist and intended to become an apologist in the 1970s. However, during the course of obtaining a masters degree and two Ph.D.s from Drew University in theology and New Testament studies, plus having read many hundreds of scholarly books in the field, his views changed dramatically. He now says there's virtually nothing in the Bible that can be taken as "historical". He is well-known for embracing the Christ Myth theory as the most likely explanation for the supposed "historical Jesus".

The man is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge, and also a fascinating and humorous speaker - unlike many other scholars! There are numerous videos of him on youtube, and his website is filled with interesting books, podcasts, articles, reviews and video clips. The two podcasts are great. "The Bible Geek" discusses more complex issues, and "The Human Bible" is simplified and easier to follow. He takes listeners' emailed questions on both. I highly recommend his website.

He says Christian apologists are just "spindoctors for a dogmatic position" and the field of apologetics is just a "bogus sales job masquerading as historical study".