"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."

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".

What is the Zeitgeist?

What is the Zeitgeist? Zeitgeist is a 2007 movie that has gone viral on the internet. The film is divided into 3 parts: 1) the Jesus-myth theory, 2) the theory that certain elements within the U.S. government were involved in the 9/11 attacks, 3) theory that Central Banking largely controls the world.

The term "zeitgeist" is German for "spirit of the times". The film's basic premise is that people are, and have been for a very long time, hoodwinked by the powers that be. We're lied to by organized religion, government, and by the powerful and wealthy structures in society.

I spent 12 years in a Christian fundamentalist church in my younger years. Since then I've done a lot of reading on Biblical scholarship, including many books by scholars on the Jesus-myth theory. And I can say that the Jesus-myth theory has the strongest evidence backing it up, and makes more sense than any of the competing theories on what the "historical Jesus" was like.

If Christians think the "Da Vinci Code" was shocking stuff, well, if only they knew the real truth about early Christianity! The gospel story of Jesus is NOT original, unique or historical - but is clearly based on many older religious myths. And most likely, Jesus never existed as a human on earth at all, but was a mythical/fictional character in a spiritual allegory.