Debating Bart Ehrman is a Bad Idea?

So writes Jim Elliff on the Christian Communicators Worldwide blog. It is "wrongheaded" to set up debates with Bart Ehrman "or, for that matter, any unbelieving skeptic." Link. Why? Because debates like these will cause some believers to lose their faith. He's got that right. It does. ;-)

6 comments:

Miles Rind said...

Your first link leads to the same page (NW Ohio Skeptics) as the second. But I followed a link on that page to the page of the Christian Communicators Worldwide blog, which was what I really wanted to see. Jim Elliff's claim there is that it is "wrongheaded to set up such a debate with Ehrman in a seminary, or, for that matter, any unbelieving skeptic." And why is that? "First, because Ehrman is a false teacher and we are forbidden to give such men a forum to express their views." How do they know that Ehrman is a false teacher? Well, because he is an unbelieving skeptic! If he weren't a false teacher, he'd be preaching Christianity!

Anonymous said...

I fixed the link.

Chris Jones said...

Does anyone know if there is a written transcript, audio file, or video file of the debate?

jwhendy said...

@Chris Jones

YES

Peter said...

This reminds me of Devin Rose.
Devin Rose: The Early Church: The Formation of the Canon of Scripture” (check 18:50 min mark).
He says that if you ever see anything written by Ehrman run far away, through it in a trash or be on your guard if you choose to read it.

GearHedEd said...

Of course.

Anything that truly endangers the myth is to be avoided at all costs.

If there was no truth in Ehrman's writings, then the Christian should have nothing to fear.

So either Christianity on its lofty perch is tottering on an ever thinner spindle of support, and atheists are justified in attmpting to bring it the rest of the way down, or atheists are just plain wrong and should become Christians.

The reaction of the Christians points firmly to the former proposition.