Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff

Dan Brown Speaks and Bart Ehrman Attacks

I bit the bullet, mixed my metaphors, listened to the audio book clips of the Da Vinci Code. My reaction? When Bart Ehrman is tearing your theories apart, things are not good.

That's right. John Rabe will find this hilarious, but audible.com, the people airing this show on XM Radio, used Bart Ehrman to critique it. I may vehemently disagree with conclusions Bart Ehrman draws from the facts, but I've never found myself in disagreement with the facts he uses. More on his critique later.

So they used clips of Dan Brown talking to the University of New Hampshire. I saw a clip of it on Dateline NBC tonight. I took notes, so here it goes:

• He claims he is naturally a skeptic.


• The info in his book was hard to accept because it went against what he was taught.


• Asked a historian how to reconcile differing histories. He realized history was written by winners.


• He wonders how accurate the historical record is.


• A lot of science vs. religion stuff. Saying how the Church wanted to view all natural phenomenon as miracles. (Based on what I know, belief in a God who ordered nature allowed science to get off the ground.)


• Science is answers. Religion is questions. They don't conflict.


• Dan Brown thinks books trying to debunk his book are wonderful.


• Dialogue is wonderful.


• Envious of people believing in absolute truth.


• Doesn't consider his book anti-Christian.


• All following different paths to enlightenment.


• Thinks all this debunking is too much/silly. (Ok, first it is wonderful and then it is silly.)


• Ok to have different beliefs.


• My notes are a tad unclear here, but it seems that Dan Brown said that absolute beliefs outlaws questions and questioning. (No Dan, ask questions.)


• Leaves it up to his readers to decide for themselves.

Now, when I heard Bart Ehrman, atheist and biblical scholar introduced, I was amused because as John Rabe has mentioned, Bart Ehrman is the goto person for those in the press opposed to the Bible.

Which of Dan Brown's claims did Bart Ehrman debunk?

• Claim: the lost gospels tell us what Jesus is really like? Ehrman: No.


• Claim: The Dead Sea Scrolls have information about the real Jesus. Ehrman: They have no Christian writings in it. It was a completely Jewish set of texts.


• Claim: Constantine was responsible for canonizing the books of the Bible we have at the council of Nicea. Ehrman: No. Nicea didn't discuss canonization. Furthermore, Nicea didn't debate Jesus divinity, just how he was divine. Ehrman goes on to say that Paul refers to Jesus' divine nature.


• Claim: Cellibacy was against the law in Jewish culture in the 1st century. Ehrman: No, cellibacy happened.


• Claim: Jesus was married. Ehrman: No evidence for this whatsoever even in Gnostic writings.

For the record, he came on the radio at 3:46.