(June 30, 2016 at 1:15 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: I thought the reason he gave for his agnosticism was the problem of evil?
That may have been the final straw but he is quite clear in "Misquoting Jesus" that it was the problems with the bible itself - including a re-cap of the Day of Preparation fuck up which causes Dripshit to lose what little is left of his mind! - that started him down the road to realization.
Quote:In short, my study of the Greek New Testament, and my investigations
into the manuscripts that contain it, led to a radical rethinking
of my understanding of what the Bible is. This was a seismic change
for me. Before this—starting with my born again
experience in high school, through my fundamentalist days at Moody, and on through
my evangelical days at Wheaton—my faith had been based completely
on a certain view of the Bible as the fully inspired, inerrant word of
God. Now I no longer saw the Bible that way. The Bible began to appear
to me as a very human book. Just as human scribes had copied,
and changed, the texts of scripture, so too had human authors originally
written the texts of scripture. This was a human book from beginning
to end. It was written by different human authors at different
times and in different places to address different needs. Many of these
authors no doubt felt they were inspired by God to say what they did,
but they had their own perspectives, their own beliefs, their own
views, their own needs, their own desires, their own understandings,
their own theologies; and these perspectives, beliefs, views, needs, said. In all these ways they differed from one another. Among other
things, this meant that Mark did not say the same thing that Luke
said because he didn't mean the same thing as Luke. John is different
from Matthew—not the same. Paul is different from Acts. And
James is different from Paul. Each author is a human author and
needs to be read for what he (assuming they were all men) has to say,
not assuming that what he says is the same, or conformable to, or consistent
with what every other author has to say. The Bible, at the end
of the day, is a very human book.
This was a new perspective for me, and obviously not the view I
had when I was an evangelical Christian—nor is it the view of most
evangelicals today.
pgs 11-12
It was his realization that the bible was unreliable that triggered what the jerkoffs would call a "crisis of faith." (I call it LIBERATION.)
Anyway, Jorg, if you want to read the book I have an electronic copy. PM an email address and I'll send it to you.