Why Bart Ehrman's Critiques Are Inconsistent with His Worldview - Michael Kruger

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]One remarkable feature about the book is that Ehrman seems really positive on a core Christian ethic. At one point he says, "I'm writing to celebrate the good brought into the Western world by the Christian movement." And at the same time doesn't believe in the core truth of Christianity and claims to be an atheist. And he's not the only one. I was thinking, "Boy, we see this all over the place." Like all kinds of high There are all kinds of high-profile atheists who take on something of a Christian label. So, Bart Ehrman says, "I'm a Christian atheist." Richard Dawkins says, "I'm a cultural Christian." Tom Holland says, "I'm not a materialist, so I must be a Christian." What do you make of this desire for Christian morality, but not Christianity itself? Can someone have Christian ethics without Christianity?

[00:00:46]Yeah, so this is a fascinating trend to watch. I mean, you mentioned some of the names I would have mentioned, which is the whole new atheist movement was a little bit of this. And I think a little bit uh with folks like Tom Holland and others, where you see people with this They seem to be drawn to Christianity in some ways. They seem to sort of want it to be true.

[00:01:02]I I I feel a little bit of that when I read Ehrman's book here. I get the sense that he's really happy with this one aspect of Christianity. And and wishes it were true, and probably thinks at some level is true, but he doesn't want the whole package.

[00:01:16]Um he he he doesn't want to um to to buy into something here. And, you know, fair enough.

[00:01:22]Um you know, you know, you you you you people try to have their theological cake here and eat it, too.

[00:01:28]But but I want to point something out here that I think needs to be pointed out that is often missing in these discussions. Ehrman was very quick to say, "Hey, Christians, you need to live consistently with your own worldview." And I've already said I agree. But I might suggest that Ehrman could take that same advice and ask the question, is he living consistently with his own worldview?

[00:01:46]What I find interesting about the book, and I I find this interesting, too, across other interviews he's given, is that there seems to be very little philosophical self-reflection on whether he's living consistently with his own claims, with his own worldview. I I appreciate him saying that Christians ought to do so, and I've agreed with it.

[00:02:02]I would simply push the claim back on him and say, "Well, have you lived, and do you live, and do your beliefs reflect the consistency of your own worldview?"

[00:02:09]And here's where we come back to his worldview. He is an atheist. But he's not even just an atheist, he's really what you might call a hard atheist. He's what's called a materialist. He believes the only thing that exists in the universe are are material things.

[00:02:22]There's molecules and rocks and trees and planets and stars and uh elements in the ground. I mean, he he he is a materialist, thinks that all that that exists is physical material things.

[00:02:35]But I would challenge him here, and I think others have tried to do this, is that okay, so you want to have this beautiful moral system that Christianity provides for you, but you want to retain the very thing that undercuts it, which is an atheistic worldview that says all that exists in the universe are a bunch of bags of molecules interacting with other bags of molecules. And what would we Where are we going to get any sort of moral normativity out of one bag of molecules interacting with another bag of molecules?

[00:03:01]Um And this is This becomes particularly clear later in the book when and we'll we'll come back to this, too, I'm sure, is that at the end of the book, Ehrman, he does this in his other books, too, has a sort of a long list of sort of what I might call moral complaints.

[00:03:13]Um things that he's upset about in the world. The world ought to be another way than it is. We ought not to be racist.

[00:03:20]We ought not to be sexist. We ought not to be anti-Semitic. And by the way, I agree with that whole list. We ought not to be any of those things. Um but one might wonder, is that consistent with his worldview?

[00:03:32]Do Do Do you In an In an atheistic worldview, where there's just matter in motion and bags of molecules, is there really anything in a cold, dark universe to say that that act is wrong or that act is right? I would suggest to you that philosophically speaking, if he's if he were consistent with his own worldview, he would simply acknowledge the fact that there is no ought in an atheistic worldview. There's just an is.

[00:03:53]Things are just are they are are they are. They shouldn't be any other way.

[00:03:56]They shouldn't be one way or the other.

[00:03:57]It is are. The only system actually provides an ought is the Christian system.

[00:04:02]So, what you have here is him, I think, recognizing along with others the goodness of the system, but but their own worldview is totally inconsistent with it. So, my my pushback would be live consistently with your own worldview um as you're challenging Christians to do the same.

[00:04:17]Yeah, that is fascinating.

[00:04:20]Yeah, it's interesting, right? Because we also see that in Christian circles where you're be like, "I really want the Bible, but I'll just take the sexual ethic from the world, or I'll just take the financial ethic from the world, or >> Yeah, I I think another way to say it is Ehrman is probably frustrated, and I think there's some fairness to this, with Christians who pick and choose the parts of Christianity they want to follow.

[00:04:43]But, one of the things I'll point out is that he actually kind of does the same in the sense that the only part of Christianity he wants is this one part.

[00:04:51]But, if he's calling Christians to live consistently with their own worldview, which is he seems to be doing, does he want Christians to live consistently with the sexual ethics of the worldview?

[00:05:00]He seems upset when we do that.

[00:05:03]It seems like if if if he were just being consistent across the board, he would say, "Of course you have that view of sexuality because that's consistent with your worldview, and I I give you that freely. Of course, I expect you to have that." But, that's kind of not what happens. He He seems to be like, "Well, you should have the parts of the worldview that I happen to prefer." And I think that shows a little bit of the arbitrariness of the of the of the criticism.