On my bookshelf I’ve got several different versions of the Bible along with quite a few volumes Christian apologetics as well as atheistic criticism of the Bible, not to mention just straight ahead historical looks at Christianity. It’s a topic I used to be strongly interested in, but don’t really get into very much today.
Anyway, as an atheist I’ve often talked with very intelligent Christians who agree with me on at least one thing: that the issue of whether or not God exists is a serious one worthy of study rather than reflexive rush to judgments on either side. Which is why the Jesus Seminar’s regular publicity stunts are so annoying.
According to a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, at its next meeting the Jesus Seminar is going to vote up or down on the following statement: “Jesus of Nazareth is a manifestation of God.”
Robert Funk, the scholar who originally organized the Jesus Seminar, actually tells the Star-Telegram that, “We are opening up a new phase of the seminar. We are discussing the future of God, so to speak.”
Only an academic would possess the incredible level of hubris necessary to take it upon himself to discuss “the future of God” in this fashion, especially given that a question such as whether or not Jesus was a manifestation of God is really not one that can be answered through historical or scientific means. Leave it to a bunch of historians to think they can actually vote, after they decide about Jesus, whether or not “God is.” Just forget the thousands of years of philosophical debate on this issue, and let the Jesus Seminar folks take a vote!
Supporters of the Jesus Seminar claim their controversial pronouncements stir interest in Biblical scholarship. I think this is a bit like saying that Jerry Springer’s show encourages research into conflict management. More likely, the Jesus Seminar’s publicity stunts probably convince a lot of people that secular Biblical historians are a bunch of morons.
This reminds me of the campus atheist group at the university I work at — I went to a couple of meetings only to find them quite a bit more obnoxious than any of the Christian groups on campus. I happened to walk by a display table they set up in the student union the other day, and prominently displayed on a presentation board was a bumper sticker that said “Evolutionists do it with increasing complexity.” Along with strongly implying that religious belief and evolution are incompatible, the whole effect to me was to completely demean and trivialize the important insights of Darwin, much as the Jesus Seminar trivializes the insight and importance of the near universal belief in some sort of deity by asserting that the matter can be decided by democratic vote.