I have received some pushback on my policy of not debating with Jesus Mythicists. I was even accused of being “close-minded.” Is this true?
I wouldn’t consider myself close-minded. It’s not as if I limit my reading to a conservative segment of evangelicalism. In fact, most of my reading would be outside of that. In fact the two books I’m reading right not have nothing to do with Christianity. Classical Myth and The Great Asian Religions.
When it comes to the Jesus Myth, I have read more books by Jesus Mythicists than any other Christian I personally know. I don’t rely just on what apologists say about the Jesus Myth, I read their works myself.
So why won’t I debate Jesus Mythicists?
One of the main reasons is that Jesus Mythicists do history in a way that is different than anyone else. Their skepticism is such that what professional historians would consider sufficient evidence, they completely discount. Added to that, Jesus Mythicism often includes significant characteristics of conspiracy theories. My experience of talking to Jesus Mythicists is very similar to my conversations with those who believe in a flat earth, who deny the moon landings, and believe that 9/11 was an inside job.
In general, I find that there is not enough in common in how we look at the evidence for us to even discuss the evidence in a helpful way. They get frustrated that I would be so stupid to accept any historical value in the Gospels (even though 99.9% of historians accept them as having historical value) and I get frustrated that they don’t do history the way historians do. Nobody wins.
I don’t hate Jesus Mythicists. In fact one of the main criticisms of our book, Unmasking the Pagan Christ, was that we were too nice to the Mythicist Tom Harpur.
If a Mythicist wants clarification about something I have said or if they have a sincere question about something related to the Bible or mythology, I’m happy to talk about that. But I am not interested in debating because it just wastes everybody’s time.
