Mountain Top Learning (formerly Mountain Top Lectures) presented talks by well known scholars on a variety of topics related to faith in the modern world on the campus of the University of North Georgia (UNG) in Dahlonega. Many of these lectures were recorded with the assistance of UNG and are now being made available on this channel. We hope you will enjoy and learn from them.
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Bart is such a great communicator, and I have learned an inordinate amount of stuff from him. I’m a believing Christian, but he has certainly given my faith some intellectual guidelines. Unquestioned faith is blind. I don’t get the sense that Bart is out there to dispel people of their religion; rather, to better inform them. Atheists and agnostics would certainly attract more people with honey like this.
Thank you! I have felt that I must be weird because I am agnostic, but I am very interested in Christianity, fully support it, and even wind up defending it from hypocritical Bible bangers. But I don't feel alone anymore.
50? Come on Bart, if the letters existed where do you think they would be now? Maybe the Vatican Archives. A library nobody has access too that's guarded like fort Knox and the size of 3 football fields...? Maybe? Lol It's time you scholars told the Pope the jigg is up and please unlock the Archive's. We all deserve know the truth. The whole truth.
Well, it is useful to understand that Constantine discovered that all the soldiers at the Milvian Bridge were Christians, The legions had been covertly Christian since the Talking Cross ratified the unilateral covenant cutting ceremony begun with the splitting of Jesus on the Cross. The legions Constantine brought back from Britain had comingled with the Druids and the Chi Rho symbol his Legions painted on their shiels was a Druid totem and represented the moral advantage that won the battle, Constantine didn't so much convert to Christianity as to accept the reality of his troops, Tertullian had observed that there were more Christian Pagans in Rome than polytheist. Bart is from the Gospel according to those who were scared shitless of going to Vietnam, such as Jimmy Tabor, He is in denial of the reality of the Roman anchor of Christianity, All his demographic shit is true enough, N.T. Wright's interpretation of Paul reflects the theological basis of the Talking Cross and the necessity of Pilate's lost euangelion as the basis of the Synoptic Gospels, The Gospel of Mark was in circulation by 40 CE
I resonate with Philips journey so much Been a believer for over 50 yrs. I no longer see God as a violent being. The Bible has errors and is not infallible. I guess I'm a heretic; I'm in good company with followers of Jesus who challenged the dogmatic and abusive church, who valued law above the Grace that Jesus lived out in his life
The question is asked by Dr Ehrman what made Christianity so popular in the third century.? It is my opinion that the church in Rome made some adaptations to the Christian faith familiar to the every day polytheist. Praying to statues of Saints was much like praying to different gods because. The Liturgy was in Latin, a language that you’re every day polytheistic pagan was not fluent. Text of the Bibles were also written in Latin, which a smaller portion or percentage of the general population could read and understand the holy scriptures. But church leader ship evolved into a hierarchy like the Hebrew religion with scribes and Pharisees, also, the Catholic Church had its “scribes and Pharisees“. The practices of the Roman Catholic Church were welcoming to pagan believers who still held onto their sin. Habits could easily forgiveness through the recitation of Hail Mary and our fathers. Many early Christians did not believe that they were responsible to study in a meaningful depth their religion. All they had to do if they had questions was go ask a priest. The strategy, of course, is most effective when there are no longer apostles, performing miracles.
In the Hebrew original Ezekiel talks about the size of gods penis when god comes to visit while riding on his chariot throne. Why dont christians talk about the size of gods manhood? What are they hiding? Is the size in cubits being held in the vaticans secret archives? WE DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH!!!
Being one with the Consciousness of God (living in God’s Consciousness, or in Reality) is not the same as being God. Why is that so hard to understand, We share in that Reality we are not that Reality. Jesus never claimed to be God. Unlike us he had full conscious awareness of his relationship to God and that is called Christ Consciousness, Whatever Ehrman is going through he should see a counselor in order to figure it out. He does not have to inflict his problem or his conflict on the rest of humanity..
My main question is why is this man giving credibility in the Christian world? He is a non-believer that loves to mislead and twist scripture. 1. He is constantly gaping and refusing to link the Holy spirits relativity in scripture. 2. He is not a man of faith in Jesus textual fact.
Well, this entire argument about agnosticism vs atheism is best expressed in the parable Bertrand Russel gave about the teacup (or perhaps teapot) circling the earth on some orbit. Does it, somewhere? So unlikely that we say: no, it doesn't. But are we sure? Well, in principle there may be one out there. Does it mean we are agnostic about such thing. Well, again: in principle yes but is this really helpful? It is not, because in fact we know that there is no such thing out there. And so we are in fact atheist about the teacup, not agnostic. It has nothing to do with knowing vs. believing. It has all to do with the level of probability we assign to a proposition. If it gets very very close to 100% we say we are sure without much flinching. It is a perfectly accurate assessment of reality. Just as we are not agnostic about a DNA match of 99.9999... %. We convict with no second thoughts. We are not on the fence by a long stretch. Can we end all this mumbo jumbo finally and for all??!
I find the position on Constantine having converted to Christianity in 312 or long before his death to be very speculative. For one, the accounts of Esebius and Lactantius appear to be written for children. This hard core Constantine guy who had his son and wife killed felt that a cross made him win a battle. Laughable argument. It is pretty obvious that Constantine thought that Christianity had great potential in the context of exercising power on the empire. But did he believe in Jesus himself, doubtful. Did he believe as a pagan converted to Christianity in that time would ? Highly unlikely because of his upbringing and focus on power not on making sense of the after life or moral issues. He liked the idea of a single god, bearing in mind that many emperors had been elevated to the rank of gods after their death lowered the value of god. He liked the promises made by Christianity. He liked the appeal it had to people in the empire. He liked the growth of the structure of the church. If he had a vision it was not seeing a cross but seeing the potential for power coming from that new religion. Constantine's conception of religion by his upbringing made him a stranger to Christianity. It is more likely that Constantine converted at the end of his life, not because of the baptism, not because of the faith he had, not even because of the promise of heaven (I would bet he thought that was laughable), but for the future generations. By converting to a religion that he believed had the potential to become a great power in itself, he tied his house to that religion. It was a power play. He was a true Roman Emperor after all. He was not wrong since his successors did use Christianity as a power structure. So why did Constantine not do it himself ? He did not do it himself in part because he did not believe in Jesus, in part because he thought he might fail. Ave Valerius Constantius. Of course this is all speculative but to me it makes more sense than confusing Sol Invictus with Jesus and loving Jesus.
Nero sounds like the Vulture Capitalists in Florida. They want property that has folks who have lived in their homes for 50 years. New construction is surrounding these neighborhoods, of which the infrastructure to properly prevent flooding of the older neighborhoods is purposely neglected. The same homes begin to flood with every storm, insurance increases every 6 months, soon families can not afford homeowners, the next wipes them out, they lose their homes and the waiting Vultures swoop in paying pennies on the dollar. Of course, magically the state finds the money to repair infilstucture, the Vultures build and suffer no flooding. Nero's folks went the fire route. lol
Erhman is indeed a great teacher (as are many teachers, true). But he seems to be an especially skilled one in delivering knowledge. ONE QUESTION:- If Christians were persecuted in some Mediterranean cities/regions because they were found to be refraining from propitiating local deities (thereby failing in civic duty), then was the similarly migrant minority community, the Jews, who were also fiercely monotheistic, also similarly prosecuted when they refused to propitiate the local pantheon? Are there records - either in Jewish history or in parallel other histories - of such persecution of Jews?
Another great lecture. I know one day you will carry on with you're great passion in the after life, because you will not realize that you are dead, and I will be there listening to you.😂😂😂
I live in the east, most people already believed there is a supreme being, you may say God but we call it "Shang Di", "Hyang Widhi", etc, from 2500 BC. Well, because of atheism, communism, etc which come from western, turn the world into chaos with your intelligence. How does people from 2500 BC could belived in God but now you don't?
I guess Thomas Jefferson wasn't a good Christian at all when he edited his own "Bible" that took out any mention of miracles, I grew up Catholic so accounts of miracles (some approved by the Vatican, others not so much) were all over the place if you were serious about the faith and to most the whole religion depends on one miracle in particular and that is Jesus rising from the dead so I guess this topic is baked into the DNA of the religion. In other words for most if there's no miracles at all then there's no Christianity (once I stopped believing in the Resurrection four years ago that's when I knew I was no longer a Christian in any meaningful way even while I was trying to fit in with more liberal communities like the Episcopalians). Knowing that a lot of the aspects of this religion are basically leftovers from late Antiquity and the early Medieval period has helped me in my deconstruction more than anything else and I'm grateful to Ehrman as usual for his scholarship and expertise.
The Christian god Jesus is Satan the devil and he is not coming back Christians worship Satan with a human sacrifice of Jesus to Satan You’ve been deceived Repent accept jahovah and do good works
The Christian god Jesus is Satan the devil and he is not coming back Christians worship Satan with a human sacrifice of Jesus to Satan You’ve been deceived Repent accept jahovah and do good works