1 hour, 19 mins / 1 hour, 20 mins
These two episodes with bible scholar Bart Ehrman are among the most popular on our podcast. In 513, he and Bart talk about where our popular ideas of heaven and hell came from, whether Jesus actually taught a doctrine of eternal torture, the difference between agnosticism and atheism and why he considers himself both, why the words translated ‘hell’ don’t mean what we think they do, how Jesus talked of ‘eternal life’, the early church theology of heaven and hell, how Jews of the 1st century understood bodily resurrection, the origin of the devil, our ideas of the afterlife and cosmic justice, whether we should try to deconvert people who are wavering in their faith, and more. In 803, the Barts talk about blending the intellect and the heart, belief and disbelief, the way people misinterpret Scripture, the message of Jesus compared to that of Paul or the book of Revelation, how to relate to people who throw bible verses around, and many other things. Stay tuned at the end of 803 for a piece of the conversation that almost ended up on the cutting room floor.