cheeryble

Hi there

I read WLCraig arguing that it is reasonable to accept as biblical fact consensus opinion of biblical scholars.
He cites Habermas
My question is:
How many, what percentage, of the biblical scholars relied on in arguments like this have a predetermined belief system which might just be affected by the outcome of their deliberations?

thanks for any info
Cheeryble

Toto

That question was asked in this recent thread, but you might have trouble finding the answer.

Habermas' 75% is a famous statistic, but not very meaningful when you go behind it. I don't have a ready source - I don't think it is online.

The majority of professional Bible scholars, of course, have always been employed by the various churches and seminaries.

Doug Shaver

I think Craig is being disingenuous, considering that he certainly does dispute a great many consensus opinions of biblical scholars. What Craig means is that it is reasonable to accept as biblical fact any consensus opinion of biblical scholars if he himself holds that opinion.

But of course, as noted in the other thread that has been referenced, a lot depends on who gets to be classified as a biblical scholar. One problem with citing the Habermas study is that we have no idea what his criteria were.

mountainman

The OP in that earlier thread was "Are most New Testament scholars Christians? which is really an entirely different question than the one we have here, namely " What proportion of Biblical Scholars theist? "

Whereas the ancient "invented" name "christian" is reasonably easy to associate with outward formal expressions of faith, tradition, culture and/or belief systems recognised as "christian" in one way or another way, the name "theist" is far more general, and of course includes all other students and researchers and scholars who are Hindu, Jewish, Tibetan and/or etc. Furthermore, theism is also recogniseable in pantheistic outlooks, for example the Gaia hypothesis, and in all primitive belief systems. Natural systems have been reverred since the beginning, on the basis that theism involves life itself, and life itself involves theism: on a universal scale perhaps. Who knows?

Because of the extreme diversity of "theisms", the question is probably better answered by examining the compliment set, that is what proportion of Biblical scholars are non-theists, and reversing the answer. I am aware that there is also a great diversity of non-theists, but nothing like the diversity of theists.

Another related question might be what proportion of Biblical scholarship believe in the theism founded upon the divine origins of the christian church.

Joan of Bark

Hey, Cheeryble, we really must get together for a chat some day. Are you familiar with Art Cafe, near Backstreet Books?

I would expect that most Biblical scholars are theists, which -- if true -- means any consensus among them can be very useful to atheists when said consensus contradicts commonly held Judeo-Christian beliefs. And yes, of course their pre-set beliefs brings their objectivity into question, as is true in all scholarly fields that have a passionate and emotional following.

show_no_mercy

What would be an even better question is how many Bible scholars lost their "Christianity" after becoming a Bible scholar.

semiopen

The "Christianity" part is apt.

The thread says Biblical but the answers have all assumed Christian.

My guess is that Koranic scholars would be quite theist, which in this case probably means that God actually talked to Mohammed, etc.

I'm not aware of any Jewish scholars who take the various myths literally, but a reasonable percentage of them, one would think, believes in God.

DCHindley

The answer will depend a bit on how you define "theist." Westerners tend to be nominal Christians, meaning they are in tune with a culture that is heavily influenced by Christian beliefs of various flavors (Catholic, Lutheran Protestant, Calvinist Protestant, Non-Calvinist Protestant, et cetera). That being said, most "nominal-Christians" are not regular church-goers, and even among those who do go many do not really understand their church's theology or agree with its official world-view. Even Adolf Hitler was a nominal Catholic (as described by Wm Shirer in Rise & Fall of the 3rd Reich in the final bunker scened where Hitler and Eva Braun get married by a Catholic priest - with bans being published and the whole 9 yards - before committing suicide).

My opinion is that practicing Christians account for about 50% of academics, but don't expect most of them to be proselytizing from a soapbox in the park or handing out tracts at the door of the local bar. Another 25% are agnostics. And maybe 25% are non-religious.

DCH

Sheshbazzar

What are the criteria that define what constitutes a "Biblical Scholar"?
Does "publication", and the popularity of the authors opinions, establish the status?
Does acceptance into a "peer group", or the "consensus of scholarly opinion", admit, or exclude admission?

Certainly we have all read stuff written by popular mainstream "Biblical Scholars" that amounted to little more than thinly disguised apologetics.
Does such "scholarly opinion", based on "the Scriptures say" override logic, reason, and skepticism?

semiopen

I agree, not being an expert on Christianity I was surprised that a "scholar" of any substance would actually believe that the tomb was empty, much less 75% of such scholars.