White Pays a Visit

James White stopped by to let me know that he thinks I am a jerk, too, and that my comments about his debate with Bart Ehrman prove "that atheists hear only what they want to hear." Just to make things clear, this is what I heard White say on his podcast about Ehrman's refusal to comment on the extent to which the texts of the Koran were corrupted in transmission:

• Ehrman really knows more about the Koran (because he was Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at UNC) than he is willing to admit, i.e., he is a liar.


• Ehrman criticizes Christian texts without criticizing Islamic texts, i.e., he is a hypocrite.


• Ehrman is a reluctant to offend Muslims by criticizing their texts, i.e., he is a coward.

What I did not hear was any claim that the Koran had any relevance to the topic of the debate: “Can the New Testament Be Inspired In Light of Textual Variations?” All I heard was White’s insinuations about Ehrman’s character.

The Consistency of Dr. James White

Consider the following hypothetical exchange:

Bart: Hey Jim! Your wife is a slut.

Jim: How dare you say that!

Bart: I slept with
her.

Jim: Well how about Tom’s wife. She’s a slut
too.

Bart: Well I never slept with
her.

Jim: Well I have. Trust me. Tom’s wife is a
slut.

Bart: Fine. Both of your wives are
sluts.

Jim: No. You’re wrong. Only Tom’s
wife is a slut. My wife is a free spirit.

Who is being inconsistent here? Bart who only comments on the woman he knows or Jim who thinks that sleeping around only makes someone else’s wife a slut?

Last week, James White and Bart Ehrman had a debate on the textual reliability of the New Testament. White seems to think that he scored some big points because Ehrman was unwilling to discuss the textual reliability of the Koran. “His unwillingness to apply his own hyper-skepticism to anything other than Christianity betrays his deep bias and prejudice.” Of course, Ehrman is not a scholar of the Koran and has not studied its texts. More importantly, the fact that the Koran is not textually reliable would not for a minute effect the reliability of the New Testament.

I think White is a jerk. However, I have no reason to think that his wife is anything other than pure and virtuous.