23 December 2005
The flaw of certitude
Listening to Bart Ehrman being interviewed on Forum and discussing his book Misquoting Jesus. It contains fascinating research on the hundreds of thousands of discrepancies between the various New Testament manuscripts. Most are trivial, but some--such as the fabrication of the concept of the trinity--significant. He teaches at UNC Chapel Hill; what a great course to be able to take.
Humorous comment from the show: an emailer accused him of fetishistic biblio-historiography
(some people can only hope to be insulted with such an honorific) to which he dispassionately responded that fundamentalists worship the bible and not God, and so could be accused of a similar sin.
I had been in an argument recently concerning the mutability of the intent of the Constitution (aka the Living Document argument). I was, duh, pro and insisted that the wording is vague to its benefit, making the work bend without alteration to changes in society and culture. I was countered by something about activist judges ... how odd that we didn't find common ground.
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