From shagging, via Blackadder, to Jesus mythicism

Reading Rachel Held’s superblificatious blog today, I came across this quite astonishing “Gospel Coalition” post. Of course, the internet is a flurry with responses ranging from angry to supportive, hence I won’t go into details here as I doubt I am heading for a scoop (but for my money, one of the best and to-the-point has been penned by Daniel Kirk). And I struggle to understand why anyone takes this stuff seriously, “why get so flustered?”, I think and I smile as a scene from Blackadder II flashes through my mind, where our hero is asked by a sailor “Now, how much do you charge for good hard shag?”!

But then I remember that thousands of well-intentioned Christians read and believe this stuff. Boy oh boy.

Am I wrong to think the same about the internet phenomenon of Jesus mythicism? I admire those who have the patience to engage in debate with the mythicist crowd (I nod in the direction of Dr James McGrath and Dale Allison), but for me it seems as ludicrous as top scientists taking time out of their important research into, say, the Higgs boson, to engage in controversy with “intelligent designers” or creationists. Why bother?

Well, perhaps Daniel Kirk, James McGrath and others of their worthy tribe have something to teach some of us.

For what it is worth, here is the aforementioned Blackadder scene!