Does God Exist? Dr. Borg & Dr. Crossan Respond

*I tried uploading this yesterday but the audio was out of sync - sorry for having to delete the video and comments - it's all fixed now! :)

Awhile back I got to sit down and chat with two of my favorite authors - Dr. Borg & Dr. Crossan who co-wrote the recently released book The First Paul. I asked them a bunch of different questions, starting with what they think about God, how they respond to atheist critiques, and then I asked them to expand on the frequently misunderstood term 'panentheism'.

The footage gets a little shaky at times, which was my fault. Unfortunately the footage from the other camera angle didn't turn out - my SD card ate it. Yum! ;)

For more info about Dr. Marcus Borg:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Borg

For more info about Dr. John Dominic Crossan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dominic_Crossan

"The First Paul" at amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/First-Paul-Reclaiming-Visionary-Conservative/dp/0061430722

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• marcus borg
• john dominic crossan
• christianity
• panentheism
• theism
• deism
• atheism

[razrX]

great definition...I always say that theres NO Atheism... we are just reasonable persons..=)

[StormTrek]

Their answer is so nuanced that it is difficult to understand. But I learned a new term: panentheism.

[jerseystitch]

He sounds like God is a serotonin buzz.

[Magnulus76]

@sgturner59 Aren't you being a bit defensive? Borg never says that atheists don't experience wonder.  Nor is he out to convert anybody to his viewpoint... not every Christian is a Billy Sunday out for your soul. Progressive Christianity isn't the enemy of atheists or irreligious people. If anything, Borg's vision is much more compatible with pluralism than your own, which sees some beliefs as easily dismissed (whereas Bog doesn't see that of atheism at all).

[TruthJockey]

God is a METAPHOR for a mystery that transcends all human categories of thought! Anybody that says he or she KNOWS anything beyond that is battling a neurosis & should be handled with caution. The only difference between a neurosis & a religion is that the religion is more popular. And let me concede one point regarding atheism. It's TRUE that religious iconography can incapacitate what I'd describe as "hard" atheists...just like a fundamentalist. It's simply because energy follows thought!

[mrpayne123]

These guys seem to fall into whatever makes us happy is the true . Actually if something makes you happy, you are more likely to rationalize that as being true, even if it is irrational.

I think their idea of god is inconsistent. Unless they would say that humans are just an accident of evolution. B/C they seem to say god has no single consciousness, well if this god doesn't have consciousness than it didn't even intend for humans to exist. If it did evolve/create us it has some consciousness.

[mrpayne123]

I often wonder if some god may exist. I disagree with these guys tho, if god was powerful and fortuitous enough to create humans complexly through 1 billion years of evolution then god's also responsible for things like severe mental retardation (an IQ<20). What kind of god would allow a person to go through life without even being able to dress themselves or to socialize in any way? I think it's easier to explain murderous diseases that kill thousands a day than this strange injustice.

[waddellski]

what if we find rape and murder wonderous?

[MrWagman11]

@gmn545 I would like to rephrase and say I do not believe there is a god of the Bible.

[gmn545]

@MrWagman11 No I don't. I'm agnostic. Borg - in this video - talks about their being different definitions of God. Supernatural (classical) theism - which is what atheists commonly understand God to be - isn't what he espouses, but rather panentheism (which is very different). And after you said "there is no God", I simply made my point: it depends on your definition of "God." You could be thinking of an entirely different "God" (and I'm guessing it's "imaginary friend") than his.