Why Bart really lost his faith. & what came after (vIDEO)

Welcome to the home of Episode 201 of the Misquoting Jesus Podcast with Bart Ehrman. Below, you can watch the entire episode, read its description, and see links to related resources.

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episode description

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Bart Ehrman reflects on what happened after leaving Christianity and learning to live without belief in God. He explains that his deconversion was not caused by discovering problems in the Bible or through his scholarly research. Instead, he eventually found himself unable to reconcile the existence of extensive, horrific suffering with belief in a God who is both loving and all-powerful. His departure was emotionally difficult because Christianity had shaped his community, morality, worldview, and sense of ultimate reality.

A major question is whether atheism necessarily produces moral emptiness or a loss of meaning. Ehrman says the opposite happened: realizing that this life may be all there is made him more concerned about human suffering. He describes his charitable work as a kind of replacement for his former evangelizing impulse.

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The episode also explores what Ehrman actually misses: communal fellowship, religious ritual, and the experience of awe. He occasionally attends an Episcopal service because he finds the liturgy intellectually and emotionally meaningful despite no longer believing its theology.

In the bonus Q&A, Ehrman discusses the authenticity of Josephus's reference to Jesus, Matthew's explanation of Nazareth, the meaning of the titles “according to Matthew,” and the limited usefulness of early Christian art for his own research.

Key takeaway: Ehrman argues that losing religious certainty does not require losing morality, meaning, gratitude, or happiness—and that following truth honestly may be more important than preserving beliefs for the comfort they provide.