A Little Healthy Skepticism

It's been over 20 years since The Da Vinci Code burst onto the scene, providing millions with reasons to doubt Christianity. There has long been a cottage industry for providing such reasons, but The Da Vinci Code was bigger than anything that came in the century before it. It's been thoroughly debunked, but there are still people who choose to believe its myths. This should have taught us that the enemies of Christianity are completely willing to traffic in lies, half-truths, and distortions.

At that time, a skeptic had to convince a major publisher to give him a forum. The internet has changed that. Now we have memes on social media and things like YouTube, TikTok, and podcasts that can give an appearance of credibility to ideas that do not warrant it. The modern world is full of dangerous people and dangerous ideas, but it also provides tools to combat them.

A recent example is a skeptic who briefly became the buzz of a certain corner of the internet. (I don't want to name him. I neither want to increase his web traffic nor add to the pile on. I'll explain later.) He hosts his own podcast, but he really became prominent when a much bigger podcaster had him on. Then he finally sat down and debated a Christian scholar, and the resulting chatter caught my attention, so I watched some of it.

When this skeptic began his spiel, he brought up a document I hadn't heard of. So I paused the video and googled it. According to even Wikipedia, it was a medieval forgery. I resumed the video; he immediately brings up another source I didn't know, so I paused the video again. This one is a modern hoax. Back in the video he named another source I'd never heard of. Back to google; this one doesn't exist. Or he's butchered the name of something I am familiar with, and if so, he's totally wrong about the contents. So he's not the expert he's claiming to be. This is all just a few minutes into the video.

Fortunately, he was finally debating a Christian scholar who was able to point out his errors and, very kindly, completely dismantle his arguments.

But it raises the question: How did this guy get so far, and build such a following, peddling nonsense?

Human nature helped him out considerably. Many people want to believe the worst about the Bible; they want to be told they don't have to worry about what it says. Many people are impressed by credentials, even when they're not real. If someone is introduced as an expert, folks just assume it's true. Especially when they get onto a big podcaster's show, and even though this podcaster is famous for giving a hearing to every conspiracy theory in existence. But podcasters and even conventional media are also prone to this same fallen human nature and are not always as skeptical about these folks as they are about Christianity or as diligent as they should be at getting to the truth.

There's a happy ending to this particular story. That corner of the internet lit up because this scholar so thoroughly debunked the skeptic. His poor performance has been widely discussed. Many people who had bought his lies had their eyes opened and some even said they were going to consider the claims of Christianity. And the big podcaster who helped make this skeptic so famous is now going to host the scholar who so graciously took him apart; now a very large audience will get to hear both the rational answers to the many questions people pose and, hopefully, the gospel.

But there will always be another skeptic. There will always be another Da Vinci Code, another Gospel of Judas, another "Jesus family tomb." We need to be ready, both for ourselves and for the sake of those we love who may be persuaded by them. We can and should study the history of our faith and the rational reasons to believe, but we can't be ready for everything under the sun, especially when the next things is absolute nonsense from a self-proclaimed "world's leading expert."

So what do we do? Be incredulous. Use search engines.

Yes, the internet is not our friend, but it does contain some useful information. In this case, even Wikipedia pointed out some of the errors, but even when it agrees with what you're hearing or seeing, you should be able to find Christians who've addressed the issue. There are lots of apologetics sites now. Search Stand to Reason, Frank Turek's CrossExamined, and GotQuestions. There are probably as many Christians as skeptics on YouTube, and the odds are decent that Mike Winger, Sean McDowell, or Gavin Ortlund has addressed the topic.

When you hear something that seems to call everything you've believed into question, take some time to do some research before you spin out in a tizzy. Some people in your life, of course, may be looking for an excuse to "deconstruct". But encourage them to listen to both sides and weigh the issue carefully rather than grab onto whatever feeds their doubts.

The same internet that can cause us to doubt can also help us answer our doubts. We just have to be determined to use it wisely.


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