Can You Follow Jesus Without Believing in Him? What Rhett & Rainn Get Wrong About Christianity

This week, we respond to a clip from Soul Boom with Rhett McLaughlin and Rainn Wilson. We unpack the allure of a “just-the-teachings” Jesus, why it falls apart under scrutiny, and why you can’t separate the words of Jesus from the person of Jesus. We explore the intellectual and theological inconsistency of cherry-picking Jesus’ words while ignoring the radical, exclusive claims he made about himself. In this episode: (00:00) - Intro (01:13) – Rhett & Rainn’s take on Jesus (03:38) – The appeal of a softer faith (05:13) – Can you follow Jesus without belief? (07:33) – What Jesus actually said (10:13) – Liar, lunatic, or Lord? (12:23) – When smart people say absurd things (14:13) – Does it matter if Jesus was real? (16:58) – Belief vs. bias (18:38) – The red-letter remix (21:13) – No resurrection, no Christianity (23:43) – Just a teacher? (26:03) – The prophecies they can’t explain away (27:43) – The new crutch: soft Jesus (29:13) – Why it matters what Jesus said about himself (31:13) – The question everyone must answer Get full show notes and links at https://www.thechristianskeptic.org. Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thechristianskeptic.