A story of how Bart D. Ehrman went from being a born-again Christian to an agnostic, attracted more than 300 students and community members to the Fresno City College auditorium on Feb. 18.

The event, hosted by the college’s Speaker Forum, surrounded the New York Times best-selling author’s book, “How Jesus Became God.”

“How Jesus Became God” began as Ehrman’s realization of Jesus’s importance in the creation of western civilization.

“I came to realize that if the early followers of Jesus had never decided that he had been raised from the dead and never thought that he was god, obviously they would have never converted anybody,” Ehrman said.

“Christianity wouldn’t have started, and the entire history of western civilization would be different.”

Ehrman, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has written more than 30 books — he developed an interest in the Bible and wanted to know more about the content.

His born-again experience came in high school where Ehrman says he developed an interest in conservative Christian evangelism.

He attended a fundamentalist Bible college where he studied the New Testament in Greek and the Old Testament in Hebrew.

“The more I read it, the more I realized that there are mistakes in it, discrepancies, contradictions, and hysterical errors,” Ehrman said. “Once I admitted there could be mistakes, I started finding them everywhere.”

Ehrman said he left his evangelical roots and continued on as a liberal Christian for another 15 years before converting to an agnostic.

As an agnostic, he still feels that the study of the history of religion is incredibly important.

James Allen Peck, a retired FCC professor, and two additional members of the Stanislaw Humanist Group drove from Modesto to listen to and speak with Professor Ehrman about his book.

“I have read many of his [Bart Ehrman] books.,” Peck said. “I appreciate his point of view, so when I found out that he was going to be at FCC, I couldn’t resist coming back here.”

Vincent Eisman, another member of the Stanislaus Humanists, attended the same school as Professor Ehrman. He appreciates Bart Ehrman’s extensive studies of religious documentation.

“Pastors are not really communicating to the people in the pews a lot of the information that’s important — like the background on these ancient documents and translations, mistranslations,” Eisman said. “I think it is really important to provide that to people.”

Ehrman said he wants people to know about the history of religion. He has developed The Bart Ehrman Blog which is devoted to issues in the New Testament and early Christianity.

In his blog, he writes about the historical Jesus, about scribes who copied the manuscripts, the apostle Paul, the books that didn’t make it into the New Testament, and everything involved in the development of Christianity.

“A year’s subscription costs $24.95 per year,” the author said. “I do this as a way of raising money for charity. I give every dime to charities dealing with hunger and homelessness. Last year I raised $117,000.”

The author’s followers are enthusiastically supportive.

Steven Carrisalez, a Fresno State classics major who is taking a history class at FCC, said he would like to emulate Bart Ehrman’s career path.

Carrisalez said, “He’s [Bart Ehrman] the rock star of this field.”