This April 27 (2024), a Saturday, I’ll be appearing in Bangor, Maine (video now available, which requires a correction, noted below).
This was via Zoom to discuss the historicity of Jesus (including my new book on it which I just completed and sent to the publisher). I summarize that but then focus on the extrabiblical evidence for the existence of an historical Jesus, and the Bayesian method of estimating the probability that Jesus (or indeed anyone) existed as an historical person; including updates on what other scholars have published on both subjects, moving the ball forward.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session with me, and a group discussion with whoever remained after. Though this could be watched from anywhere in the world, I heard several people couldn’t get in owing to a glitch in the control panel.
Though this is a world event, a room was reserved to watch and participate at the Bangor Public Library (the “Board Room”), 145 Harlow St., Bangor, ME 04401. Event started at 1pm (lecture at 1:30) and ended just before 4pm (Eastern Time). Audience who could physically make it to the Bangor location received priority on all Q&A (your questions get asked first!). Plus it was be a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and hang out after to discuss the event and its many subjects.
This event was open to the public, no RSVP required, and no fee for admission.
Note that we did want to do this live, but the host could not arrange sufficient funds to cover airfare and other expenses. So if you do attend in person and would like to pitch in for a future event where I can actually sell and sign books and hang out with everyone for drinks at a local pub, have a chat with the host when you arrive!
-:-
Correction: The final slide of the presentation had mistyped numbers producing a mathematical error. It should read as follows:
How are you going to possibly find a pub with good beer in Bangor!!! 😉
ETA on audiobook??! Haha 🍿😃
That might happen sooner this time.
The last audiobook waiting currently is Jesus from Outer Space. Since I no longer have time to record them myself I finally decided to have another reader do it. That’s now finished. It’s in can now and just being edited. Once it is edited, it goes to the publisher to process. Odds are very good it will be out this year.
For my next book, I won’t wait in the vain hope I might find time to record it myself. I will have it immediately recorded by the same contractor. So it will likely be out by end of next year (or sooner, depending on when that book reaches print).
Enjoyment of the audiobook might be improved were quotes from characters like Eusebius, Papias, and Ignatius performed in Slim Pickens’s voice. I am willing to essay this at no charge, if asked.
I’m wondering if these voice overs (Sam Pickens’s voice) now can easily be done with AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Modern AI is an unreliable hallucinator.
It isn’t reliably useful for anything, much less this.
that’s not the case anymore, for around $200 you can clone your voice and generate the audiobook based on the text
Not reliable. It mispronounces words and gets inflection points and semantic accenting wrong. Because it doesn’t actually know what it is reading.
Sure, it can “sound” like me … me, getting the text wrong.
But I’d rather have someone who actually knows what they are reading read the text for you and get those things right.
I’d also like readers to be confident that that is happening, and not mistake an artificial fake voice as really me making those mistakes and thus misinforming them as to the actual sense of what I wrote.
I agree with this. The effort to educate laypeople is cumbersome enough without undermining the authenticity of the material being presented.
Take Ehrman, for example. He speaks in a casual manner and sounds confidently correct but presents poor argumentation. Why would we want audiobooks which present solid scholarship but also undermines the data itself with a weirdly off putting delivery method? Try listening to the audio bibles on YouTube and tell me you would trust that voice if it were presenting information as opposed to narrating.
It also removes the opportunity for making connections with the reader that may not be obvious. For example, I always laugh when I hear Dr. Carrier emphasize how genuinely and shockingly unimpressive an argument/idea is (letting go of ‘Q’, lol).
https://elevenlabs.io/
People are more interested in creating AI-generated audio (and feeling like a content creator) than in actually listening to it.
To be fair, the simulations (deepfaking) are good enough that people can successfully fool relatives and friends in telephone scams. And there are some authorized deepfakes of my voice on the internet (they should be correctly labeled). So the problem is more the error rate on long technical projects (and thus the risk of misleading people) than the existence or use of the tech.
Thanks for the heads up! Any estimation on when the new book will be available for purchase? I think I remember you mentioning you had a couple of different ideas on how to approach it — what did you decide?
The book is submitted, but when it publishes is out of my hands. It has to go through peer review and then editing and proofing. Both processes can be slow at a small academic press (this was in collaboration with my original publisher, Sheffield-Phoenix). My desire is for it to make print this year so it can qualify for the ten year anniversary of OHJ. But there is nothing more I can do to ensure that at this point.
And yes, of the options considered, we decided to go with a new volume that catches everyone up with what has happened in the field in every pertinent subject in the last ten years, and assess the current status of the top arguments either side.
Besides that, it will also have a chapter explaining in simpler terms the mathematical method. And it will contribute a more extensive chapter on the state of Docetism as a concept in the field (having completed the research I suggested some months ago).
Exciting news. Have you decided on a title for the new book?
I have ideas. But the final decision will be in consultation with the publisher.
As a scheme for choosing a title, it would be hard to top Douglas Adams’s offerings, e.g. “Who Is This God Person Anyway?” and “Well That about Wraps It up for God”, although correct capitalization is a thorny matter.
Well, this book isn’t about god, so those wouldn’t suit.
But also, I wouldn’t want to impinge on the Adams’ estate’s copyrights. 🙂
You mentioned in the July 2023 blog post that the new book might include debates or dialogues with other scholars. Did that end up happening?
Sadly no. Insofar as any would have, they might have asked to be my peer reviewers instead (it’s a blind process though so I won’t be told that; the book itself is unblindable, since I have to refer to myself in it, so the usual double blinding won’t be possible, which is a challenge for my editor, but it means they can choose reviewers who already know it’s my book).
Instead, the Bermejo-Rubio debate book will likely also come out in English this year. (It is already out in Italian.)
Hola Richard Carrier,se que no es su campo,¿Pero que opinas de los estudios de Nathaniel Jeanson? (Bueno,su libro)
I had never heard of him until you asked. He seems pretty obscure; and a typical Young Earth creationist loony.
I don’t generally deal with YEC (Young Earth Creationism) nonsense. Their lies and bullshit are already too easily exposed by just checking anything they say against the record at Talk Origins Archive.
For a gist see the entry at Rational Wiki. Because this is rudimentary biology/geology stuff, I recommend you check the blogs of skeptics who are trained in those fields for specific evaluations of Jeanson. For example, Dr. Herman Mays.
I have been looking around for a copy of OHJ (not easy in Darkest Africa) but it sounds as if I would be better off waiting for the new book. Is that the best option?
I do not know. What can be available in Africa depends on where in Africa (not just what nation, but even where within one). And I have no contacts or knowledge concerning that.
The most I can say is, if you cannot even get Jesus from Outer Space where you are, you will not be able to get my new book, either. In most places (cities with brick-and-mortar bookstores, which are not just used book stores but sell any books at all that are newly published outside of Africa) anything can be ordered (they use the same Ingram or Baker & Taylor database, or equivalent, to order any books; all of my books are on those databases and can be ordered). But what it will cost there I cannot vouch for.
Likewise, if you can get any kind of kindle books (if all you have access to is a web browser, kindle cloud reader is there, so any books you buy on kindle should be readable there, or on any device you have with a kindle app). Although I understand kindle might be hard to legally get access to in many countries. I don’t know the situation as to that for any African country.
Dr. Carrier
Is it just my imagination or is Bart Ehrman now suddenly starting to repeat (agree with) some of the points that you commonly make concerning skeptism of evidence as presented by Christians concerning the Historicity of Jesus? Check out this short YouTube reel.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZlrC-hZP2PM?si=P24Poh4pzoz0t8sP
Ehrman has never deviated from what he says there. We differ only in some specific conclusions we draw from those facts. Otherwise, he sounds exactly like me because when I say the same thing I am just repeating what all mainstream scholars agree is the case.
So, one can challenge Ehrman on his attempts to nevertheless extract history from the Gospels in specific instances, but on the general premises he avows here, we are all in agreement. Only Christian apologists want to handwave that away.
Dr. Carrier
I’m curious what you think of Jesus doing standup comedy?
https://youtube.com/shorts/ezTWOQ82vD0?si=3YHEHOUfcCIOfYYM
There is a reason he is running that shitty act on a subway and not in a real venue.
I must admit that your response to it was funnier than his actual act.
LOL
The Zoom thing doesn’t seem to be working out. Hope it went well. I’d love to hear or see some kind of followup.
I’ll inform the host. I had other reports of this.
The archived version will be online soon. I’ll link it in this article when it is.
Update
I tried to join this event on zoom. I could see indication that the host was in the “room,” but I was never let in. Hopefully, there will be a link later on Youtube.
I had the same problem. Was very disappointing as I’d been looking forward to this.
Richard – any chance those of us who couldn’t get into the room will get some sort of recording or at least a summary of what was said?
I’ll inform the host. I had other reports of this.
The archived version will be online soon. I’ll link it in this article when it is.
Update
Indeed I had the same experience.
I’ll inform the host. I had other reports of this.
The archived version will be online soon. I’ll link it in this article when it is.
We might know what went wrong.
I’ll inform the host. I had other reports of this.
The archived version will be online soon. I’ll link it in this article when it is.
Will a VOD (Video On Demand) version of this Zoom Meeting be uploaded to YouTube or other platform.
The archived version will be online soon. I’ll link it in this article when it is.
For the record, I had no trouble joining the call. Richard had said “Event starts at 1pm (lecture starts at 1:30)” and indeed nothing happened until about 1:15 Eastern time, so some of you might have left too soon. It really was excellent and I’m eager to get the new book!
I don’t think that was it because I actually showed up a bit late. I assumed that maybe since I was a little tardy they weren’t going to let me in. Not sure if that was the case.
Right. It wasn’t that.
The host flubbed something. I don’t run Zoom meetings, so I don’t know what various ways that can happen. But they’ve been informed so if there’s a next time they can solve it. The recorded version will be available I hope soon.
The host and I may have figured out what went wrong: he assigned me the host status so I could control the screen, but Zoom then moved the waiting room to me—so the host no longer was seeing it, and neither was I because I didn’t know that happened and wasn’t looking for it (not that I could have handled both tasks at the same time anyway).
Update
I have good information that many people didn’t get in at any point despite waiting, so it wasn’t the delay on start time. Alas.
Update: Video is now up.
I just have a question about astronomy. Have you researched ancient astronomy and the connection to mythology and religion? Things like the solstice’s and equinox’s, the intercardinal points, the zenith, the three ecliptic paths of the sun (3 in 1 trinity), megalithic stone structures like the pyramids, Stonehenge, and temples like Angkor Wat, the waxing and waning of the sun and moon, the sun’s sine wave, the zodiac, and the rise and fall of the rest of the constellations, such as Argo Navis and the milky way, the root origin of the flood myth?
I haven’t done deep history stuff on that, no, just the scientific astronomy of the Greco-Roman era (science and education), not previous folk or craft astronomy.
There is some good literature on that. But there is also a lot of crankery and over-speculative stuff. So you have to approach that literature very critically. There is especially a lot of crankery and error in the astrotheology subfield. So be wary.
And perhaps related to that point:
The “Trinity” does not refer to a trio of things. This is a common mistake. The Christian Trinity is in fact the denial of a trio of things, making it peculiar and unique in history (and for a reason: this was invented by committee to solve a political problem, as best explained in the last chapters of Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God).
So it is never of any relevance to find trios of things or any other pattern of threes in ancient myth and religion. There are gazilions of trios and triads; it is simply a common way for humans to categorize things. It survives even as the “rule of three,” and in other ways, because triadic thinking is psychologically innate (one is alone, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern, four is a commonality—therefore the most “special” condition cognitively is always “three”); likewise triangles are alluring because of their happenstance geometric properties, which is largely a result of our occupying and needing to model three-dimensional space, and triangles entail triads.
So for example the Roman Capitoline Triad (a trio of gods at the pinnacle of cult) long predates Christianity, has nothing to do with astronomy, and is exactly the opposite of the Christian Trinity (as those gods were a triad because they were not different manifestations of the same one deity but three distinct deities, in fact the top three in honor among hundreds, with one outranking the other two, a male in dominance over two women in their dichotomous roles as mother and virgin).