Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks for your response.

I guess I’m working backwards with your books. I’m currently reading The Christian Delusion. Very anxious to read On The Historicity Of Jesus when it comes out. I’ll have to check out Not the Impossible Faith.

I became aware of you through The Nature Of Existence documentaries. I think those films give a fantastic insight to the vast array of beliefs that are present in this day and age. Your task of challenging many of those is daunting and I commend you for your tireless persistence. I hope to see you participate in more debates in the upcoming future. I think people like Sam Harris, Lawrence Krauss, P.Z. Meyers and yourself are playing a pivotal role in challenging those religious beliefs that were thought to be off limits for so long. The battle may not be won in our lifetime but thanks to your efforts, the foundations of those beliefs are starting to crumble. Keep up the good work.

No, Smith was almost certainly a con man. But then, we have much better documentation for the history of the Mormon movement from the very beginning, so we can actually prove things about it that we cannot for the first century of Christianity, whose documentation is piss poor, to put it mildly.

I have discussed both models of Christian origin in various places: the deliberate fabrication (represented as revelatory) and the schizotypal cult (actual hallucinations). Given the evidence we have, either is possible. We have precedents for both in the history and anthropology of religions, and evidence for both in the letters of Paul. So it’s undecidable. Thus, generally, I usually just pick one in a given venue and run with that, to avoid the complexity of having to juggle in a limited time the analyses and arguments of two completely different models of Christian origins.

But Christian origins should be distinguished from Christian mythology. The Gospels are certainly fabricated myths. But the Gospels, and the myths they contained, were invented well after the religion began. The religion unquestionably began as a revelatory cult (its founders claiming to have mystically communicated with Jesus, thereby getting their marching orders and basic creed). So the only question is did they actually have visions or were they only pretending to have them.

I discuss the distinction and why we might never be able to tell them apart in chapter ten of Not the Impossible Faith. I shall discuss the schizotypal cult possibility much more (with extensive internal and comparative documentation) in my next book, On the Historicity of Jesus Christ (though with still a nod to the alternative as a possibility to consider even there).

I mean, you don’t really believe that Joseph Smith was actually hallucinating the angel Maroni do you? Seems to me you provide plenty of evidence to suggest that the climate of that period was a strong enough motivator for people that were so inclined to fabricate exactly the type of story that developed into Christianity.

Indeed, I had someone cite Fatima just the other day as one of the unrefuted miracles that converted them from atheism to Catholicism.

Unrefuted. Right.

Would love to do gigs in Australia. Alas, can’t afford the airfare. Several groups there have expressed interest, but lack funds to bring me out. So if you ever find any who would be willing and able to put together the funding, I’m game.

A really ambitious advocate might put together something like a Ministry of International Magical Cooperation and have me tour several groups spaced over several cities and they then split the cost of airfare, and just put me up on local couches or guestrooms and feed me while I’m there. Planning that sounds like a lot of work, though.

Hi Richard, display issue sorted, thanks.

This discussion reminds me of a guy who a few years back, on a newspaper article comments section was claiming that there was no need to argue for the existence of God, as he’d already provided a (relatively) recent miracle at Fatima (I think), in which many thousands of people, including journalists and so on, had witnessed the sun doing circles in the sky. So QED, god exists and he’s Catholic.

I noted at the time, that firstly the rest of the world didn’t report this event, nor the associated cataclysmic convulsions that would accompany the earth bouncing rapidly to and fro that this phenomenon would entail. So, billions missed it, but many thousand, ardent catholics, who’d been staring at the sun for some time, got wobbly at the knees and started telling each other it was a miracle! But miracle more probable, I’m sure. Who needs faith?

Just one question. You ever heading ‘downunder’ to Aus and bringing Skepticon with you? We already have the atheist convention here (it was gonna be – in Melbourne 2012 – , apparently, the only time that the ‘4 Horseman’ of the new atheism were all gonna be in one place at one time, but we all know Hitch got cancer), but it would be great to have something like what you got with Skepticon.

Anyway, you’d be pretty welcome here. I must add though, religion simply is not as big a thing in Aus as it is in the US, though it certainly does have its fair share of influence here.

I LOVED IT! I soooo have to make it to one of these shindigs so I can buy that Harry Potter looking dude with all the booksmarts one of those beer things/ 😉

That is essentially what I explained in my talk, too. In practice, there has never been and is unlikely ever to be sufficient evidence to confirm a miracle occurred in antiquity. More recent times, however, afford the possibility of doing that, owing to vastly greater evidence-generation and preservation and much greater availability of documented and skilled inquiry (I actually give an example of this in Proving History, pp. 41-45, 54-60). But then, that’s why miracles suddenly disappear wherever these resources are available. “Miracles” can only exist when you don’t need evidence to prove they do. Which is pretty much a dead giveaway that there aren’t any real miracles.

P.S. Regarding the display issue, first make sure you don’t have the option switched on your device (you can usually choose to use the normal mode or the mobile device mode in your browser). If you have it switched to mobile mode and still there is a problem, send me another comment and I’ll forward it to our webmaster. Unless the problem resolves itself (I’m going to check my settings, which should not have changed, but they have been tinkering with the site lately so who knows).