My Monthly Recommendation: Gospel Fictions, The Power of Parable, and the Dionysian Gospel
To help make ends meet and help you understand the origins of Christianity better than the Christians themselves would ever let you if they had their way, every season I’ll post three books from my long-standing recommendations list, and review and discuss their...Did Judas Exist?
Bart Ehrman has strangely committed a lot of resources to defending the historicity of Judas. I say strange because most mainstream historians would be perplexed by this. Judas is obviously a fictional character. Christians need him to be real because they need the...(Last) Remarks on Richard Carrier’s ‘Thorough Fisk’
I offered to publish replies from Fernando Bermejo-Rubio and Franco Tommasi to my article A Thorough Fisk of the Arguments of Fernando Bermejo-Rubio and Franco Tommasi (and these will be linked there). They each provided their own reply. First up and in detail is...A Thorough Fisk of the Arguments of Fernando Bermejo-Rubio and Franco Tommasi
I just published the English edition of my debate with Fernando Bermejo-Rubio and Franco Tommasi, Jesus: Militant or Nonexistent? Two Views Compared (Philosophy Press, 2025), including a chapter by Robert Price, and originally published in Italian as Gesù resistente...My New Book! Jesus: Militant or Nonexistent? Two Views Compared
I just published the English edition of my debate with Fernando Bermejo-Rubio and Franco Tommasi, Jesus: Militant or Nonexistent? Two Views Compared (Philosophy Press, 2025), including a chapter by Robert Price, and originally published in Italian as Gesù resistente...Ross Douthat’s Worst Argument for God
I’ve written before about the recent decline of Christian apologetics (e.g. Addressing the New Christian Apologetics and Ben Shapiro’s Worst Argument for God and Another Two ‘Best’ Arguments for God?)—a trend that is illustrated by the enthusiastic revival...My Monthly Recommendation: The Bible Unearthed and Jesus Interrupted
As I mentioned last month, with the loss of a family member our income took a hit. I’m so grateful for my Patreon supporters who ensure I will never employ paywalls or intrusive third party ads (so I always welcome more ongoing support there, or...Think for Yourself!
A new show is out that has an extended interview of me (and adding others). Which reminded me to update my Videos Page (adding and subtracting and rearranging some things). So check out that page, and the new interview, on Think for Yourself! That’s mainly about...A Simple Thought Experiment That Destroys Plantinga’s Free WIll Defense of Evil
Yesterday I dealt with Bernardo Kastrup’s weird Idealism. Today I have just a simple thought to offer on why the equally weird theology of Alvin Plantinga is fatally incoherent, building on two prior articles of mine: Is a Good God Logically Impossible?, where I...Michael Alter’s Exemplary Review of Undesigned Coincidences
The Argument from Undesigned Coincidences is a naive Christian apologetic invented in the 19th century but revived recently by apologist Lydia McGrew, which ignores all historical knowledge of the redaction history of the Gospels to argue that, instead of the authors...Did the Rapture Already Happen!? No. Nor Will It Ever.
“Truly I tell you, this generation shall certainly not pass away until all these things have happened,” we’re told the Lord said, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with...Did the Rapture Already Happen!? My Debate with the Full Preterist Don Preston Is Tonight
You can catch up on the strange world of Christian preterism (a view lately gaining a lot of attention, and causing a lot of panic among Evangelicals), especially “full preterism,” at Wikipedia. But in the ultra-quick: Don Preston holds that Jesus not only...James Tabor and the Mainstream Paul
James Tabor recently wrote two guest posts on Bart Ehrman’s blog in preparation for an academic conference on the historical Paul. One is better than the other, but both are illustrative of everything right and wrong about biblical studies as a...Baptism: It’s Pagan, Guys. Get Over It.
A very helpful patron just bought me an expensive but crucial new book on the origins of Christian baptism: Donghyun Jeong’s Pauline Baptism among the Mysteries: Ritual Messages and the Promise of Initiation (De Gruyter, 2023). It establishes what we have long...Why I Think Theology Is Ridiculous: A Look at Thomas Ward’s Ideas about Divine Ideas
Baylor Theologian Thomas Ward has published and promoted a nice little book on an obscure niche of metaphysical theology called Divine Ideas. Ordinarily I wouldn’t waste a minute on this (because usually intersectarian debate is my idea of wasted lifespan). But...Get Dr. Carrier’s Latest!
About the Author
Richard Carrier is the author of many books and numerous articles online and in print. His avid readers span the world from Hong Kong to Poland. With a Ph.D. in ancient history from Columbia University, he specializes in the modern philosophy of naturalism and humanism, and the origins of Christianity and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, with particular expertise in ancient philosophy, science and technology. He is also a noted defender of scientific and moral realism, Bayesian reasoning, and historical methods.
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