How Bad Methodology Led to Some Bad Ideas from R.G. Price and David Oliver Smith: Part 2 (Smith)
Yesterday I started this two part series explaining what I am doing and why (so please catch up there), and went through an extended example from R.G. Price. Today I will finish with the second example, now from David Oliver Smith (channeling Robert Eisenman). And I...How Bad Methodology Led to Some Bad Ideas from R.G. Price and David Oliver Smith: Part 1 (Price)
I have often noted or even used good ideas from amateur scholars like David Oliver Smith and R.G. Price (not to be confused with Robert M. Price). I even named Price in my original study of the historicity of Jesus as among the few amateurs doing work worthy of...Why Is a Historical Jesus an Obsolete Paradigm?
So James McGrath is a liar for Jesus, defending Christian dogma with slander and lies about me and my work, desperately, childishly, trying to get people to not read it lest they discover his lies and uncover the truth. He is clearly so terrified of this that he is...James McGrath Has Now Defamed Me and Lied about My Work in a Professional Journal. Will the Field Do Anything About It?
Christian apologist James McGrath published a brief review of The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus in the latest Booklist Issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. We know from precedent that McGrath is not a reliable operator. See my entry for...
Speaking in Atlanta This Sunday … and Tabling in Huntsville This October
Atlanta might be my only public talk this year (IRL). But I will also be attending and tabling (not presenting) at the Rocket City Reason Con this October in Huntsville, Alabama (so if you want to meet there and get a book signed, check that out; it’s going to a...The Mystery of the Seven Loaves as Mythographic Composition in Mark
What’s up with the numbers across Mark’s two feeding narratives? Weird numbers of loaves and fishes and baskets don’t make sense as history. No one would preserve incidental details like that, much less even have counted in the first place; nor could...Three Genuinely Good Lay Treatments of Bible History
Today I want to introduce you to three books about the Bible not written by PhDs yet are outstanding enough to be well worth reading. As always, I get a commission on anything you buy on Amazon after clicking any link on my website—in fact, on everything in your...
The Infamous Missing Third Fragment of Mark Was a Prank!
So, the story began with a debate between Dan Wallace and Bart Ehrman in 2012. Yes. It’s been fourteen years. But anyway. I first covered this in 2012 under Amazing Proofs of Jesus! and updated it in 2017 in an article about how not to be duped by myths like...Let’s Be Honest about Why You Are a Christian or a Muslim: Your Forebears Murdered Their Way into Your Mind
This is another updated extract from Sense and Goodness without God that I’ve removed from its future edition (coming soon) because it’s an unnecessary use of wordcount there. So I am preserving a revised version of it here for posterity and utility. It is...New Journal Publication on Jewish Expectations of a Dying Messiah
I just published a major new article in a peer-reviewed journal, the Canadian-American Theological Review: “Did Any Pre-Christian Jews Expect a Dying-and-Rising Messiah?” It will be the lead article in vol. 14, their delayed 2025 issue (print copies are...Top Three Handbooks of Ancient Science & Technology
Today I review for you the top three handbooks in ancient science and technology. There are others, but they either suck or are amazing but out of print. These three are must-haves for any enthusiast. Two I used a lot in my own books on ancient science, and the third...Why Christians Are So Bad at This: Paulogia vs. Inspiring Philosophy on the Bayesian Argument for the Resurrection
Recently, Than Christopoulos produced a silly and absurdly wordy insistence that Bayes’ Theorem proves Jesus rose from the dead in Paulogia…It’s Time To Stop. I was recently interviewed about this on Modern Atheism (you can watch that here) and as promised I am...Prophecy and History: Some Pointers
I am near to completing my forthcoming rewrite of Sense and Goodness without God (which I will be retiring soon, so if you want to collect the original edition before it goes out of print, better get it now!). And one of the things I am doing is removing things that...How Many Ancient Books Did the Christians Throw Away?
How much have we lost? That’s a question I get asked a lot. I have often ballparked it at over 99%. But I decided to dig in to some real numbers to see what percentage can actually be backed by evidence. And I found we can actually calculate, by multiple...Hardback Edition of Hitler Homer Bible Christ
In preparation for a new anthology I have coming out later this year, which will be available in all formats, I just created a hardback edition of its companion volume. So if you want a complete set of my anthologies in hardback, you can start collecting now! The old...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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