Three Perspectives on the Life Sciences in the Roman Empire
I teach several online courses you can join every month. Two include a history of atheism (our western freethought heritage) and a history of ancient science and technology in the West. I highly recommend you check them out. It’s a great way to get in some...David Fitzgerald’s Review of David Skrbina’s Amateur Jesus Hoax
A Note from the Editor: I rarely publish guest articles on my blog. But this one, by my friend David Fitzgerald (author and journalist), is exceptional and is being stalled by other venues to avoid publishing it. Since I pretty much agree with all of it, and this...Christianity in Hitler’s Ideology: The Definitive Study
I’ve long pointed out that attempts to make Hitler and the Nazis into atheists is counterfactual propaganda. They were stalwartly and predominately Christian, and largely driven by Christian motives. I’ve covered this several times (in Hitler Homer Bible...Hansen’s Contribution to the James in Josephus Debate
There is a valuable new study by Chrissy Hansen, “Josephus and the Murder of James: An Argument Against Some Common Wisdom,” in the new journal Studies of Biblical Interest 2 (2025). I don’t agree with its conclusion but I think it’s a quality...T.C. Schmidt on James in Josephus: Apologetics vs. History
After Exposing T.C. Schmidt’s Oxford Apologetics for the Testimonia Flaviana altogether (and his fellow Christians failed to rescue him), I now shall address his appendix on my case against Josephus referring to the Christian Jesus when relating the execution of a...Errata for Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus
This page will be continually updated. The first section lists typos that will be fixed in a future printing. The second lists additions or changes that might be implemented in a future edition but for now are usefully available here. One error has already been...Public Zoom on Josephus and Bayes
This video is now publicly available. I am keeping the original announcement below. But to watch see The Knowledge Nexus. The de-animated slides are available here (but the usual advisory: the slides are not the lecture, so don’t just read the slides and think...The Historicity of Aristotle
In my new book The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus I show mathematically why we are so confident in the existence of most ancient persons, and why we get different results for Jesus when we hold him to the same standard as everyone else—in the second...My Monthly Recommendation: The Fitzgerald Series on World Religion
Every month I will write about something I recommend buying and why. Still shopping for Christmas? Want to get me a commission for my birthday? Here’s the way! I am an Amazon Associate, so if you click through the sales link in any of these recommendation...My Monthly Recommendation: From Catapults to Computers, Excellent Gifts for the Avid Intellectual Reader!
I’ve decided this month to talk about my three favorite books in ancient science. And they may surprise you! They actually cross into many different subjects that will fascinate any avid reader of history, science, or nonfiction generally. So they would make...Public Zoom on Inanna and Other Resurrected Gods
Quick notice: I discussed the possible evolution and diffusion of resurrected god ideology in the ancient West, in a live public Zoom. The video (mostly just audio over slides) is now archived here (with the slides here but they are only useful with the...Stephen Carlson’s Definitive New Study of Papias
A few years ago an extensive new study of the early Christian author Papias was published by Stephen Carlson titled Papias of Hierapolis Exposition of Dominical Oracles: The Fragments, Testimonia, and Reception of a Second-Century Commentator (Oxford University Press,...My Monthly Recommendation: Sarton and Lehoux on the Whole Sweep of Ancient Science
To help make ends meet and help you understand the ancient origins of modern science better than Christians would ever let you if they had their way, each season I shall discuss a selection of books from my long-standing recommendations list on ancient science. And I...Exposing T.C. Schmidt’s Oxford Apologetics for the Testimonia Flaviana
There is a new book published by Oxford University Press that is a travesty of Christian apologetics undeservedly snaking the respectability of, well, Oxford University: T.C. Schmidt’s Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ. The rhetorical...The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus Is Now Available
That’s right! My new book, years in the making, is currently being printed and now available for pre-orders: The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus. This is the formal academic sequel to On the Historicity of Jesus. And the official description is spot-on:...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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