Killing Crankery with Bayesian Reasoning: The Kooky & Illogical Postflaviana Review
Joseph Atwill is a crank. His acolytes at Postflaviana are cranks. They are all conspiracy theory nutcases who prefer wildly, implausibly complex interpretations of history that insist Shakespeare was a black Jewish woman, the writers of Jane the Virgin may have...A Baptist Goofs His Reading of Tacitus and Suetonius
Reformed Baptist Josh Sommer has attempted to rebut my peer reviewed paper on the Testimonium Taciteum in Suetonius and Tacitus: Christians or Chrestians? The paper he is talking about is “The Prospect of a Christian Interpolation in Tacitus, Annals...How the Jehovah’s Witnesses Website Manipulates Readers on the Historicity of Jesus
I’ve been asked about it a lot. So here’s a handy guide to all the tricks pulled by the Jehovah’s Witnesses on their website (JW.org) aimed at fooling people into being sure some Jesus behind the Gospels really existed. I didn’t dive into the...Why Christians Are Terrified of Probability Theory
A few years ago Strange Notions published a strange editorial by statistics professor William Briggs, called Bayes Theorem Proves Jesus Existed (And That He Didn’t). I say strange, because it’s weirdly dishonest, incompetent, and irrational coming from someone...Five Bogus Reasons to Trust the Bible
Sean McDowell (yes, son of the Josh McDowell of Evidence That Demands a Verdict fame, now in a co-written new edition) has been Tweeting some eye-rolling propaganda to miseducate the public and keep conning Christians to stay in the fold. Just like all other fake...Exposing the Jesus Myth in Spanish!
Chilean scholar David Cáceres González is slowly translating select blogs of mine into Spanish. It’s pretty cool and well worth letting any Spanish speaking folks know about who might be interested. Spread the word! The site is Mitos o Historia. The translator...More Asscrankery from Tim O’Neill
I’ve already documented that the amateur rage blogger Tim O’Neill is a hack and a liar in the Gullibility of Bart Ehrman & the Asscrankery of Tim O’Neill. How he responded to being caught lying and screwing up basic facts of history illustrates...See Me Speak in Irvine Next Month!
In Irvine, California, on Wednesday August 8, I’ll be speaking on “How Christianity Began without a Real Jesus.” I’ll also be discussing what it was Christians in the beginning were actually dying for (when they even were; hint: it wasn’t...Then He Appeared to Over Five Hundred Brethren at Once!
Christian apologists will often throw a tantrum and kick up hay over the notion of “mass hallucination.” That’s impossible! Never documented! Absurd on its face! And they’ll especially bring up “the more than five hundred brethren”...So What About Caligula? How Do You Know HE Existed!?
It’s getting hilarious now. N.T. Wright himself, that total hack with no history degrees everyone praises as a great historian (and by “everyone” I mean Christian fundamentalists), has now declared: “Jesus is as well established as a figure of...A Test of Bayesian History: Efraim Wallach on Old Testament Studies
An interesting article has been published under peer review, which tests my concept (developed and argued in Proving History) that all historical reasoning is already in fact Bayesian (historians just don’t know it), by applying it to the analysis of a major...New Audiobook! The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire
My book The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire is now available in audio format! As for all my other audiobooks, I voiced the text myself for Pitchstone Publishing. They invest a lot in making these audiobooks possible, paying for professional studio time and audio...Bullshit from Day One: The First Century Gospel Is a Third Century Gospel
It’s officially the mythical mummy Gospel. The “first century” manuscript of Mark Christian apologists have been gloating about and beating everyone over the head with for years…is not a first century manuscript of Mark. It also didn’t...Debating Historicity with Dennis MacDonald Today (Live Online)
Wednesday (23 May 2018) at 2:30pm Pacific, I’ll be having a cordial online debate on the historicity of Jesus with eminent scholar Dennis MacDonald on Pinecreek Doug’s YouTube Channel (where around that time the feed should appear, so save that link)....Historicity Big and Small: How Historians Try to Rescue Jesus
When the question of the historicity of Jesus comes up in an honest professional context, we are not asking whether the Gospel Jesus existed. All non-fundamentalist scholars agree that that Jesus never did exist. Christian apologetics is pseudo-history. No different...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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