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...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...Matt Kovacs Demonstrates What’s Wrong with Atheists Clinging to the Historicity of Jesus
I’ve commented a lot lately in my articles on the historicity of Jesus that critics themselves are now demonstrating why historicity is a bankrupt paradigm: they never have a sound or valid argument for it. Instead, they kneejerk oppose it emotionally, doing no...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...That Phenomenally Stupid Article by Bill Cooke
The Center for Inquiry is clearly in sad decline. They just published a wildly incompetent article on Jesus mythicism by Bill Cooke (with a PhD in religious studies) in “Five Challenges to Christ Myth Theorists,” in their magazine Free Inquiry (44.5,...James Valliant’s Bogus Theory of a Roman Invention of Christianity
It took me a long time to suffer through Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity by James Valliant and Warren Fahy. But my verdict is now in. Its thesis is bogus. Its method of argument is tediously amateurish. And its only significant evidence...Epiphanius Is Hosed (And Other Things to Know about the Library of Alexandria)
What happened to the great and famed Library of Alexandria? There are many assertions. All are weak tea. The evidence never pans out as those making these assertions imply. So the most honest answer is the most frustrating one of all: “We really don’t...All the Fantastical Things in the Gospel according to Mark
I’ve often noted that even the very first Gospel we know of (the one eventually source-credited to someone named Mark), despite often being described as the least fantastical or the most mundane narrative of Jesus, is in fact wildly fantastical, and does not...Behold Babylon USA!
No. This isn’t an article about the U.S. Supreme Court allowing Presidents to break the law (you can find my thoughts on that here and here). Nor is it about that cute little town in southern New York. Rather, this is an article about How We Are All...Myths & Legends of the Christian Catacombs
While working on other projects, it came to my attention that there are still a lot of myths and legends circulating about the so-called “Christian catacombs” under the city of Rome (or rather, under its suburbs, as cemeteries within the proper city walls...Debunking John Davidson’s “Pagan” America
Did you know we’re all pagans? That’s right. America is majority pagan. We worship Ishtar and the Onion God and have cool-ass pagan festivals featuring palm fronds and sacred orgies. Public feasts in every town distribute meat and mead, blessed by pagan...Did Paul Write Philemon?
The mainstream consensus is that only seven letters of the thirteen attributed to Paul in the New Testament are authentic: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Romans, Philippians, Galatians…and Philemon; while the rest are either forgeries (Ephesians,...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.
Support Dr. Carrier
Books by Dr. Carrier
Explore C.H.R.E.S.T.U.S.
