On the Historicity of Jesus and the Rhetoric of Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho
It’s often claimed “we have no evidence of any skeptic of Christianity ever doubting Jesus existed.” I’ve long noted this isn’t true; and that it’s moot, because the very texts where we would expect to find this don’t survive...John MacDonald’s Bizarre Defense of a Historical Jesus
A few months ago, secular philosopher John MacDonald (a Vice President of Internet Infidels) wrote an article for The Secular Web, titled “Jesus Mythicism: Moral Influence vs. Vicarious Atonement—and Other Problems,” which he bills as “in part a...A Primer on Successful vs. Bogus Methodology: Tim O’Neill Edition
Recently Tim O’Neill once again engaged his usual arrogantly dishonest methods and lied about the evidence in the very act of denouncing an actual expert (me) as incompetent, but in the process proving he was incompetent and I was not. Which is standard...Come See Me & Others Speak at the 2023 International eConference on Atheism!
The Global Center for Religious Research (GCRR) is hosting the 2023 International eConference on Atheism next month, March 4–5. I will be among the presenters. Registration is affordable, between ten and thirty dollars depending on your status. GCRR members get a...Chrissy Hansen on the Pre-Existent Jesus
It’s the growing consensus in Jesus studies now that the first Christians believed Jesus was the incarnation of a pre-existent celestial being. Even Bart Ehrman has gotten aboard this trend (see Bart Ehrman on How Jesus Became God); and even Larry Hurtado, who...Robyn Faith Walsh and the Gospels as Literature
Robyn Faith Walsh, a professor of New Testament studies at the University of Miami with a Ph.D. in religious studies from Brown University, has recently hit the circuit promoting her “controversial” thesis (building on her dissertation at Brown) that the...How We Can Know 1 Clement Was Actually Written in the 60s AD
The Epistle of 1 Clement, a diplomatic letter from elders in Rome to the Christian community in Corinth seeking to persuade them to return to a more orderly appointment of leadership after a recent internal rebellion of sorts, ultimately didn’t make it into the...The Jesus Chronicles: Three Things People Get Wrong about Probability
Lately I’ve seen a flurry of repeated mistakes in reasoning about probability. I realized a primer is needed to correct some people so they can stop making those mistakes (assuming you care about not making mistakes; an alarming number of people don’t, but...Gesù Resistente, Gesù Inesistente
I have successfully produced several debates on the historicity of Jesus with qualified PhDs (live and online; see: Crook; Evans; Goodacre; Waters; and twice now with MacDonald; in Akin and Horn, Horn has multiple masters degrees). But I have long wanted to get one...The Curious Case of Gnostic Informant: Reaction vs. Research
There was a recent internet storm over Gnostic Informant’s (Neal Sendlak’s) attack video “Refutation of Richard Carrier & the Church of Mythicism,” which is so disjointed and inept (and until its subsequent editing, slanderous and...M. David Litwa, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Problem of Incompetent Scholarship
I recently did a show with Godless Engineer on M. David Litwa’s bizarrely ignorant declarations about the obscure apocryphon The Ascension of Isaiah. You can watch that instead if you prefer video conversation as a medium. But I will expand the essential points...Please No More Astrotheology
Astrotheology in general is not bullshit. Many ancient religions used it. But astrotheological explanations of the origins of Christianity, or the content of the Gospels, are bullshit. I denounced one such in a recent book review of Varieties of Jesus Mythicism...The Problem with Varieties of Jesus Mythicism
I just published a formal academic review of the new book Varieties of Jesus Mythicism (ed. by John Loftus and Robert Price, Hypatia 2022) in Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM) 4. 1 (Summer 2022): 171‒192. You can buy the review there for...That Useless McGrath Interview
I’ve had a lot of queries about what I think of the recent MythVision interview of Christian apologist James McGrath (12 August 2022). I’m kind of over him, to be honest, because he’s had ample chance to honestly engage with the peer-reviewed...Empirical Logic and Romans 1:3
Paul’s statement in Romans 1:3 that Jesus had “come of the seed of David according to flesh” is one of the most commonly cited pieces of evidence for Paul believing Jesus had been an actual man walking around Palestine (see Argument from...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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