supernatural Archives • Richard Carrier Blogs

Defining Naturalism: The Definitive Account

Richard Carrier — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 22:13:10 +0000

Years ago I wrote on how ‘natural’ and ‘supernatural’ should be defined based on how those words are actually used in practice. And I developed from that a more useful ontology of naturalism and the supernatural, and a more apt scientific epistemology capable of detecting either. This began all the way back in 2003 with […]

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From Homer to Frontinus: Biased Translation Is Not Unique to Biblical Studies

Richard Carrier — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 19:48:44 +0000

I am often asked what the best Bible translation is. My usual reply is that there aren’t any. All translations are biased, they merely differ as to how or where. The best you can do is to read it in the original language (and I teach a course with a lecture on how you can […]

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Daniel Bonevac’s Bayesian Argument for Miracles

Richard Carrier — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 15:35:06 +0000

I was privileged to be able to sit in on some of a private virtual Q&A with Christian philosopher Daniel Bonevac regarding his peer-reviewed paper “The Argument from Miracles,” Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 3 (2011), pp. 16-40. Many significant philosophers (atheist and Christian) were in attendance. Alas I missed most of it, and couldn’t […]

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Christianity Is a Conspiracy Theory

Richard Carrier — Sun, 21 May 2023 18:27:21 +0000

There is a much overlooked late-20th century polemical satire of Christian apologetics by the Russian writer Kirill Eskov called the Gospel of Afranius. Award-winning and popular in the slavic world, from Russia, Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine (even once having been reviewed in the science journal Nature), it has recently been given an English translation by […]

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Justin Brierley and the Folly of Christianity

Richard Carrier — Sun, 22 May 2022 23:45:19 +0000

This is the final entry in my series on Justin Brierley’s book Unbelievable? Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists, I’m Still a Christian. You can read my general summary of this book; where also at the bottom is a TOC linking to all the follow-ups, in which I delve more deeply into specific subjects […]

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Crank Bayesianism: William Lane Craig Edition

Richard Carrier — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 18:11:30 +0000

A patron asked me to evaluate a video by TMM titled “WLC Misunderstands Hume’s Rejection of Miracles,” in which the host critiques William Lane Craig’s “rebuttal” to David Hume’s argument against miracles—because Craig’s response involves discussion of Bayes’ Theorem, and the TMM video appears to contain confusions on all sides requiring elucidation. I categorize this […]

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Pearce’s New Take-Down of Resurrection Apologetics Is a Must-Have

Richard Carrier — Sat, 01 May 2021 00:59:56 +0000

This book is the definitive starting point for anyone intent on questioning or defending the resurrection of Jesus. Introductory and aimed at a broad audience, but thoroughly researched, all the key works are here cited and arguments addressed, and with sound reasoning. If this book cannot be answered, belief in the resurrection [of Jesus] cannot […]

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Murray’s Primer on Atheism

Richard Carrier — Wed, 27 May 2020 21:24:58 +0000

I’ll shortly announce the addition of my popular class on Christian and Islamic counter-apologetics to my monthly online course offerings. Which means it’s time to discuss the few issues I do have with my preferred course text for that: Malcolm Murray’s The Atheist’s Primer, which you can get at Google Play or Amazon. Overall Murray’s […]

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Theism & Atheism: Science

Richard Carrier — Thu, 19 Dec 2019 00:30:46 +0000

Part 3 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Science, which holds that the collective consequence of the advance of the sciences is the substantial reduction in the epistemic probability of theism. I’ll also discuss the other atheist contributions on the […]

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Theism & Atheism: Miracles

Richard Carrier — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 23:10:20 +0000

Part 2 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Miracles, which turns that argument on its head. Far from being evidence for theism, the collective evidence regarding miracle claims throughout history is actually evidence for atheism. (For a description of the […]

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