Richard Carrier Blogs

Is God Needed for “Information” and “Laws”?

Richard Carrier — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 22:26:36 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about “where the laws of physics come from.” Of course I’ve already covered this from the angle of “where do all the physical constants come from” in The Utter Destruction of the Fine Tuning Argument and from the angle of “where do spacetime and its properties come […]

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[CLOSED — AND THANK YOU ALL!] Close to Underwater on Bills = Hire Me to Speak or Teach?

Richard Carrier — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 19:23:59 +0000

Thank you to everyone who helped. My wife and I are immensely grateful. Sincerely. We’re now good as far as the budget emergency goes. So you can disregard this post now. But I always welcome hosts hiring me in for interviews and discussions on their channels, and having students in my online courses. So you […]

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Comparing Apologetical Methods: Jonathan Sheffield vs. Michael Licona

Richard Carrier — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:46:46 +0000

There is a largely overlooked internal debate among Christian apologists about approach. The gist of which is how much Christians should allow fudging, omitting, spinning, and overreach (though the pro side would never describe what it’s doing that way, which is part of the problem). A paradigmatic example is with the authorship of the Gospels: […]

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Three Perspectives on the Life Sciences in the Roman Empire

Richard Carrier — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 22:03:52 +0000

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 guided self-learning, with a whole month of being able […]

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The Other Problem with Nothing (and Kalam Shazam!)

Richard Carrier — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 20:18:17 +0000

In May philosopher Alex Malpass will debate William Lane Craig on the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God, and in preparation he is running a weekly series at Thoughtology on every argument there is for or against every premise of the KCA. It’s looking like a great series so far (you can start with Kalam Debate […]

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David Fitzgerald’s Review of David Skrbina’s Amateur Jesus Hoax

Richard Carrier — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:47:39 +0000

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 needs to exist to forestall people falling […]

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Recommendations in the Philosophy of History

Richard Carrier — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 21:12:04 +0000

I teach online correspondence courses every month in philosophy and history, and I highly recommend you check them out. It’s a great way to get in some guided self-learning, with a whole month of being able to pick my brain about the subject for a very affordable price. But I also promote self-learning through reading. […]

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Christianity in Hitler’s Ideology: The Definitive Study

Richard Carrier — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:24:54 +0000

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 Christ as well as in my articles No, Hitler Wasn’t a Pantheist and Hitler’s Table Talk: The […]

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Hansen’s Contribution to the James in Josephus Debate

Richard Carrier — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 23:06:24 +0000

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 study worth considering. Here I’ll explain what I mean. The Eristic Upshot […]

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T.C. Schmidt on James in Josephus: Apologetics vs. History

Richard Carrier — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 17:08:31 +0000

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 certain “James, brother of Jesus.” For those who want to catch up on my […]

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