Free Will in the Real World … and Why It Matters
“Since all events are causally determined, and we don’t control our past, then we don’t control our future, and if we don’t control our future we have no free will.” The argument is compelling, but fallacious: it depends on an...Brilliant Art by Rena Davonne
Many have been asking about the fantastic and intriguing cover art to my new book Jesus from Outer Space. It’s an original painting by artist Rena Davonne. It’s intentionally psychedelic-conceptual, in keeping with the mystical and hallucinatory origins of the...The Bible Actually Permits Abortion and Condemns Homosexuality
There are two common modern myths about the Bible, one conservative, the other liberal. The liberal myth is that the Bible never condemns homosexuality. In fact it clearly does, both in the Old Testament and the New. The conservative myth is that the Bible condemns...New Testament Studies for Everyone: Join This Quick & Valuable Course Online!
No matter the time of year, either Easter or Christmas or some other Holy Day is coming! Learn how to critically examine the Book that these celebrations almost loosely aren’t based on. The best fake news ever. Master how to debate and understand the Christian...How My Philosophy Would Solve the Unsolved Problems
Tooling around looking for lists of “unsolved problems” in philosophy I must admit the best list that’s most easily found online is Wikipedia’s. I realized for general benefit I should write up how my worldview addresses these. I’ve...Galileo’s Goofs: Lessons We Can Learn from Failure
I’ve written before about the importance and methodology of thought experiments, and how they are often screwed up even by professional philosophers (see On Hosing Thought Experiments). Today I’m going to pull a page out of the history of science to...Formalized Gullibility as a Modern Christian Methodology
In my debate with Craig Evans, one of the strange arguments he attempted was the Argument from Verisimilitude, whereby he says we should believe any story that’s dressed up in a realistic background. In my original Analysis of the Carrier-Evans Debate, I...How Not to Live in Zardoz
So. You know. Zardoz. That dystopian 70s movie everyone hates because it’s so fucking weird. “It depicts,” as Wikipedia describes it, “a post apocalyptic world where barbarians worship a stone god called ‘Zardoz’ that grants them...Blom on the Testimonium Taciteum
Years ago as part of my postdoc research for On the Historicity of Jesus I published a peer reviewed article in Vigiliae Christianae presenting the case (advanced under peer review by a few other scholars before me) that the single line about “Christ” in...Jesus from Outer Space! The Price Review
My new book is available in kindle and print (audio is still in production but should arrive before 2022): Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ. Copies have already gone out to reviewers, and one is already scheduled to...Establishing the Biblical Literalism of Early Christians
Usually I don’t have to argue this because it’s obvious. But there are a few who have attempted to contend that early Christians—say, before the fourth century—never took the Gospels as factually true reports of events but only as allegorical...Take Any of My Online Courses in History, Philosophy, and Critical Thinking for Only $49
I now have nine courses offered every month (follow link for the complete list and how to register). The latest added, starting this October 1, will inform you on a dozen things you probably didn’t know about ancient science and technology and how close it came...Join My Course on Ancient Science & Technology and Learn All You Didn’t Know about Greco-Roman Advancement & How Christianity Put an End to It!
Based on Richard Carrier’s Columbia University dissertation and now published as a book, this course will astound you with what ancient scientists thought and accomplished and how they laid the groundwork for modern science, to be recovered and built upon only after a...Gnosticism Didn’t Exist (Say What Now?)
It’s scandalous to say, because so much pop theorizing about early Christianity is anchored to it, but it turns out, Gnosticism was never actually a thing. It was an invention of modern scholars; an interpretive category, it turns out, that refers to no actual...Shaun Skills: How to Learn from Exemplary Cases
Shaun is a YouTube critic who composes a lot of excellent videos critiquing various other YouTube content, from social commentators to entertainment media. He does a good job of summarizing, fact-checking, logic-vetting, and illustrating his finds in the video medium....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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