30 June 2020
I am now offering ten online courses, starting on the first of any month! Some are video courses, some are online forum courses. All are intended to take one month, are learn-at-your-own-pace, and involve as much or as little work as you want to put in. You’ll...
29 June 2020
Upon request I am creating an open thread here for any continued scholarly Q&A on my book On the Historicity of Jesus (published under peer review by Sheffield-Phoenix) and its thesis—that at best there is only (but still possibly as much as) a 1 in 3 chance...
28 June 2020
People denying racism is a systemic problem in American policing repeatedly cite as “proof” a study published by Roland Fryer, which they particularly love citing because Fryer is black. The thing is though, Fryer’s study proved systemic racism in...
26 June 2020
I’ve now added “Ancient Atheism” to my monthly class roster. You can register now and join us starting next week or any subsequent month. Register anytime ahead of the month you want—for this or any of several other courses I’m offering. In Ancient...
23 June 2020
On the Ask NT Wright Anything show, Justin Brierley recently read a write-in question that challenged Anglican apologist N.T. Wright on a claim he’s made that I’ve thoroughly debunked: his claim that women would never be invented by the author of Mark as...
16 June 2020
The Civil Rights Act protects trans and gay people now. Because the Supreme Court has so ruled. I’ve long said some of the best philosophy written is in Supreme Court rulings. It’s always practical, real-world philosophy, that actually affects lives, so...
12 June 2020
This is my final written response to Jonathan Sheffield’s argument that the Romans could have disproved the resurrection unless it really happened and therefore it must really have happened. See Sheffield’s opening statement for a description of the debate and...
10 June 2020
This is Jonathan Sheffield’s response to my opening response to his argument that the Romans could have disproved the resurrection unless it really happened and therefore it must really have happened. See Sheffield’s opening statement for a description of...
30 May 2020
This is my opening response to Jonathan Sheffield’s argument that the Romans could have disproved the resurrection unless it really happened and therefore it must really have happened. Thus begins a new short debate. See Sheffield’s opening statement for a...
29 May 2020
Anglican autodidact Jonathan Sheffield is back and we will this time be debating whether the Romans should have disproved the resurrection of Jesus—and thus, their not having done so proves Jesus really did rise from the dead. Last time we had an extended...
28 May 2020
I’ve now added my popular course “Counter-Apologetics: Learning the Best Ways to Refute Arguments for God” to my monthly roster. You can register now and join us starting next week or any subsequent month. (Among any of my Ten Courses in philosophy and history...
27 May 2020
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...
24 May 2020
With my move back to California and so much else going on I haven’t had time to closely read several books I want to review here, including Raphael Lataster’s peer reviewed defense of historicity agnosticism regarding Jesus, Questioning the Historicity of...
17 May 2020
A German academic reference book appeared in 2017 titled Jesus Handbuch (more or less meaning “Jesus Handbook” or the Jesus Manual) edited by Jens Schröter and Christine Jacobi (you can access its table of contents and descriptive foreword at Mohr...
29 April 2020
M. David Litwa’s new book How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths (Yale 2019) argues the authors of the Gospels “deliberately shaped myths about Jesus into historical discourse to maximize their believability for ancient...
20 April 2020
Does atheism have a rational foundation? If we are just atoms in motion, how can anything be right or wrong? What is reason and why trust it? What is true? What should I believe, about myself and the world I live in? What should our politics be? What should our values...