Today is December 1 and I’m 51. Impossible I know but alas! This year I moved back to California to be closer to my disabled parents so I can more regularly help them out. But California is expensive. Much more than Ohio! I’m also coming up on some expensive dental work, automotive repairs, and all the usual vicissitudes of life.
I sure know the pandemic isn’t making it easy for anyone. But those who are still doing alright and want to support my work, please do! And spread the word to anyone else who might be interested in becoming a patron of independent academic research. Patrons do serve the good of everyone that my resulting work is made freely available to the whole world over, to instruct and educate and aid them in their journey into sense and reason, or help them make more capable arguments for good ideas and against bad.
So please consider becoming a Patreon Patron (or recurring PayPal Patron if Patreon is not to your liking). There are of course Other Ways to Help (like buying or even just continually recommending my books, or taking my online courses, and the like). But I benefit most from getting my monthly income up for the four major blog posts I make every month that are Patron supported. That’s been the biggest blessing and helps me stay independent and productive, while still granting free worldwide access to my articles to all who can’t afford it but benefit from it. From over a decade of reader feedback I know it’s already helped many atheists build better worldviews and improve their reasoning, helped many Christians escape their toxic faith, even deconverted Muslims abroad, and aided and edified hundreds of thousands of readers.
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Thank you for even just thinking about it! And I wish a happy holiday season to you all even in this gloomy time.
I am translating this comment from google to communicate with you and thank you. You through your blog helped me a lot to leave the mental prison called “Christianity”. I am from Brazil, none of your work has been translated into Portuguese and I do not understand English. I downloaded the “free sample” of the “Jesus from outer Space” through the Kindle and intend to buy it in full at Christmas, the Kindle happily translates paragraph by paragraph. Thanks again. You set me free.
Thank you for that comment. I appreciate it and it means a lot.
As I’ve already mentioned to Mr Carrier on his outstanding work of Jesus From Outer Space, it’s a factual piece of good work and read!
why not y’all move across t’ Texas?!
It’s right cheaper, cleaner & frendlier.
Except the climate is horrid. And the terrain is mind-numbingly dead to the eye. It has shitty public infrastructure. It has some of the most expensive and inaccessible healthcare. It has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. And it’s still too lousy with secessionist white supremacists.
Texas is also above average in tax burden, and that tax burden is shifted more onto the poor and middle class there than almost any other state (and those other states are even shittier places to live). And by every other measure of quality of life Texas rates either below average or well below California…and usually both; including measures of economy, health, and education. Not surprisingly, as Texas also rates below average or even near the worst in pollution and other health factors.
Gordun Bennit!
Many thanks for the head up.
I’ll be making beeline t’ Washington State then.
-Hopefully the singles scene there is better too.
The state income tax in California is amongst the highest in the nation. A small concession is that the property tax in California is below the national average.
The average effective property tax rate in California is 0.77%
The average effective property tax rate in Texas is 1.83%
The national rate is 1.08%
So it is true that Texas has higher property taxes. But property taxes are based on the value of the home.
And you’re going to pay more (way more) per qquare foot in California than in Texas. See below:
Texas
Median price per square foot: $115
California
Median price per square foot: $281
Here’s how much home $300,000 will buy you in every US state
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/12/how-much-home-300k-will-buy-you-in-every-state.html
So while property tazes are lower in California than on Texas I think that is easily trumped by the reality that you are
going to be paying more than twice as much for the house to start with. Along with homeowners insurance which is once again
based on the value (replacement value) of the home.
In summary I think it is fair to say that total cost and morgage payments (including homwowners insurance) are far less in Texas than California. And given that mortgage payments are generally a households largest expense that matters a whole lot.
And one could argue that the lower property tax rate in California is not actually a realized (in comparison with Texas) when you
consider that you’re being taxed on an assessed value that is more than double the assesed value for a comparibale home in Texas.
You are ignoring the differential way the tax burden is distributed in California and Texas. As I said: Texas overburdens the poor and middle class relative to California. Thus, when you take into account actual tax burden, Texas is worse than California. That you obsess over unrelated issues (“Low income tax here!”) is precisely what conservatives want you to do, so you don’t notice how that’s actually a con. Follow the link to understand what I’m talking about. Low taxes also guarantee a shittier state (for all the reasons I list: you don’t get what you don’t pay for), hence the rest of my comment.
And though yes, costs of living (particularly housing) is higher in California, that’s because of capitalism: every quality of life measure is higher here (follow the links), so more people justifiably want to live here than in Texas.
Can’t up my patronage at this time, but I will buy JFOS on Audible when it comes out. Btw, how much of an Audible purchase actually makes it to your bank account?
Pitchstone consistently awards me a good royalties contract on all my titles with them, audio and otherwise. As with all books, most of what you pay goes to all the other parties involved in the transaction. But I make an average or better-than industry-standard share (calculated by net, so there is no simple equation).
But I do earn more if you buy on Amazon using links on my website (e.g. my Books list or Guide), as I am an Amazon Associate, and thus earn a commission on any sales I bring them.
This holds for all purchases made here, e.g. almost anytime I link to Amazon on a book title in an article, or for instance my Recommendations List. Sometimes if you click through to Amazon, click to buy what I recommended, and then keep shopping on Amazon to fill a single cart, I even get a commission on all those other sales too.
I’ll try to remember that come purchase time.
Just curious if you agree with this theological explanation of why an Omnipotent Gog would need to rest?
https://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/rest.html
Introduction
It seems like a fair question, “Why would an omnipotent God need to rest after creating the universe?” Elsewhere, the Bible says that our Creator God does not get weary or tired.1 It turns out that the question is the direct result of a bad rendering of the Hebrew by the King James translation:
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis 2:3)
The original language
The Hebrew word, shabath, translated “rest” does not really refer to a requirement to sleep or take a break due to weariness. In the vast majority of verses the NASB translates the word as some form of stopping or ceasing. In only 7 out of 68 instances is the word translated “rest” or “rested.” (see also the Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions2)
more…
If you start with the assumption that infinite superhumans exist, really did all this, and actually copy-proofed that sentence in Genesis to ensure its accuracy, then yes, you can then infer this interpretation is the more likely. But that’s a lot of ridiculous assumptions.
If you read the whole verse used in Genesis for that rest of God, it says the Sabbath concept derives from it. That makes this an aetiological myth for Sabbath rests in the Jewish ritual calendar (the ancient primitive equivalent of labor laws for the prevention of overworking). Note that it is before the bit about resting that the verse says God “finished” his work (kalah). Then it says after God “finished” (kalah), then he rested (shabbath, from which we get Sabbath, the day of rest). It even duplicates that mention of resting.
So though technically shabbath can mean simply stopping, and not necessarily recovering, the fallible human authors who contrived this myth probably had no conception of a tireless God; their God had many limitations (the OT is rife with examples, e.g. God even loses a wrestling match with an old man; but more seriously, the Israelite God has many demonstrated limits, e.g. he could only kill off the population of the earth with an extremely inefficient and wasteful mechanism involving weeks of rain, rather than just wishing them dead), but still—the notion of a philosophically “omni” God did not exist at that time in history. So the authors of this text probably did imagine God was tired out by such a superhuman cosmic feat and needed a day to recover before resuming any further activity.
Very insightful response. Thanks.
But concerning this one point…
Dr. Carrier wrote:
“the Israelite God has many demonstrated limits, e.g. he could only kill off the population of the earth with an extremely inefficient and wasteful mechanism involving weeks of rain, rather than just wishing them dead)”
But where’s the fun in that?
LOL
I can’t help but ask, but I’ve been wondering this for a while… is there anything specifically you do health-wise to look decades younger than your chronological age? Just good genetics?
Probably genetics. I do live a healthier life than the average American. But no healthier than the average European.
Did you put up a Christmas Tree?
I don’t do trees in my own place when I’m by myself; but I put up the tree for my parents, and celebrated there.
I actually like almost all things Christmas. See my article on that: The Real War on Christmas: The Fact That Christmas Is Better Than Christ.
what’s your favourite hymn then?
I take it you hold all music or art to be ‘moral’?
(Grateful if you’d point me towards anything you’ve written on aesthetics/music and its any moral aspects.
Perhaps music was not a little part of Roman curricula?)
Depends on what you mean here by “moral.” Morally permissible, morally enjoyable, sure. Morally obligatory, no.
Remember you can use the search box at the upper right here. There is also a category dropdown menu a few beats down that same margin, and one of the categories you will find there is “music.”
I also cover the intersection of morality and art in my section on aesthetics in Sense and Goodness without God. And for an example of extending the general points there to specific domains, see my article on Sexual Objectification in art or speech.
Regarding your book, JFOS, it sadly isn’t showing on nook :(. Out of curiosity, do you get royalties from nook books?
Yes. I do get royalties on Nook.
And JFOS is most definitely on Nook.
(Though not all my books are.)
I own a paperback copy of your earlier work on The Historicity of Jesus. Do you discuss the plausibility of Jesus confronting the moneylenders on the Temple grounds? I can’t find the reference in your book. I’m assuming you think this is a fictitious incident. And, I recall, several scholars believe that a small band of protesters would have been quickly overcome by the Temple Guards (Armed Romans?). But the recent incident in Washington where a horde of mainly unarmed protestors took over the Capitol has made me reconsider this. Most commentators would have said this 2021 event was impossible, given the paper strength of the defending police battalion. Yet it was achieved and the defenders were taken by surprise. Now admittedly the incidents are very different, but my point is that assigning probabilities to past events becomes very subjective. Unusual things do happen, I’m suggesting that the Temple Incident would not necessarily have provoked a lethal reaction from those guarding it.
Yes. OHJ has a scripture index. You can use that to find all discussions of any specific passage. And “temple” is also in the subject index. If you cross reference those two you can find the page that discusses this.
Your analogy doesn’t hold because Judea wasn’t a humanist democracy. The temple battalion would have rained death on masses of people without compunction. It would be more analogous if (a) a battalion of National Guard were stationed in the Capitol and (b) it were run by remorseless killers with no respect for public assemblies even of a peaceful kind.
Needless to say, were (a) and (b) true January 6, the Capitol assault would have turned out with exactly the contrary outcome. And that’s even with thousands of people; there is no evidence any such group ever invaded the Temple, led by Jesus or otherwise, yet Josephus surely would have recorded such an incredible incident, and Romans surely would not have forgotten it every time they even mentioned Christians.
The Gospels depict it as Jesus a lone man even. So already you have to conclude that is fiction. If you then invent a version of events nowhere recorded, just to get it to be barely possible, you end up with too improbable an outcome to credit: a successful proto-Christian military assault on a heavily-defended fortress that no one recorded—not the Gospels, nor even the historian who dedicated dozens of volumes to recording exactly such things, nor any Roman historian who could not have overlooked it.