The Carrier-Marshall Debate: Index
Christian historian Dr. Wallace Marshall and I have engaged a debate on whether or not enough evidence points to the existence of a god. Background and format are explained with Dr. Wallace’s opening statement. For convenience all entries in the debate will be...Richard Carrier and Wallace Marshall Debate: God or Atheism—Where does the Evidence Point?
Beginning today and for the next three months I will be engaging a formal serial debate here with Dr. Wallace Marshall over whether the evidence points to there being a God—or the absence of one. Marshall has a Ph.D. in history from Boston College and an M.Div....Hypothesis: Only Those Who Don’t Really Understand Bayesianism Are Against It
I’ve started to accumulate a lot of evidence that consistently supports a singular hypothesis: only those who don’t really understand Bayesianism are against it. Already I’ve seen this of William Briggs, James McGrath, John Loftus and Richard Miller,...William Lane Craig’s Duplicitous Denial That Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This is a logically necessary truth. Notorious Christian apologist William Lane Craig tries to deny this. But only by playing word games. Let’s see how this statement actually pans out, and how Craig is being...Why Life Must Be Complex (and Thus Probably Won’t Be on Mars)
I think it’s extremely improbable we’ll find life on Mars. Yet NASA is “well on its way” to finding life there. Or so headlines told us. The NASA head, Jim Bridenstin, who said that actually meant we were close to being able to test Martian...Help Me Recruit a Theist with a Ph.D. for a Formal Online Debate
I wish to generate a new debate on the existence of God, one that follows the same novel procedure as my recent debate with Jonathan Sheffield. You can follow how that debate operated here. I want this debate to be with a well-qualified defender of theism, who has a...Misunderstanding the Burden of Proof
In matters of knowledge and belief, everything is probability. They who do not understand this, will commit innumerable errors, and waste gobs of time arguing to no purpose. This is especially evident in debates over who holds the burden of proof in any given matter,...The Carrier-McDurmon Debate: Which Worldview Produces the Better World?
Joel McDurmon is an odd fellow. Founder of American Vision, he is simultaneously an old school arch-conservative who thinks all taxation is theft and public schools must be abolished, and a passionate, well-reasoned advocate for liberal talking points like that the...The Real Basis of a Moral World
What worldview is better for the world? That’s a question I debated with Joel McDurmon of American Vision just the other day in Houston. I’ll announce the video when it goes live. But one of the matters that came up centrally in that debate was moral...Speaking in Cincinnati!
I will be speaking for the Free Inquiry Group on the science and philosophy of moral reasoning in Cincinnati, Ohio, this coming October 23rd, Tuesday 7pm, at the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati on 536 Linton Street. Details on Facebook and Meetup. Description:...Intersectionality: A Guide for the Perplexed
Conservatives have really weird ideas about what “intersectional feminism” means. I’ve been running into it a lot lately. Up to and including that it denies individualism (in fact it’s about re-acknowledging individuality in the social system),...Debate in Houston This November!
I’ll be debating Which Worldview Produces the Best World? in Houston, Texas, on 10 November 2018. The theme: Does atheistic Naturalism or biblical Christianity offer true help for the world? I’ll be defending naturalism; Dr. Joel McDurmon will be defending...What’s the Harm? Why Religious Belief Is Always Bad
I’m often asked, “Christianity doesn’t really hurt anyone. Why is it so important? Just let people believe what they want. At least in religion. Why should we bother critiquing and opposing belief?” In some cases the question is terribly naive. In others,...The Problem with Nothing: Why The Indefensibility of Ex Nihilo Nihil Goes Wrong for Theists
I’ve argued before that if we presume there was once absolutely nothing, we actually end up with an infinite multiverse (Ex Nihilo Onus Merdae Fit). Which eliminates the fine tuning argument, by statistically guaranteeing any universe will randomly exist, no...The Mind Is a Process Not an Object: On Not Understanding Mind-Brain Physicalism
In a recent issue of Philosophy Now, Christian philosopher Grant Bartley argues “Why Physicalism is Wrong.” In which he exemplifies why it is the critics of physicalism who are wrong. Because Bartley commits basic fallacies in understanding the issue....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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