Crank Bayesianism: William Lane Craig Edition

A patron asked me to evaluate a video by TMM titled “WLC Misunderstands Hume’s Rejection of Miracles,” in which the host critiques William Lane Craig’s “rebuttal” to David Hume’s argument against miracles—because...

The GCRR eConference on the Historical Jesus: A Retrospective

Last weekend the Global Center for Religious Research hosted a plethora of live online talks from various scholars and enthusiasts on the subject of the historical Jesus (myself included), mostly from the position of doubt. They ranged from the crank to the superb,...

How Do We Know the Apostle Paul Wrote His Epistles in the 50s A.D.?

I’ve been asked this question enough that it warrants its own article to bookmark: why are we so sure Paul’s Epistles were written in the 50s A.D.? Because his letters rarely mention any datable fact, could fit many different periods of history, and have...

My New Article in SHERM

Last year I gave a presentation for the GCRR conference on atheism (Come See Me & Others Speak at the 2020 International eConference on Atheism!). This year I will be reprising that appearance on another subject (Come See Me & Others Speak at the 2021...

Mark Goodacre on the Historicity of Jesus’s Execution

In the chapter “Prophecy Historicized or Tradition Scripturalized? Reflections on the Origin of the Passion Narratives” in New Testament and the Church (T&T Clark 2015), Mark Goodacre examines the question still debated in mainstream New Testament...

Ehrman on Historicity Recap

This is a summary of the current state of the debate after the mini blog war between myself and Bart Ehrman over his latest book, Did Jesus Exist?, which attempted to argue against various scholars (both legitimate and crank) who have concluded, or at least suspect,...

Postgame on My Pastor Damon Richardson Debate

Yesterday I debated Pastor Damon Richardson, “the Urban Apologist,” on the Dagger Squad Show (18 June 2021). The topic: “Did Jesus Exist?” You can still purchase access to view the archived video of it by emailing a request to the host Brother...

Was Jesus-Is-Michael an Early Christian Mystery Teaching?

I’ve discussed the fact before that the first Christians believed Jesus was secretly an angel who came down from heaven in the guise of a man (a conclusion with which even Bart Ehrman now concurs). Even if Jesus was a historical person they believed this (a key...

Epistemology Test: Anthony Fauci Edition

Your epistemology might be broken. Here is one test to find out. And if that’s what you find, you need to repair that broken epistemology; and I have some tips here on how to do that. But the broader skills you need to master for a reliable epistemology I have...

UFOs Are Not That Remarkable

Sometime toward the end of this month the military will release a report on UFOs; unless an extension is granted, but even if one is—I’m sure it’s time-consuming work—I expect the report will be delivered before end of year. Some of it, I...

Why You Should Not Believe the Apostle John Wrote the Last Gospel

This month I have been showcasing how apologetics is fundamentally bankrupt methodologically. It depends on fallacious reasoning, held up as sound and professional, yet which adheres to the methods of no actual legitimate academic field—except those very fields...

Thomism: The Bogus Science

I have pretty thoroughly embarrassed Edward Feser already, the preeminent advocate for Thomism today, the Medieval Dumbity that consists of purely armchair, and often pseudological, theorizing about natural reality, which ignores the entirety of the sciences and...

The Blondé-Jansen Argument from Consciousness

I’ve been asked to assess a bizarre argument for God published recently in Metaphysica (“Proving God without Dualism: Improving the Swinburne-Moreland Argument from Consciousness,” by Ward Blondé and Ludger Jansen, March 2021). I have already rather...

How We Know Daniel Is a Forgery

Even the historicity of Daniel the man is dubious. Unlike other prophets, he has no patronymic, profession, or place of origin, and he first appears in historical records when “Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, by the Kebar River in the land of the...