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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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....
The most important advice you could ever get for becoming a reliable critical thinker are the following three tips, each of which depends on probabilistic reasoning. You might want to take my online course in Critical Thinking for the 21st Century to really dive into...
I’ve now added “Critical Thinking in the 21st Century” to my monthly class roster. You can register now and join us starting 1st of next month or any subsequent month. Register anytime ahead of the month you want—for this or any of several other courses...
Para una edición en español del siguiente artículo, consulte El regreso de Piñero. -:- Last month I found serious faults in Antonio Piñero’s mistreatment of my book On the Historicity of Jesus and its thesis, including his lack of basic knowledge in subjects...
The Global Center for Religious Research (GCRR) is hosting the 2020 International eConference on Atheism next month, September 3–5. I will be among the presenters. Registration is super affordable, only $15. In fact, if you use the promo code...
Para una edición en español del siguiente artículo, consulte Antonio Piñero: El historicista vehemente at Mitos o Historia. -:- Antonio Piñero is sort of the Bart Ehrman of the Spanish-speaking world. He has made a public spectacle of attacking Jesus mythicism and...
I’ve now added “The Historicity of Jesus” to my monthly class roster. You can register now and join us starting the 1st of next month or any subsequent month. Register anytime ahead of the month you want—for this or any of several other courses I’m...
For the gist of this two-part series see the intro of Part I. That part covered the first of two videos spanning the 2018 debate between YouTubers Godless Engineer and Michael Jones. Here I dive into the second of those (you can watch them online: Part 1 and Part 2)....
In March of 2018 the NonSequitur show hosted a debate between two YouTubers: Godless Engineer, who runs the popular eponymous atheist channel, and Michael Jones, who runs the popular Christian apologetics channel Inspiring Philosophy. The topic was whether evidence...
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.