Why Did Mark Invent an Empty Tomb?

I have written on this question in many different places. Here I collect excerpts from, or summarize, several of the most important. You’ll find further material and expanded arguments, with evidence and footnotes and cited scholarship, in my contributions to The...

Come See Marketing the Messiah!

I’m one of several luminaries interviewed for this new, amusing, and fascinating documentary about the origins and development of Christianity and how much it was about marketing different fictional versions of the Christ (whether Jesus existed or not). Details...

Dumb Vegan Propaganda: A Lesson in Critical Thinking

I noticed some fake news spreading on Facebook last week. Like usual. But then I noticed what a great example it provided of how to defend yourself against just this kind of politicized fake news, with just a few basic principles of critical thinking. This time the...

Pascal’s Wager and the Ad Baculum Fallacy

I’m sure you’ve all heard of Pascal’s Wager. The gist of it is that if you bet on there being a God (meaning, to Pascal, the Medieval Catholic God), you have an infinite expected return on investment, because at worst it costs you nothing (or at...

Study the Science & Philosophy of Free Will with Me!

Do we have free will? In what sense? What sort of free will are we supposed to be talking about? Who or what is a will a will of? What are praise and blame, guilt and innocence for? What is fatalism and why is it bad for you? Challenge yourself by studying these...

Join Me in Florida Next Week!

I’ll be at Old Man Frank’s in Winter Haven, Florida (1005 South Lake Howard Drive) from 3 to 4pm (I might stay longer if there’s demand) next Saturday, February 1—with books and conversation! Come stop by, hang out, chat on any subject, maybe...

Naturalism Is Not an Axiom of the Sciences but a Conclusion of Them

I recently found an article from 2011 making a point I’ve long made myself, that the entire notion of a “presumption of naturalism” being axiomatic to history and the sciences is both an error made by some historians and scientists and an apologetic...

Tim O’Neill & the Biblical History Skeptics on Mythicism

In April of this year the Biblical History Skeptics talked shop for three hours with Tim O’Neill (this Tim O’Neill) and I was invited to talk shop about that with Godless Engineer last month. The latter video has now gone live and you can watch it here....

Theism & Atheism: Science

Part 3 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Science, which holds that the collective consequence of the advance of the sciences is the substantial reduction in the...

Theism & Atheism: Miracles

Part 2 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Miracles, which turns that argument on its head. Far from being evidence for theism, the collective evidence regarding miracle...

Theism & Atheism: Doxastic Foundations

This year Macmillan produced a peer reviewed collection of position papers between atheists and theists titled Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy (2019), in which I contributed several chapters. Like most academic monographs these days it’s...

Join Me in Vegas This Month!

I’ll be hanging out at the Crown & Anchor pub in Las Vegas (4755 West Spring Mountain Road) on Friday the 13th, December 2019, from 6 to 7 pm. Come hang out with me! I’ll chat on any subjects and I’ll have all my books on hand to sell and sign if...

Who Is an Atheist?

Is everyone who lacks belief in a god an atheist? Or is there always some middle category—we’ll call it “agnostic”—such that (a) they don’t believe any gods exist but also, at the same time, (b) they can never be called an atheist?...

What Did Paul Mean in Romans 1:3?

Tim O’Neill is at it again, on Twitter this time, making false claims about my work, and about the Epistles of Paul. The item of contention again is my proposal that when Paul said Jesus was “made from the sperm of David” (which is literally what...