The Case for Christ: The Movie!

So I went and saw it. Here’s a review. Read on, and enjoy your Easter week pondering the aesthetic merits of a film embedded with religious propaganda. I’ll remark on both, but my focus will be on the propaganda, and what this film tells us about how...
I’m Looking for a Translator of Medieval Arabic

I’m Looking for a Translator of Medieval Arabic

I am looking for someone who is facile at translating Medieval Arabic scientific treatises (in physics, mechanics, or engineering especially). For future research (and possibly my next book), I need a literal translation of two pages of the surviving Arabic...

Epilogue to the Sam Harris Moral Facts Contest

A few years ago, Sam Harris put on a contest, that awarded $2000 to the best essay critiquing his “moral landscape” theory of moral facts—and could have awarded them $20,000 had it convinced him. It didn’t. I agree it shouldn’t have. But...

Fishers of Evidence Gets Confused about Math

Someone asked me about a confusing critique of the math in On the Historicity of Jesus by a YouTuber who goes by the moniker Fishers of Evidence. I don’t know his alignment in the debate. But he has posted a short eight minute video entitled The Error of Richard...

Update: I’ll Be Speaking in Michigan in April

Susan Jacoby was originally slated to speak at the Birmingham Temple Congregation for Humanistic Judaism the evening before the Michigan Atheists Conference this year. But alas, she had to reschedule to speak the Friday before that (the 21st of April, 2017)....
Come Bowl with Me in Stevens Point, Wisconsin!

Come Bowl with Me in Stevens Point, Wisconsin!

Or just hang out, drink, and chat while I bowl. I’ll even have books to sign and sell. So come on over. I’ll be at Point Bowl (which also has a bar & grill) from 7-10pm on Monday, April 24 (2017). That’s at 2525 Dixon Street. I’ll have just...
Meet Me in Pittsburgh, Toast the Future!

Meet Me in Pittsburgh, Toast the Future!

I’ll be at Bar Marco in Pittsburgh, PA on April 8 (Saturday) from 7-10pm (2216 Penn Avenue), chatting with anyone who wants to come have a drink with me, and selling and signing my books, of which I’ll have an ample supply. And take note: Bar Marco is part...

On School Nutrition: How Republicans Create an Alternative Reality

The rolling shit show that is the Trump administration, and his Trumpish ilk in Congress, produces a lot of shock, horror, and tripe. But what if we examine a single little issue that a lot of people don’t know much about: school nutrition. We’ll find a...

Meet me in Alexandria Next Month!

I’ll be at Daniel O’Connell’s Irish Restaurant and Bar in Alexandria (VA) from 7-10pm on Sunday the 12th of March (2017). That’s on 112 King St. And as locals know, that’s in Old Town, just around the corner from Washington, DC. Although...

See You at the Michigan Atheists Convention!

This April 29 (2017) I’ll be tabling and selling my books (including my new one on Science Education in the Early Roman Empire) at the Michigan Atheists Convention (and attending the afterparty) at the Center for Secular Humanism on 28611 West Twelve Mile Rd.,...

Josephus on Jesus? Why You Can’t Cite Opinions Before 2014

On whether Josephus actually ever mentioned Jesus, usually you hear people claim “the consensus is” or “such-and-such renowned Josephus expert said” that he did, so shut-up already, nothing more to see here, “move on!” Well, there...

The End of the Arabic Testimonium

One of the things I talked about at the Society of Biblical Literature conference in Notre Dame last weekend was the demise of a popular argument for the authenticity of the Testiminium Flavianum (that fawning paragraph about Jesus in the Jewish Antiquities of...