People often ask me about Christian apologist James Bishop’s “41 Reasons Why Scholars Know Jesus Really Existed.” Because it’s the highest number of reasons anyone has attempted to claim (apart from the 10/42 apologetic, which Matthew Ferguson...
Where? Idaho state capital steps (in Boise). When? Noon to 1:30pm, Thursday, May 7. Why? To make a public appeal for the separation of church and state, in honor of this year’s National Day of Reason (2015). Sponsored by the Treasure Valley Coalition of Reason....
A new article just beats this dead horse deader still. Hat tip to Vridar and Peter Kirby. Honestly. The evidence that the Testimonium Flavianum (or TF) is entirely a late Christian forgery is now as overwhelming as such evidence could ever get. Short of uncovering a...
Join us for May in learning from Jeff Lowder and myself how to improve your capabilities in debate (at the podium, and online). Learn all the tricks and how to defeat them. Learn how to be effective and educational. Learn what not to do. And what to try for. Details...
So, this is experimental. I’d like to go on a date in May. And for the first time, I’m going to try a bat signal: putting a call out on my blog. I don’t know anyone else who has tried doing that, so I have no precedent to work from as to etiquette or...
Katherine Cross has written an excellent piece on distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate tone policing: Words for Cutting: Why We Need to Stop Abusing The Tone Argument. The article is a valuable read all through. Do not regard my summary here as its replacement....
I’ve realized that I often post things to my Facebook wall that I don’t mention on my blog. And then I realized some readers of my blog might want to also read those things (always brief comments or announcements of places I’m hanging out—where...
In working slowly through a gigantic backlog of blog comments, I met with one that goes back to an old school question, about my project to demarcate the natural and the supernatural. The comment by Enlightenment Liberal is here. He is asking questions about the...
Last year in I spoke on Proving History. Now I’m back to cover the second half of the story: On the Historicity of Jesus. I’ll survey some key details of ancient history and outline the theory defended in the book. There will also be a preshow dinner, and...
So, apparently “No One Could See the Color Blue Until Modern Times.” I have it on the high authority of the Princeton Archae…er, I mean, the science section of the Business Insider. So its totes true. Hm. This is the weirdest thing I’ve seen...
This month I am teaming up with a colleague to impart to you our decades of experience in debate. That includes debating online and at live events. Learn basic skills, the usual tactics and how to disarm them, how to be more effective, and more. Register now! As the...
This post is obsolete and no longer applicable. It is preserved here only for historical record. For the current comments policy see here. It’s come time. I’m so cumulatively busy with all my work and life things, I can no longer find time to moderate...
Greg Mayer posted at Jerry Coyne’s blog on “Why I am not a Bayesian.” In his explanation, he goes wrong at three key points. And they are illustrative of common mistakes people make in trying to understand or apply Bayesian reasoning. In reality,...
This is a quick source document for anyone who “hates drama” and doesn’t want to do much work to investigate what all the hubub is about. Why did Atheist Ireland write a dishonest disassociation letter against PZ Myers, and why did gullible nice guy...
This April 29 (a Wednesday evening) I’ll be in San Jose on panel for the discussion “Jesus: Mything in Action” alongside the always entertaining David Fitzgerald and Robert Price, at Harry’s Hofbrau at 7pm. There will be a lot of Q&A...
I posted over the past week several criticisms of Peter Boghossian that generally put me off him (especially this). I think he’s not a very good philosopher, and is far too wrong about far too many important things. Yesterday I expanded on one of those...
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.