Thoughtful Reflections on Faith and Life
Richard Carrier is one of the most well known Jesus Mythicists, that is a person who argues that Jesus was never a historical figure. I regularly get questions asking me to respond to some article that he wrote. Most recently, I was asked to respond to his journal article, “Origen, Eusebius, and theAccidental Interpolation in … Read More “The Difficulty in Responding to Richard Carrier” »
Richard Carrier has recently had an ongoing debate with New Testament scholar Larry Hurtado. I have not been following the debate because frankly I don’t care. Plus, I find that Carrier just gets nasty and his arguments become more emotional than rational. But something he wrote caught my attention. I came across his blog post The … Read More “Richard Carrier is an Apologist” »
One of the common objections to Christianity is that religion is the source for most violence. Christians respond with example from the 20th century, where it looks as if non-religious regimes have been the most violent. Examples of communists such as Stalin and Mao are clear. But what about Hitler? Many atheists would say that Hitler … Read More “Was Hitler a Christian?” »
Richard Carrier argues that the James who is described as the brother of Jesus, is not really his brother. Why is this important to Carrier? Unlike Catholic apologists who want Mary to be a perpetual virgin (although they do not deny they are related), Carrier needs to break this relationship because he denies that Jesus … Read More “Did Jesus Really Have a Brother?” »
One of the key passages for Christian apologists is the creed that Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15 as part of his discussion on the resurrection. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He … Read More “Responding to Richard Carrier’s Dating the Corinthian Creed” »
Just in time for Easter, Maclean’s magazine ran an article called Did Jesus Really Exist? written by Brian Bethune. It is a bit of strange article, blending theories by Bart Ehrman and Richard Carrier. There have been some heated discussions between Ehrman and Carrier and they definitely don’t see eye to eye. To use Ehrman … Read More “Yes Maclean’s, Jesus Really Did Exist” »
One of the topics that I am interested in is the evidence for the historical existence of Jesus. One of the few people with scholarly credentials that denies the existence of Jesus is Richard Carrier. Recently, Mark Goodacre, a very good and non-evangelical scholar spoke with Carrier on this topic on the Unbelievable program. If … Read More “Richard Carrier vs Mark Goodacre” »
Bart Ehrman, who is normally a critic of Christianity and the Bible, recently wrote a book defending the existence of Jesus against the claims of the Jesus mythicists. Richard Carrier, an atheist and a scholar who supports the Jesus myth, has harshly criticized Ehrman and his book. Bart Ehrman has responded to Carrier and I … Read More “Bart Ehrman vs Richard Carrier” »
