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Richard Cevantis Carrier (born December 1, 1969) is an atheist activist, author, frequent public speaker, and blogger. He is a trained historian and one of the leading current proponents of the Christ myth theory.
He is the author of the books Proving History and On the Historicity of Jesus. These books explain and utilize a historical methodology that employs Bayes's Theorem for the purpose of historical inquiry; specifically within the context of Jesus studies. He is also an advocate of atheism and metaphysical naturalism, which he has defended in his book Sense and Goodness Without God.
Carrier was featured in the documentary film The God Who Wasn't There, where he is interviewed about his doubts on the historicity of Jesus.[2] He also appears in the documentary The Nature of Existence in which film-maker Roger Nygard interviews people of many different religious and secular philosophies about the meaning of life.
Carrier received a PhD in ancient history from Columbia University in 2008: his thesis was entitled 'Attitudes towards the natural philosopher in the Early Roman Empire'.[3] He has published several articles and chapters in books on the subject of history and philosophy (see below). He was formerly the editor of and a substantial contributor to the Secular Web.[4] He has engaged in several formal debates, both online and in public, on a range of subjects including naturalism, natural explanations of early Christian resurrection accounts, and the morality of abortion. In public he debated Mike Licona on the Resurrection of Jesus (at UCLA); online he debated atheist Jennifer Roth on the morality of abortion.[5] He has defended naturalism in formal debates with Tom Wanchick and Hassanain Rajabali.[6]
He is a supporter of the Christ myth theory. In his contribution to The Empty Tomb Carrier argues that the earliest Christians probably believed Jesus had received a new spiritual body in the resurrection,[7] and that stories of his old body disappearing from its tomb were developed later. He also argues it is less likely, but also possible, that the original body of Jesus was misplaced or stolen. This work was criticized by philosophy professor Stephen T. Davis in Philosophia Christi[8] and Christian apologist Norman Geisler.[9] Carrier's first major book was published in 2012 by Prometheus Books, describing the application of Bayes Theorem to historical enquiry (specifically the historicity or otherwise of Jesus of Nazareth).[10]
Though originally skeptical of the notion, and subsequently more agnostic, since 2005 he has considered it "very probable Jesus never actually existed as a historical person",[11] yet he also said "though I foresee a rising challenge among qualified experts against the assumption of historicity [of Jesus]... that remains only a hypothesis that has yet to survive proper peer review".[12] In June 2014 Carrier's On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt was published by Sheffield Phoenix Press. Carrier has claimed that it is "the first comprehensive pro-Jesus myth book ever published by a respected academic press and under formal peer review".[13]
When reports spread of Antony Flew's rejection of atheism in 2004, Carrier engaged in correspondence with Flew to find out what happened and published an extensive analysis of the situation on the Secular Web, finding among other things that Flew changed his belief into there being some sort of "minimal God" (as in Deism). Carrier also came away with the opinion that Flew's changed ideas were not accurately represented in the book Flew co-authored, There is a God.[14][15][16] It is however worth noting that Flew himself insisted 'the idea that somebody manipulated me because I'm old is exactly wrong. This is my book and it represents my thinking.'[17]
Carrier appeared on national television in 2004, debating William Lane Craig on Lee Strobel's talk show Faith Under Fire on the PAX network (now ION Television), in a segment on the resurrection of Jesus.[18] Also in 2006, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Richard Carrier had been selected as the keynote speaker for the Humanist Community of Central Ohio's annual Winter Solstice Banquet in Columbus, Ohio in December of that year, where he spoke on defending naturalism as a pholosophy.[19] Carrier is also listed in Who's Who in Hell.[20]
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978-1-45658-885-4
Christianity, Christopher Hitchens, Tom Harpur, Jesus, Arthur Drews
Buddhism, Irreligion, Epistemology, Hinduism, Criticism of religion
Stanford University, Google, California, University of California, Irvine, University of California, San Diego
Byzantine Empire, Roman Republic, Crisis of the Third Century, Pompeii, Tacitus
Metaphysics, Intelligent design, Creationism, Atheism, Nontheism
Krishna, Mythology, Hinduism, Authority control, Christ myth theory
Bertrand Russell, Voltaire, United Kingdom, Islam, Frank Zappa
John the Baptist, Jesus, Herod Antipas, Antiquities of the Jews, Christology
Metaphysics, Mind, Physicalism, Intelligence, Psychology