Richard Carrier

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name = Richard Carrier


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field = Ancient history
work_institution = Columbia University
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Richard Cevantis Carrier M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D in Ancient History, (born 1 December 1969) is a published historian [He has graduate degrees in history, has published chapters and articles on history (see Publications) and is identified as a historian in the [http://www.thegodmovie.com/latimes/latimes-story082005.html LA Times] .] and philosopher, [He wrote a book on philosophy and has published in the peer-reviewed philosophy journal "Biology & Philosophy" (see publications)] best known for his writings on Internet Infidels (otherwise known as the Secular Web), where he served as Editor-in-Chief for several years.cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |title=Biography for Richard Carrier |work=Internet Movie Database |url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1891379/bio |accessdate=2007-04-10] He is a noted advocate of metaphysical naturalism [cite web |title=Allies of Naturalism |publisher=Center for Naturalism |url=http://www.centerfornaturalism.org/allies_of_naturalism.htm |accessdate=2007-04-10] . He has published many articles in books, journals and magazines, and also features on the documentary film "The God Who Wasn't There" where he is interviewed about his doubts on the historicity of Jesus.cite news |first=Patricia Ward |last=Biederman |title=Documentary Questions the Existence of Jesus |work=Los Angeles Times |date=2005-09-20 |accessdate=2007-04-11 |url=http://www.thegodmovie.com/latimes/latimes-story082005.html |format=Reprint]

Work

Besides his work in print, as a contributor to the Secular Web (one of the main web sites for skeptics on the internet [cite book |first=Gary R. |last=Habermas |authorlink=Gary Habermas |title=The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus |year=2004 |publisher=Kregel Publications |id=ISBN 0825427886 |pages=page 298] ) Richard Carrier has composed research articles on subjects ranging from the origins of Christianity to elements of naturalist and atheist philosophy. He has also engaged in several formal debates, both online and in public, defending subjects as diverse as naturalism as a worldview, natural explanations of early Christian resurrection accounts, and the morality of abortion. [In public he debated Mike Licona on the Resurrection of Jesus ( [http://www.createspace.com/231347 at UCLA] ); online he debated atheist Jennifer Roth on the morality of abortion ( [http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/debates/secularist/abortion/index.shtml Is There A Secular Case Against Abortion? The Carrier-Roth Debate] 2000). He has also defended naturalism in formal debates with Tom Wanchick and Hassanain Rajabali (see Defense of metaphysical naturalism).] Carrier is also a cited authority on Hitler's "Table Talk". [cite book |first=Richard |last=Steigmann-Gall |title=The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 |year=2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |id=ISBN 0521823714 |pages=page 253]

Defense of metaphysical naturalism

Carrier has defended naturalism as a worldview in his book "Sense and Goodness without God", [cite book |first=Richard |last=Carrier |title=Sense and Goodness without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism |year=2005 |publisher=AuthorHouse |id=ISBN 1420802933] in a formal online debate with Tom Wanchick, [cite web |year=2006 |title=Naturalism vs. Theism: The Carrier-Wanchick Debate |publisher=The Secular Web |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/carrier-wanchick/ |accessdate=2007-10-05] and in a public debate with Hassanain Rajabali. [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2004 |title=The Big Debate: Comments on the Barker-Carrier vs. Corey-Rajabali Team Debate |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/barkercarrier.html |publisher=The Secular Web |accessdate=2007-10-05] Carrier has further defended aspects of naturalism in various articles online. [Catalogued at Richard Carrier's official website [http://www.columbia.edu/~rcc20/naturalism.html Naturalism as a Worldview] .]

Critics and proponents of naturalism have responded to Carrier's philosophy. After briefly assessing Carrier's critique of Mark Steiner's "The Applicability of Mathematics as a Philosophical Problem", for example, Russell Howe, professor of mathematics at the Christian academy of Westmont College, argues that Carrier's line of argument plays into the hands of Steiner, [cite journal |first=Russell W. |last=Howell |title=Does mathematical beauty pose problems for naturalism? |journal=Journal of the ACMS |year=2006 |url=http://www.acmsonline.org/Howell.htm |accessdate=2007-04-11] though Carrier disagrees. [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2007 |title=Our Mathematical Universe |url=http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com/2007/10/our-mathematical-universe.html |format=Blog |date=October 5 |accessdate=2007-10-10] On the other hand, Yonatan Fishman of the Department of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, in a paper published for "Science & Education", quotes and defends Carrier's demarcation between the natural and the supernatural, which allows supernatural claims (when properly formulated) to be investigated scientifically. [cite journal |first= Yonatan |last=Fishman |title=Can Science Test Supernatural Worldviews? |journal=Science and Education |year=2007 |url=http://www.naturalism.org/science.htm#fishman |accessdate=2007-10-05]

On the origins of Christianity

In "The Empty Tomb" (and elsewhere), Carrier argues that the earliest Christians probably believed Jesus had received a new body in the resurrection, and that stories of his old body disappearing from its tomb were developed later. He also argues it is less likely but still possible the original body of Jesus was misplaced or stolen. Christian scholar Stephen Davis published a formal response to Carrier on these points in "Philosophia Christi", to which Carrier has replied online. [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2006 |title=Stephen Davis Gets It Wrong |url=http://theemptytomb.googlepages.com/Carrier--ReplyToDavis.html |publisher=The Empty Tomb: Official Companion Website |accessdate=2007-10-05] Carrier also wrote an online book arguing against the thesis that Christianity would never have succeeded unless sufficient evidence had been available at the time confirming the supernatural resurrection of Jesus. [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2006 |title=Was Christianity Too Improbable to Be False? |publisher=The Secular Web |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/improbable/ |accessdate=2007-10-05] And he is a noted critic of attempts to reconcile the Gospels on the date of the birth of Jesus. [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2006 |title=Luke vs. Matthew on the Year of the Birth |publisher=Errancy Wiki |format=Legends |url=http://www.errancywiki.com/index.php?title=Legends&rcid=41896 |accessdate=2007-10-05] Carrier has also argued for the possibility that Jesus did not historically exist, though he maintains this is only a hypothesis that has not yet been proven.cite news |author=Rahul Kanakia |title=Jesus Never Lived, Speaker Says: Rational Thought Brings Religious Scholar to campus |work=The Stanford Daily |url=http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2006/5/31/jesusNeverLivedSpeakerSays |date=2006-05-31 |accessdate=2007-10-05]

In news and media

Carrier has played an important role in the national atheist community in the United States. 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 now believes in some sort of "minimal God" (as in Deism). Carrier also came away with the opinion that his ideas about the matter are not accurately represented in the book "There is a God". [cite web |first=Richard |last=Carrier |year=2004 |title=Antony Flew Considers God...Sort Of |url=http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=369 |publisher=The Secular Web |accessdate=2007-10-04] Carrier's involvement has received national attention in the Associated Press [cite news |author=Associated Press |title=Leading Atheist Philosopher Concludes God's Real |publisher=FOXNews.com |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,141061,00.html |accessdate=2007-04-11] and "New York Times Magazine". [cite news |author=Mark Oppenheimer |title=The Turning of an Atheist |work=New York Times Magazine |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04Flew-t.html |date=2007-11-04 |pages=36-41] Carrier also 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. ["The End of Faith" ("Faith Under Fire" episode 1, season 1, aired October 2, 2004). Reported by [http://worldnetdaily.com WorldNetDaily.com] (" [http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=40736 Faith Under Fire hits TV screens: PAX series looks at religion, spirituality, morality] "), [http://www.evangelicalnews.org EvangelicalNews.org] (Randall Murphree, " [http://www.evangelicalnews.org/indiv_pr.php?action=display&pr_id=365 Is God Republican Or Democrat? New PAX Series with Lee Strobel Debates Issues] "), and [http://www.iidb.org IIDB.org] ( [http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=100356 Richard Carrier debates William Lane Craig on "Faith Under Fire"] ).] In 2006, "The Stanford Daily" reported on Carrier's presentation of the hypothesis that Jesus was originally mythical at Stanford University. 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 worldview. [cite news |title=Speaker will defend godless worldview |format=LexisNexis reprint |work=The Columbus Dispatch |page=03C |date=2006-12-22 |accessdate=2007-04-13 ] Carrier is also listed in "Who's Who in Hell." [cite book |first=Warren Allen |last=Smith |title=Who's Who in Hell |year=2000 |publisher=Barricade Books |id=ISBN 1569801584 |pages=page 186]

Publications

Selected papers

*"The Guarded Tomb of Jesus and Daniel in the Lion’s Den: An Argument for the Plausibility of Theft." "Journal of Higher Criticism" 8.2 (Fall 2001).
*"Pseudohistory in Jerry Vardaman’s Magic Coins: The Nonsense of Micrographic Letters." "Skeptical Inquirer" 26.2 (March-April 2002) and 26.4 (July-August 2002).
*"The Function of the Historian in Society." "The History Teacher" 35.4 (August 2002).
*"Hitler’s Table Talk: Troubling Finds." "German Studies Review" 26.3 (October 2003).
*"The Argument from Biogenesis: Probabilities Against a Natural Origin of Life." "Biology & Philosophy" 19.5 (November 2004).
*"Whence Christianity? A Meta-Theory for the Origins of Christianity." "Journal of Higher Criticism" 11.1 (Spring 2005).

Books and chapters

*Entries on “Epicurus,” “Lucretius,” “Philodemus,” “Second Sophistic,” “Soranus of Ephesus.” In "Encyclopedia of the Ancient World" (edited by Thomas J. Sienkewicz). Salem Press (2002). ISBN 0893560383.
*“The Spiritual Body of Christ and the Legend of the Empty Tomb,” “The Plausibility of Theft,” “The Burial of Jesus in Light of Jewish Law.” In "The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave" (edited by Robert M. Price and Jeffery Jay Lowder) Prometheus Books (2005) ISBN 1-59102-286-X
*“Abortion Cannot be Regarded as Immoral.” In "The Abortion Controversy" (edited by Lucinda Almond) Greenhaven Press (2007) ISBN 0737732741.

ee also

*Jesus as myth
*Mayflower School
*Metaphysical naturalism
*Resurrection
*Thallus (historian)
*The God Who Wasn't There
*The Jesus Puzzle

References

External links

* [http://www.columbia.edu/~rcc20/ Richard Carrier's homepage] (including a full [http://www.columbia.edu/~rcc20/pubs.pdf list of publications] )
* [http://richardcarrier.blogspot.com Richard Carrier's blog]
* [http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/ Richard Carrier's writings at Internet Infidels]
* [http://www.reprobateshour.com/podpress_trac/web/9/0/show4_carrier.mp3 Richard Carrier discusses Metaphysical Naturalism on The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour]