Jesus Mythicism - A Tippling Philosopher

The myth of Jesus' resurrection

Jesus was crucified, died, and was resurrected this weekend many hundreds of years ago. Oh what joy this brings. To Christians. Except it didn't happen. Well, certainly not the resurrection bit. I'm what I call a "minimal historicist," which is to say I believe

Deconversion

Real Deconversion Story #19 - David N.

Here is another account in my series of real-life deconversion stories. They are often painful, psychological affairs, as you can see from the various accounts. Thank you to David Nicholls here who has provided this personal account. Please consider contributing your own, if you so desire. Please also check out

Biblical Exegesis

What Is the Evidence for Jesus?

I am presently grappling with Jesus mythicism. I am, at present, a historicist in terms of whether Jesus existed or not. My evaluation is somewhat intuitive, believing to the confidence of about two-thirds that a real Jesus existed under all the mythological overlay as opposed to one-third confidence in a

Biblical Exegesis

Quote of the Day: Jesus, the Gospels, Paul and His Letters, and so on...

Here is a comment to get your teeth into from the other day. The article was about the minimal facts thesis concerning the Resurrection accounts of Jesus. They come from commenter BensNewLogin: The following may not be as linear as I would like. Please bear with me. There was a

atonement

Carrier's Mythicism Is a Win-Win

Jesus scholarship is often... “a disguise to do theology and call it history, do autobiography and call it biography, do Christian apologetics and call it academic scholarship.” John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography I've read a lot of Richard Carrier's work, but very little on

Bart Ehrman

Was Jesus a real person who lived and preached in ancient Judaea?

This is a guest post by regular commenter Carstonio. Thanks so much to him for this. Please feel free to submit any guest posts to me as this really helps the blog keep going! Was Jesus a real person who lived and preached in ancient Judaea? Or was he a

Biblical Exegesis

Why Paul Didn’t Write More About Jesus - A Christian Rebuttal

Here is the latest Christian counterpoint piece from John Nelson (a Christian) in an ongoing conversation between an atheist (ex-evangelical, I believe) and a Christian theologian in training. The first and second guest posts (find them here and here) from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional

historical Jesus

Merry Christmas, Everybody...but Who Was this Jesus Fella?

Merry Christmas everybody, depending on what that means to you and yours. You can substitute it with a good ole "Saturnalia" if you'd like, or some other term. Let me take this opportunity to thank you again for hanging out here and making this whole forum

historical Jesus

Why Paul Didn’t Write about the Historical Jesus – an Answer

Here is the first atheistic counterpoint piece from Ed Atkinson in an ongoing conversation between an atheist (ex-evangelical, I believe) and a Christian theologian in training. The first and second guest posts (find them here and here) from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional atheist appearer

Biblical Exegesis

Paul and the Historical Jesus: Continuing the Conversation

Here is the first response in an ongoing conversation between an atheist (ex-evangelical, I believe) and a Christian theologian in training. The first and second guest posts (find them here and here) from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional atheist appearer on Unbelievable on Premier Christian

Biblical Exegesis

Why Paul Didn’t Write about the Historical Jesus

Here is a second guest post (find the first one here) from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional atheist appearer on Unbelievable on Premier Christian Radio in the UK, hosted by Justin Brierley. I will host a dialogue, here for Ed, between Ed and a Christian

Biblical Exegesis

Paul and the Historical Jesus

Here is a guest post from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional appearer on Unbelievable on Premier Christian Radio in the UK, hosted by Justin Brierley. I will host a dialogue, here for Ed, between Ed and a Christian called John Nelson. Join in the debate!

Bart Ehrman

Ehrman vs Licona 2018

I have not watched a debate for ages. I like both these people. My friend said of this: "I enjoyed this. I think Mike Lincona is struggling a bit and has to admit that some bits might not have actually happened but somehow the gospels are still reliable."

Biblical Exegesis

My Views on Jesus Mythicism Revisited

I recently expressed my views on Jesus mythicism and my position was quite robustly critiqued, which is great. I mean, that's why I do this. However, I was only expressing my conclusions rather than giving a full run-down of my analysis. Let me, for those who missed it,

Jesus

Jesus and Mythicism: My Views

I quite often get asked what my views on mythicism are with regard to Jesus. Do I believe that Jesus was a real and existent figure or was he created by third parties such that he is entirely mythological? Mythicism has gained a lot of traction again over the last

Featured ATP

Does Mythicism Matter?

I was reading Kaveh Mousavi's blog today and came across this short piece: Basically, if you’re not a historian, how much does it matter that Jesus and other prophets existed or not? If you’re already an atheist, you already know it’s mostly a myth, so

Featured ATP

Jesus mythicism. My opinion.

I am quite often asked as to whether I am a Jesus mythicist. David Fitzgerald, in that camp, kindly wrote the foreword for my book The Nativity: A Critical Examination, and Derek Murphy, author of Jesus Potter Harry Christ is also a mythicist, and he wrote some blurbs for a

Aaron Adair

The Jesus of History and the Christ of Myth

Aaron Adair, as you well know, has recently written a book which I edited and which is getting rave reviews. Here is a presentation on the historicity of Jesus which he recently gave which looks at the whole broad topic, touching on the Star later in the talk. This is a fascinating talk, though am o

Biblical Exegesis

Richard Carrier on his mythicist theory

Here is a good talk from Richard Carrier as it sets out his thesis from start to finish and it is recent. See what you think. Are you a mythicist? Are you a historicist? Or are you, like me, somewhat agnostic?