ObamaCare

Many have asked me my opinion of the health care bills that have now come to fruition and will probably be negotiated to a complete bill for the President to sign within a week. What better topic for Christmas blogging than the health and well being of our fellow citizens?

Though the critics derisively call this effort ObamaCare (hence my title), the truth is Obama has explicitly had little to

Interview for Arabic Freethinkers

A group of UK freethinkers who maintain an Arabic website interviewed me a few months ago. That interview is now online. See tabee3i Interview with Dr. Richard Carrier. In it I discuss (counter-intuitively) why naturalism is a stronger position than mere atheism, how I think closet atheists and doubters under oppressive Islamic regimes should cope with their situation (and how godless parents

Res Gestae Obamae

It's been nearly a year and the common opinion is that President Obama has gotten little done and failed to deliver on any of his promises. Of course it's unrealistic to expect he would in only a year. It took Bush eight years to right and fully screw this country over inside and out. So we should wait for at least Obama's second State of the Union address before assessing him as a president. He

Rosenberg on Naturalism

In my previous post I discussed my involvement as a commentator on a recent provocative article by Alex Rosenberg (see Rosenberg on History). At the time I had been asked to cut my word count by moving my discussion of Rosenberg's strange take on history as a science to my blog (which you can find in that previous entry, linked above). It was subsequently decided that my remaining word count is

Rosenberg on History

I was invited by Gary Comstock to comment on philosopher Alex Rosenberg's interesting and provocative article on the implications of naturalism, "The Disenchanted Naturalist’s Guide to Reality," at OnTheHuman.org.

I stated eight objections as an invited commentator at that site, but due to word limits I was unable to post my ninth and final objection, which pertained to Alex's take on history

Vids, Letter, Article

First, I still haven't seen The Nature of Existence, but it's supporting website now has extras on it, including a few extended bits I suppose were not included in the final film, some of which include material from Nygard's interview with me (sprinkled in amidst material from other interviews). Use the the film website's People link (or click here), and wait fifty years for the page to load,

Skepticon 2

Last year I spoke at Missouri State University (in Springfield) alongside P.Z. Myers, for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, on science, religion, and morality (video of the whole event is available on YouTube). They weren't sure if they could make it an annual event, but lo and behold, they exceeded their wildest dreams. Now Skepticon 2 is on for Friday and Saturday, November 20 and 21

Appearing in Arizona (II)

On Sunday 8 November (2009) I'll be appearing in Scottsdale, Arizona (near Phoenix) for the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, in a special banquet room at HomeTown Buffet (on 1312 N. Scottsdale Road). Breakfast begins at 9am, introductions around 9:45am, then my talk and Q&A (and book sale and signing) will run to 11:30am or so. The event is on the HSGP calendar, but you'll get more of a

Appearing in Sacramento (II)

Last year I promised to make several appearances around the country, and now these are all coming to fruition. I blogged the SFSU event last week. This week I'll be blogging several more.

Tuesday, October 20 (2009), I'll be appearing in Sacramento (California), at 191 Lathrop Way, Suite D, for the Sacramento Freethinkers, Atheists and Nonbelievers (FAN). For directions see the website of the

Appearing at SFSU

Students at San Francisco State University want me to give a talk and take questions on the subject of mathematics and god, from the perspective of physics and naturalism. It's been quite a long time in the making, but we've arranged an event for Tuesday, 29 September (2009), 4-6pm. The talk is sponsored by the SFSU Department of Philosophy and by the Philosophy of Religion Society. It's free and

OEN Interview

Ben Dench at the liberal-progressive OEN (OpEdNews) web news service conducted and published an extended interview of me on a variety of topics. It's now available online. We discuss the future of Christianity, the role of secularism in improving society, my beefs with professional philosophy, and my proposal that a lottery for congress would be superior to the current election process. And a few

The Growl Tomorrow

Just a quick notice: at 11pm EST (8pm PCT) tomorrow (Thursday, August 27, 2009), Missouri State's student run internet station, The Growl, will be having a conversation with me on a variety of topics, including the new chapters I prepared for an upcoming anthology by John Loftus (one of those agreements I made years ago that finally came due, I'll blog it when it hits the presses next year), and

Does Free Will Matter?

In his thoughtful reply to my recent review of his book Encountering Naturalism, Tom Clark narrowed the differences between us on how naturalism changes the way we should think. We agree on even more than I suspected. But important differences remain, and one is so important it warrants an entire blog of its own.In Sense and Goodness without God I make a point of the fact that what people say

Clark's Naturalism

Last year I read two important books about metaphysical naturalism, which are very different from each other. I'll review the first today, Thomas Clark's brief summary (only 101 pages) of the naturalist worldview, in aid of his website and institute devoted to the subject, the Center for Naturalism (which has been much updated of late, and now has a rather elegant look and a great collection of

Stark on Ancient Science

Last year I recorded a new lengthy interview for the Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour on Rodney Stark's disastrously awful treatment of ancient science. Dan the Demented cut the show into three parts, the third on other topics, but the first two on Stark. Those two episodes are now up and available, on the PRH website and as podcasts. You can listen to them here: [Season 3 Episode 3] [Season 3

Appearing in LA

I will be giving yet another reprise of my talk on Not the Impossible Faith in Los Angeles (California) this August 2 (2009) for CFI West (4773 Hollywood Blvd.), at 11am on Sunday. This is part of their Feed Your Brain program. Free to Friends of the Center, $8 admission for everyone else. I will be selling and signing books afterward (where you'll get a better deal on NIF than online). For a

Weisz Is Hypatia

The absurdly beautiful Rachel Weisz is playing the famous atheist and feminist icon, the late 4th century pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, in the epic film Agora by Alejandro Amenábar, which is projected to release in December, just before Christmas. According to Rueters, the film sounds like an interesting pro-atheist myth, exaggerating certain realities to convey a pro-science message

Are We Doomed?

In a past thread I've been having a lengthy and interesting discussion with a neopagan about the nature of Taoism, paganism, and supernaturalism. In the course of which, the issue of humanity's future came up. Much was said, but it eventually boiled down to this: some think I and many other atheists are too optimistic about the future. I made the point that the past three hundred years have

Richard Carrier Recommends

Amazon has a new program that allows associates to build their own mini-storefronts to promote their favorite books and videos. We get a commission on everything sold there, even stuff you add to the shopping cart from your own wishlist while you're there, or the Amazon automated and listmania recommendations that pop up. I've updated my Support page to explain this and more.

To check out my

Camp Quest West

I'll be appearing at Camp Quest West this year. For those who haven't heard of it, Camp Quest is a national organization that endeavors to reproduce all the great trappings of Church Camp for atheists, providing a place godless kids can spend a week in the wild, learning stuff, having fun, gobbling early morning flapjacks, roasting strange things over a campfire, putting on silly skits, staying

Appearing in Sacramento

I will be giving yet another reprise of my talk on Not the Impossible Faith in Sacramento (California) this June 14 (2009) for Atheists and Other Freethinkers. This will be their usual meeting time and place, Sunday 1pm to 4pm in Room 10 at the Sierra 2 Community Center, 2791 24th Street, just south of Broadway (see map). Parking is available on the street or in the rear (off 4th Avenue). It's

Appearing in San Francisco

The San Francisco Atheists have asked me to give an encore presentation of my discussion of J.P. Holding and my book Not the Impossible Faith in San Francisco (California). This will be in the banquet room at Schroeder's (240 Front Street, when you walk in just head all the way to the back room) on the Saturday of May 30 (2009) at 6pm. It's open to the public, but you will be expected to buy a

Statistics & Biogenesis

Today, critics compel me to compose a long and dull commentary on probability and biogenesis, which will nevertheless be terrifyingly important to some people. The rest of you can skip all the way down to the last section marked "conclusion" and just read that. Everyone else, bear with me. In Sense and Goodness without God I briefly summarized the conclusion and justification for a naturalist

Infidel Guy Casuale

On Thursday April 30 (2009) at 5pm PST (8pm EST) I will be the guest on The Infidel Guy (a godless internet radio show, for those not in the know), for about an hour. It will be by phonecon, which I hate, but it will be casual and informal, and topical. We might wander over many subjects, but the big three will be my thoughts on The Jesus Project, my recent debate with William Lane Craig, and my

Appearing in Berkeley

On Sunday April 19 (2009) I will speak for the East Bay Atheists at the Berkeley Public Library (Central Library, 3rd Floor Meeting Room, 2090 Kittredge St., just a block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station along Shattuck) in California (obviously) from 1:30 to 3:30pm (that includes introductions and Q&A and everything else). The subject will be Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn

Musica Hauntica Nostalgica

Welcome to the fourth installment of my occasional blogging on music (to follow the trail back to the others, and the philosophy behind all this, start with More Music of Late). I figured it was time. Since my last post, my music library has grown by over a hundred tunes. Here's a survey of the best finds in the lot...The Black Angels. Haunting. Dark. Eerily groovy. Kind of like a 21st century

The God Who Wasn't There

As many know I was interviewed for the film The God Who Wasn't There, which came out years ago and includes an extended version of my interview in the DVD extras. When I finally got to see the film, I privately circulated (eventually to journalists, academics, colleagues and others) a brief white paper on potential errors in it (only regarding the first third regarding ancient history, as that's

Craig Debate Wrap

The Carrier-Craig resurrection debate went down the night before last. I'm finally home and rested. Here's just a quick report on what went down.As I had predicted, I didn't win the debate. As I said before the debate in comments to the previous post on this, "it always takes twice as much time to rebut an assertion as to make one, so the fact that both parties have equal time all but entails the

The Nature of Existence

I'm going to be in another movie. Sort of.I first became acquainted with Roger Nygard from his films Trekkies and Trekkies 2. Trekkies was superb--funny, informative, moving, yet with a real love of his subject. Trek fans only come off looking as silly as they actually are, and it's all humor in good fun (with an underlying message of humanism that's actually very Trekkie itself). Watching the

Not the Impossible Faith

I am still writing On the Historicity of Jesus Christ. But to save space there, I found I often needed to cite an online book I wrote some years ago, which is easier to do when there are page numbers. So I went ahead and produced a Lulu print edition. I just received sales stock today, so I will be selling it at my events in March after all, as I've hinted was possible. Though it is not yet

Appearing in Ventura

Atheists United, who is sponsoring my work On the Historicity of Jesus Christ (in progress), will be hosting a preview of my La Verne talk (Monday March 9) in Ventura, California, the previous day (Sunday March 8), followed by a cocktail fundraiser for Atheists United (at a different location). This will make my talk reachable by people too far from La Verne to make that trip, and it'll give my

W.L. Craig Debate

All the details have been settled at last: I will debate William Lane Craig on the Resurrection of Jesus at the Mary Linn Performing Arts Center on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri the night of Wednesday March 18 (2009) at 7pm (on the corner of College Ave. and College Park Dr).The event is being sponsored by the campus Philosophy Club. Admission will be

Amherst Conference

In my previous blog about The Jesus Project I promised a two-parter, the first on the Project in general, the next on December's conference specifically (it's been more than a week, I know, but a lot's being going on of late). This time my remarks will be rather long, as quite a lot went on, spanning the whole weekend. But all this was newsworthy, IMO.

In general the conference revealed some

Appearing at La Verne

I will be speaking on the historicity of Jesus at the University of La Verne in southern California in the Founders Hall Auditorium, which is next to the La Fetra Auditorium (1950 3rd St. in La Verne, California) the night of Monday, March 9 (7pm) 2009, for the campus Religion & Philosophy Club, aka The Most Greatest Club Ever. It's free and open to the public, and afterwards I'll be signing and