Four Reasons to Believe in Jesus: A Reply to Richard Carrier
by Trent Horn
Filed under Historicity

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today ends our four-part series on the historical evidence for Jesus. Popular atheist writer Richard Carrier began Monday with an article titled "Questioning the Historicity of Jesus". On Tuesday, Catholic writer Jimmy Akin responded with his piece, "Jesus Did Exist". Next, Richard offered a post titled “Defending Mythicism: A New Approach to Christian Origins". Finally today, Trent Horn provides a rejoinder. I’d like to thank Dr. Carrier for responding to my... Read More
Defending Mythicism: A New Approach to Christian Origins
by Dr. Richard Carrier
Filed under Historicity

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today continues our four-part series on the historical evidence for Jesus. Popular atheist writer Richard Carrier began Monday with an article titled "Questioning the Historicity of Jesus". Yesterday, Catholic writer Jimmy Akin responded with his piece, "Jesus Did Exist". Today, Richard offers his take on “Four Reasons I Think Jesus Really Existed" by Trent Horn. Finally tomorrow, Trent will provide a rejoinder. Strange Notions has featured two articles defending... Read More
Jesus Did Exist: A Response to Richard Carrier
by Jimmy Akin
Filed under Historicity

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today we continue our four-part series concerning the historical evidence for Jesus. Popular atheist writer Richard Carrier, probably the world's best known Mythicist, began yesterday with his article "Questioning the Historicity of Jesus". Today, Catholic writer Jimmy Akin responds. Tomorrow, Richard will offer his take on “Four Reasons I Think Jesus Really Existed" by Trent Horn. Finally, on Thursday, Trent will wrap up the series with a rejoinder. I would like... Read More
Questioning the Historicity of Jesus
by Dr. Richard Carrier
Filed under Historicity

EDITOR'S NOTE: Today kicks off a four-part series concerning the historical evidence for Jesus. Popular atheist writer Richard Carrier, probably the world's best known Mythicist, begins with his response to our previous article titled “Did Jesus Exist? An Alternate Approach”. Tomorrow, Catholic writer Jimmy Akin will respond. On Wednesday, Richard will offer his take on “Four Reasons I Think Jesus Really Existed" by Trent Horn. Finally, on Thursday, Trent will wrap up the series... Read More
Did Jesus Exist? An Alternate Approach
by Jimmy Akin
Filed under Historicity, Jesus

Did Jesus exist? Discussions of this subject often begin by looking at references to Jesus in early Christian sources. Either that or they look for references to Jesus in early non-Christian sources. But there’s another way of looking at the question that is often ignored . . . The Standard Approach Jesus is obviously mentioned in early Christian sources, such as the gospels, the other writings of the New Testament, and the works of the early Church fathers. Because these are Christian... Read More
Exploding the Mithras Myth
by Jon Sorensen
Filed under Historicity

In an effort to cast doubt on Christianity, skeptics will attempt to point out parallels between the beliefs and practices of Christians to those of the Roman cult of Mithras. In this article we will examine the most commonly encountered parallels and answer their claims. Lists of parallels can be found in skeptic literature or by searching the Internet and they usually appear as follows: Mithras preceded Christianity by roughly 600 years. Mithras was born on December 25. He was considered... Read More
Foolishness!
by Stephen Bullivant
Filed under Atheism, Jesus

In the Bible, Psalms 14 and 53 both open with the statement: “Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’” Whatever this may tell us about unbelief in ancient Hebrew society, today it is not only, or predominantly, fools who are saying this. And they do not restrict their utterances to their hearts alone. Especially in the United States and Europe—the historic heart of “Christendom”—there are large (and growing) numbers of intelligent, educated, reasonable people... Read More
Four Reasons I Think Jesus Really Existed
by Trent Horn
Filed under Historicity

A small handful of scholars today, and a much larger group of Internet commenters, maintain that Jesus never existed. Proponents of this position, known as mythicists, claim that Jesus is a purely mythical figure invented by the writers of the New Testament (or its later copyists.) In this post I’ll offer the top four reasons (from weakest to strongest) that convince me Jesus of Nazareth was a real person without relying on the Gospel accounts of his life. 4. It is the mainstream position... Read More
Horus Manure: Debunking the Jesus/Horus Connection
by Jon Sorensen
Filed under Historicity

Many atheists, neo-pagans, and other disbelievers of Christianity claim the story of Jesus Christ was borrowed from earlier mythologies. In recent years, a claim has been making the rounds that Jesus is based on the Egyptian god, Horus. Who was Horus? Horus is one of the oldest recorded deities in the ancient Egyptian religion. Often depicted as a falcon or a man with a falcon head, Horus was believed to be the god of the sun and of war. Initially he appeared as a local god, but over time... Read More
No Naysayers at NASA: Responding to Bob Seidensticker
by Fr. Dwight Longenecker
Filed under Historicity

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post from Fr. Dwight Longenecker is in response to atheist Bob Seidensticker's post yesterday titled 10 Reasons to Just Say Nay to the Naysayer Hypothesis. Atheist Bob Seidensticker has a quip at the bottom of yesterday's blog post which reads, “If a million people say a foolish thing it is still a foolish thing.” I couldn’t agree more, and we should remember this as we read the rest of his post. His basic argument is this: “Apologists tell us... Read More