“Proving History” Shows that Jesus Never Lived on Earth

A look at the “Quest for the historical Jesus” and historian Richard Carrier’s application of Bayes’s Theorem to prove that Jesus almost certainly never existed as a real person.

This is a presentation, with handouts, given in April 2015 at the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver, as well as earlier for Atheist Friends in Wonderment.

Mythical Jesus, Powerpoint presentation in PDF format.

Bayes Theorem for “Proving History” by Richard Carrier (the equation, defined), PDF.

Pagan Parallels to Jesus – the extremely close parallels between Jesus and earlier pagan gods and figures, from which the fictional Jesus was derived.

Summary of Background Knowledge, and Chapter Summary – Elements that go into the calculation, and a synopsis of each chapter in On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubts, by Richard Carrier. PDF.

New Testament Books – Estimated dates of authorship, PDF.