Skip to main content

CFI UK: Upcoming event with Richard Carrier (on Historical Jesus etc.)

This should be a really interesting talk (organized by myself for CFI UK) from one of the world's leading skeptics. He is the author of a controversial new book on the quest for the historical Jesus. Hope to see some of you there...

Richard Carrier: Bayes' Theorem and Historical Reasoning: How Historical Methods Can Be Improved and Why They Need to Be

16th November 2012

Stamford Street Lecture Theatre
7.30pm - 9pm (7.00pm registration)




Drawing from his new book Proving History: Bayes's Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus (Prometheus, 2012), Dr. Carrier will explain what Bayes' Theorem is (in terms anyone can understand), how it underlies all valid historical methods even when we don't realize it, and why knowing this can improve historical reasoning and argument in all fields of history.

£7 - General
£5 - Students / BHA members
Free - "Friends of CFI"(and LAAG)

Venue

Stamford Street Lecture Theatre
Franklin Wilkins Building
Waterloo Campus
King’s College London
127 Stamford Street
London
SE1 9NQ
Nearest tube: Waterloo

19.00 for a 19.30 start

About the speaker

Richard Carrier is an American historian and philosopher and author of several books which have received international attention, including The Empty Tomb and Why I am Not a Christian. Richard now specializes in the modern philosophy of naturalism, the origins of Christianity, and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome. Richard also writes for and was Editor in Chief of the Secular Web (Internet Infidels).
http://www.richardcarrier.info

Comments

Dave said…
I have booked a ticket via the BHA website, but no date given on the ticket!
October 7, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Stephen Law said…
hmm. well I don;t doubt we'll be told v shortly...!
October 7, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Unknown said…
He was just here in Sac town and the dude is awesome. Although, i thought he coulda been nicer to Erhamnn latest book. Whatevahhhhh,

Kriss
October 7, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Jonathan MS Pearce said…
ooh, could be a goer. Nice work, Stephen.
October 7, 2012 at 8:21 PM
CC said…
My only encounter with Carrier was his amazingly demented blog post about Atheism+. (http://freethoughtblogs.com/carrier/archives/2207/
) and his follow up "clarification"
(http://freethoughtblogs.com/carrier/archives/2412/)

He was so self-righteous and irrational, not to mention plainly stupid and often dishonest, that I find it difficult to believe that this breathtakingly egotistical fool could be worth listening to on any subject.
October 8, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Dave said…
The date change to the 16th has been confirmed by the BHA.
Anyone fancy meeting up for a social drink before the event?
October 8, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Kate Joslin said…
So the 16th of November is now the fixed date. I see tickets are still available but it'll have to be a firm 'maybe' from me for now..
October 15, 2012 at 4:30 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS

(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen...
159 comments
Read more

The Evil God Challenge and the "classical" theist's response

On another blog, FideCogitActio, some theists of a "classical" stripe (that's to say, like Brian Davies, Edward Feser) are criticisng the Evil God Challenge (or I suppose, trying to show how it can be met, or sidestepped). The main post includes this: In book I, chapter 39 , Aquinas argues that “there cannot be evil in God” (in Deo non potest esse malum). Atheists like Law must face the fact that, if the words are to retain any sense, “God” simply cannot be “evil”. As my comments in the thread at Feser’s blog aimed to show, despite how much he mocks “the privation theory of evil,” Law himself cannot escape its logic: his entire argument requires that the world ought to appear less evil if it is to be taken as evidence of a good God. Even though he spurns the idea that evil is a privation of good, his account of an evil world is parasitic on a good ideal; this is no surprise, though, since all evil is parasitic on good ( SCG I, 11 ). Based on the conclusions of se...
446 comments
Read more

Sye show continues

I was sent a link to this , for those interested in the never ending saga of Sye TenBruggencate and his "proof" of the existence of God. Hit "sinner ministries' proof of the existence of god" link below or on side bar for 30+ earlier posts on this topic that I wrote during an extended interchange with him last summer (check the literally many hundreds of comments attached to these posts if you really want to get into how Sye thinks and argues). Sye's amazing intial "proof" is available here . PS. For those interested, my own "presuppositional" proof, parodying Sye's proof by his principle "the impossibility of the contrary" (which turns out to be the key to Sye's proof) is: My claim: Sye's mind is addled and his thinking unreliable because he was hit on the head by a rock. Prove this is false, Sye. Try to, and I will say - "But your "proof" presupposes your mind is not addled and you can recognise a pr...
250 comments
Read more