(Part 3) Blogging Through Richard Carrier’s new book “The Obsolete Paradigm of a Historical Jesus (2025)”
This chapter is The Inadequacy of Critical Responses So Far. In this chapter Carrier responds to some of the responses to his work. In general, he concludes:
The most typical maneuvers are to (1) misstate an argument and rebut that, rather than any actual argument in either study; or to (2) restate the evidence or argument already rebutted in either study, as if merely repeating a refuted argument can restore it (rather than actually restoring it by responding to its rebuttal); or to (3) simply ignore essential arguments altogether, pretending they don’t exist and thus require no response. Occasionally these tactics are combined with (4) professional dishonesty—making or implying false statements of fact—or (5) traditional apologetics: specious or fallacious rhetoric designed to make a position sound as though it has been defended when in fact it has not.
The reader can easily skim the chapter looking for words like lying or dishonesty to see this is a significant concern for Carrier.


