E-mails like this make it all worthwhile
Mar 21, 2014 11:00:13 GMT
jamierobertson, merkavah12, and 3 more like this
Post by timoneill on Mar 21, 2014 11:00:13 GMT
I received this e-mail from a reader of my blog today:
Just a quick note to say how much I appreciate your blog. I recently discovered your site, and I’ve spent many, many hours over the past few days catching up.
I’m an engineer by training, but fascinated with history and religion. Although American by birth, I’m a long time atheist. A year or so ago I stumbled upon the Earl Doherty book and became fascinated by the Jesus Myth theory. That lead me to Carrier, read his books, watched many of his YouTube videos. I really started to drink the kool-aid there, but something just didn’t seem right to me. But it was hard to say exactly what. Sure, Carrier was quite arrogant, but whatever, I just assumed he was the bad boy of religious scholarship. Telling the hard truths that the conservative establishment didn’t want to hear...
But thanks to you, I’ve realized that a similar dogmatism that I abhor in religious fundamentalists was at the core of his work. He was starting with a premise that he so wants to be true, and fitting all of the data into that premise. Your discussion of the Josephus interpolation passages was particularly enlightening, in light of Carrier’s approach to his work. This unwarranted certainty is exactly what had been bothering me about Carrier for some time, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Or I didn’t want to see it, as it would seriously undermine the credibility of his work.
And I was guilty, too, of wanting to believe that Jesus never existed. It’s so radical, so provocative, such a great story! In your face, Christians!! But that doesn’t make it true...
So anyway, thanks for getting me back on track...
As a bonus, I’m now more interested in Mediaeval science, as well.
I’m hoping you publish something soon. Would welcome the chance to support your work and learn more.
That makes all the effort worth it.
Just a quick note to say how much I appreciate your blog. I recently discovered your site, and I’ve spent many, many hours over the past few days catching up.
I’m an engineer by training, but fascinated with history and religion. Although American by birth, I’m a long time atheist. A year or so ago I stumbled upon the Earl Doherty book and became fascinated by the Jesus Myth theory. That lead me to Carrier, read his books, watched many of his YouTube videos. I really started to drink the kool-aid there, but something just didn’t seem right to me. But it was hard to say exactly what. Sure, Carrier was quite arrogant, but whatever, I just assumed he was the bad boy of religious scholarship. Telling the hard truths that the conservative establishment didn’t want to hear...
But thanks to you, I’ve realized that a similar dogmatism that I abhor in religious fundamentalists was at the core of his work. He was starting with a premise that he so wants to be true, and fitting all of the data into that premise. Your discussion of the Josephus interpolation passages was particularly enlightening, in light of Carrier’s approach to his work. This unwarranted certainty is exactly what had been bothering me about Carrier for some time, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Or I didn’t want to see it, as it would seriously undermine the credibility of his work.
And I was guilty, too, of wanting to believe that Jesus never existed. It’s so radical, so provocative, such a great story! In your face, Christians!! But that doesn’t make it true...
So anyway, thanks for getting me back on track...
As a bonus, I’m now more interested in Mediaeval science, as well.
I’m hoping you publish something soon. Would welcome the chance to support your work and learn more.
That makes all the effort worth it.
