Episode 233 – Dr. Richard Carrier and Dr. Robert M. Price

Today on Strange Frequencies Radio we broached a pretty controversial topic in religious and historical circles – that on the historicity of Jesus with guests Dr. Carrier and Dr. Price.  But before we got to that, we first had to brag about how many download’s last week’s show got all thanks to a single tweet by “End of Faith” author Sam Harris.  So, uh, yeah…thanks, Sam!

From here we moved on to what can only be described as “crazy bullshit.”  Sherry Shriner, who we love having on the show even if we seldom agree with her, recently posted a link that purported that the Center for Disease Control has confirmed a real-life zombie virus.  Korbus recounts his comments and the replies from Sherry and her followers and I think we paint a pretty clear picture that they have no idea what they’re talking about on this issue.

Over the weekend, we attended a pro-wrestling event at a church hall here in Toledo and discuss the entertaining aspects of it as well as the parts we didn’t like.  Bobby and Korby argue about what is real and what isn’t real about pro-wrestling and basically say that we’ll be back at the next Universal All Pro Wrestling show at the same church hall next month.

Somewhere along the line, we get into Bobby’s daughters 4th birthday party.  I don’t know how our conversations lead to topics like this, but they do.  Hope you enjoy it.

Our first guest of the day was Dr. Richard Carrier, an ancient history scholar who specializes in the history of ancient Greece and Rome.  His newest book is called “Proving History:  Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus.”  He talked about how much historians get the Jesus question wrong because they’re relying on improper methods to get closer to the truth.  Carrier discusses the solution of using Bayes’s Theorem and how it works.  Plus, what is the deal between he and Bart Ehrman?  We also get into his ideas about how much we can really know about Jesus, how much of the Jesus story is based on myth and legend and what it would mean for the future of Christianity if he is right and Jesus never existed.  Fascinating and fun interview.

Our next guest was Dr. Robert M. Price, a self proclaimed “Bible Geek” who specializes in the New Testament.  Dr. Price is actually a former man of faith himself and was the pastor of his own church.  He talks about the events that led him away from that life being more philosophical than historical.  But then we got into the meat of the discussion and delved into the historicity itself.  Price runs down a list of the many pagan gods whose story parallels the stories later attributed to Jesus and even breaks down much of the contradictory and confusing elements of different stories and asks why they are in the Bible at all.  Price also goes into the James Ossuary and why he is certain it involved a modern day forgery, jumps into the Da Vinci code a bit and also gives his answer as to what would happen to the future of Christianity if it is true that Jesus did not exist.  Another great discussion with a guy whose very voice we just can’t get enough of.

All in all, we enjoyed doing this show and hope you enjoyed listening  This was by no means a “gotcha” episode for Christians, nor is it the end of the discussion.  As hosts, we aim to continually challenge our own thoughts and beliefs and look forward to having guests in the future who believe in the historicity of Jesus to provide balance to this particular show.  We hope you’ll join us.

http://www.strangefrequenciesradio.net/Shows/sfr_show233_full.mp3