lpetrich
Contributor
Richard Carrier is working on a new book explaining Jesus mythicism: Jesus from Outer Space! The Price Review • Richard Carrier
Its full title: "Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ"
(Earth), Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars
The Earth and the celestial realm have different constituents. The Earth: earth, water, air, fire. The celestial realm: aether
The chapters:
Its full title: "Jesus from Outer Space: What the Earliest Christians Really Believed about Christ"
RC proposes that it is a good starter text for anyone interested in Jesus mythicism.Outer Space pares down the argument of my extensive peer reviewed monograph On the Historicity of Jesus from nearly 700 pages to about 200. No footnotes, no digressions, minimal citations (it includes a page-by-page concordance to OHJ where you will find all of those things). And no math (or rather, no obvious math—it’s actually all there, but now hidden behind colloquial English). It also sticks to only the essential arguments and facts, so anyone reading it can’t resort so easily to the fallacy of “arguing against a minor point not even relevant to the conclusion” and claiming to have refuted its thesis (an otherwise common practice among critics).
JFOS also re-frames and expands some of those key arguments for a mythical Jesus in ways that more clearly explain them, and more clearly show why they are hard to rebut, and that more decisively refute what have become “the usual rebuttals,” which tend to be misinformed and illogical. ...
Just outside of Saturn's orbit? That's from Ptolemy's cosmology. The celestial bodies reside on spheres that surround the Earth, in this order outward:New material includes a clear explanation, right out of the gate, of why this book’s “shocking” title is actually not anachronistic or contentious, but in fact entirely, contextually accurate—even if Jesus existed. That’s right. Even historicists must concede the first Christians believed Jesus was what they would then call an extraterrestrial. He did not come from “heaven” as an alternative dimension, in the way modern Christians believe. He literally came from outer space. As “heaven” then meant exactly that. As a preexistent being, Jesus lived among the stars, just beyond the orbit of Saturn. Until he descended—either to enter Mary’s womb (as historicists maintain the first Christians believed), or to enter a sublunar body-suit in the realm of Satan and his Legion (as the most defensible alternative maintains)—and then to be killed and rise from the dead, and return, literally, to the farthest reaches of outer space, to communicate with earthlings below in their dreams and visions.
This is actually a mainstream consensus view. The only thing I’ve changed is that I’ve put it in plain English, rather than hiding it behind esoteric vocabulary and prolix phrasing. The rest of the book takes the same approach.
(Earth), Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars
The Earth and the celestial realm have different constituents. The Earth: earth, water, air, fire. The celestial realm: aether
The chapters:
- Which Jesus Are We Talking about Exactly?
- There Is a Good Chance Jesus Never Existed
- A Plausible Jesus Is Not Necessarily a Probable Jesus
- All the Historians on a Single Postcard
- But Isn’t Jesus as Attested as Any Other Famous Dude?
- More Like All the Other Dying-and-Rising Savior Gods of Yore
- How Did Christianity Switch to a Historical Jesus?
- The Cosmic Seed of David?
- The Peculiar Cult of the Brothers of the Lord