Raphael Lataster

Raphael Lataster (born 1984) is an Australian author and doctoral student and proponent of the Christ myth theory. He has written and self-published two books on the subject: There Was No Jesus, There Is No God (2013),[1][2][3] and Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists (2015), with Richard Carrier.[4]

Lataster identifies his main research interests as including Philosophy of Religion, Christian origins, logic, Bayesian reasoning, sustainability, and alternative god-concepts such as pantheism and pandeism.[5] Lataster's PhD thesis will analyse arguments for the existence of God by theologians including William Lane Craig and Richard Swinburne.[6]

Lataster passed his Master of Arts (Research), undertaken in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, with Distinction,[6] and has published two academic articles[6] as well as popular journalism pieces (see below).

There Was No Jesus, There Is No God

There Was No Jesus, There Is No God was published on 2 September 2013 using an independent publishing platform[2] and was ranked 10th bestselling book in the Atheism category on Amazon Australia on 5 September.[7] It continued to be ranked in the top twelve as late as 21 July of the following year.[8]The book questions the existence of Jesus,[1] and was positively reviewed by Religious Studies scholars Carole Cusack (one of Lataster's mentors)[9] and professor Chris Hartney. Cusack wrote that, "Lataster re-presents and amplifies the arguments that the fictional dimensions of Jesus are foundational."[3] Hartney wrote that Lataster "does more than most to argue that Jesus did not exist,"[3] and that Lataster "goes through the numerous arguments that demonstrate that the story of Jesus must have taken place" and "does a good job of dismissing all these."[3] A second vanity published book, Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists, was published 12 November 2015, with Richard Carrier.[4]

Other activities

Lataster has debated Christian apologists including Randal Rauser.[10] Rauser deemed the discussion "abortive", complaining of the standards of evidence insisted upon by Lataster, as well as personality differences. Lataster presented a program on the opening day of the 2015 Australian Historical Association Conference, "The Gospel According to Bart: The Folly of Ehrman’ s Hypothetical Sources."[11]

Lataster's December 2014 Washington Post article, Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up,[12] was criticised by New Testament scholar (and former teacher of Lataster) John Dickson. Dickson commented, "As his former lecturer, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Raphael's 1000 words on Jesus would not receive a pass mark in any history class I can imagine, even if it were meant to be a mere "personal reflection" on contemporary Jesus scholarship. Lataster is a better student than his piece suggests. But the rigours of academia in general - and the discipline of history, in particular - demand that his numerous misrepresentations of scholarship would leave a marker little choice but to fail him."[13]

Criticisms

Main article: Historicity of Jesus

Raphael Lataster has received harsh criticisms from other academics in print[14][15][16] and the blogosphere, primarily from Christians, regarding his treatment of historical sources, philosophical approach and debating ability.[17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Notable critics include Christian scholars John Dickson, Oxford theologian Benedikt Paul Göcke, Randal Rauser and others. Lataster has responded to these three: he challenges Dickson to a debate on his website; replied to Göcke several times in the Sophia journal; and notes on his website that Rauser is simply upset that Lataster expected him to make a case for classical theism.

Publications

Books

Articles

References

  1. 1 2 "Forget Santa Claus, Virginia. Was there a Jesus Christ?", by David Gibson, Deseret News, 19 December 2014.
  2. 1 2 There Was No Jesus, There Is No God at Amazon.com.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Christopher Hartney, review, There Was No Jesus, There is No God: A Scholarly Examination of the Scientific, Historical, And Philosophical Evidence and Arguments for Monotheism by Raphael Lataster, Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 5, no. 1 (2014): 171-174.
  4. 1 2 Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists at Amazon.com.
  5. ↑ Amazon.com author bio for Raphael Lataster.
  6. 1 2 3 Current Postgraduate Research Projects, University of Sydney (as of 18 December 2014).
  7. ↑ "Amazon Best Sellers: Atheism". Archived from the original on 5 September 2013.
  8. ↑ "Amazon Best Sellers: Atheism". Archived from the original on 21 July 2014.
  9. ↑ Carole M. Cusack, review of There Was No Jesus, There Is No God: A Scholarly Examination of the Scientific, Historical, and Philosophical Evidence & Arguments For Monotheism, by Raphael Lataster, Literature & Aesthetics 23, no. 2 (2013): 105.
  10. ↑ Randal Rauser, My abortive Nuskeptix conversation with atheist Raphael Lataster, The Tentative Apologist, 8 June 2015.
  11. ↑ 2015 Australian Historical Association Conference.
  12. ↑ Raphael Lataster, Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up, Washington Post - 18 December 2014.
  13. ↑ John Dickson (24 December 2014). "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas ... Mythicism's in the Air". Australian Broadcast Corporation. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  14. ↑ https://www.academia.edu/8507183/Reply_to_Raphael_Latester
  15. ↑ https://www.academia.edu/11013716/Another_Reply_to_Raphael_Lataster
  16. ↑ https://www.scribd.com/document/320169446/Reading-Raphael-Lataster-A-Review-From-a-Bayesian-Perspective
  17. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2014/12/24/4154120.htm
  18. ↑ http://mp3downloadsite.bid/dl/destroying-christ-mythicism-jesus-never-existed-j-p-holding?v=uGyzVlcH0Kc
  19. ↑ https://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/raphael-lataster-in-the-washington-post/
  20. ↑ https://deeperwaters.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/book-plunge-there-was-no-jesus-there-is-no-god/
  21. ↑ https://legiononomamoi.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/raphael-lataster-or-how-scholarship-reached-a-new-low/
  22. ↑ http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/2013/09/raphael-lataster-scholarslip-disaster.html
  23. ↑ http://randalrauser.com/2016/06/the-trent-horn-raphael-lataster-debate/
  24. ↑ Lataster, Raphael (December 2014). "Richard Carrier: On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2014; pp. xiv + 696.". Journal of Religious History. 38 (4): 614–616. doi:10.1111/1467-9809.12219.


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