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

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

• There Was No Jesus, There Is No God, self-published 2013.
• (with Richard Carrier) Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists, self-published 12 November 2015

Articles

• Bayesian Reasoning: Criticising the ‘Criteria of Authenticity’ and Calling for a Review of Biblical Criticism. Published in the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 2, pp.271-293) - May 2013.
• Is There a Christian Agenda Behind Religious Studies Departments? , January 2013.
• New Atheists and New Theologians. Published in Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (Volume 4, Issue 1) - June 2013.
• Richard Carrier: On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. Journal of Religious History. Volume 38, Issue 4, pages 614–616, December 2014. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12219^[24]
• Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up, Washington Post - 18 December 2014.
• Pantheistic God-Concepts: Ancient, Contemporary, Popular, and Plausible Alternatives to Classical Theism, Literature & Aesthetics (Volume 25, page 65) - 2015.
• Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theories — A Brief Pseudo-Bayesian Metacritique of the Sources - April 2015
• "A Superscientific Definition of ‘Religion’ and a Clarification of Richard Dawkins’ New Atheism", Literature & Aesthetics (Volume 24, Issue 2, pp. 109-124).
• A Philosophical and Historical Analysis of William Lane Craig’s Resurrection of Jesus Argument, Think (Cambridge University, Volume 14, Issue 39, pp. 59-71), Spring 2015, doi:10.1017/S1477175614000219.
• The Attractiveness of Panentheism—a Reply to Benedikt Paul Göcke, Sophia, September 2014, Volume 53, Issue 3, pp 389-395.

References