Raphael Lataster - there was no Jesus, there is no God

It is not my job, intention, or desire to prove atheism true, whatever that means. It is not my job to disprove Christianity or any other religion. It is not my intention to destroy the faith of the faithful; nor do I desire to offend or upset believers in any way. As a scholar working in the academic field of Studies in Religion who specialises in the arguments for Gods existence and who makes every effort to engage with the public, it is my job to examine the evidence/arguments presented by various religious apologists and to share my analyses with all those who care to hear it, in a concise, jargon-free and accessible format.

Though this book, like most of my scholarly work, will basically justify scepticism, and point to the humility and eventual unity that sceptical attitudes encourage, my personal position (which is irrelevant) is unique as I am an atheist who is rooting for God. I would prefer the existence of a loving god, with or without the involvement of a peace-preaching, long-haired wearing, joy-bringing, water-walking, wise prophet. I would actually find it great if such peace-loving figures existed, and would hope that more would follow. It would be particularly convenient given that many of my relatives, friends, and fellow volunteer workers are Christians, Buddhists, Pantheists, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, and miscellaneous. But this book is not about our wants, or the is religion good or bad for society question; it is simply about the evidence. Like many people, I just want to know if particular religious claims are true. And the truth is not a democracy, and certainly does not care about our feelings.

Much can be said about the role evidence plays in religion. Many of my scholarly colleagues (even those who are atheists) would consider this sort of work to be vulgar, as they recognise the diversities of religions, and that orthopraxy (referring to practice or action) is often far more important than orthodoxy (correct belief). This may be the case, but this book is concerned with the evidence , and is clearly not intended as a broad attack on religion in general. Many of my fellow scholars would also roll their eyes at issues that have already been resolved in their minds (though clearly not to an increasing number of new Evangelical scholars, and the general population), preferring instead to work with the subtleties and nuances of poetic and allegorical Biblical truths. Whatever that means. Thats great, but very much out of touch with Jane and Joe Public, who might just want to know if it is true or not. Needless to say, there are religious believers who do claim to know the truth. They find the evidence crucial to their religious views. And this book concerns itself with such evidence.

Please note that the title of this book is intended to be somewhat ironic. We sceptics cannot prove a negative, whether it be the non-existence of Jesus, God, leprechauns, dragons, etc. Nor do we have to. All we need do, if anything at all, is carefully consider the evidence and arguments for the positive claim, and make rational decisions from there. For example, if I am faced with clear evidence for a particular Gods existence, I would convert. Going further, sceptics can actually produce arguments that more assertively oppose the claim (not that they have to), if not entirely disproving them; some of these will be discussed, though the focus of this book is the inadequacy of the evidence for the positive claims.

In Part I, the focus will be on Jesus. I will discuss the differing interpretations of Jesus (for example the divine, Biblical Jesus, and the non-divine and non-miraculous Historical Jesus), the problems with the methods/scholars involved, and the problems presented with the sources used to establish Jesus existence. It will become clear that the sources are so poor, that they cannot possibly constitute good evidence for the existence of the Biblical Jesus, and may even give us reason to doubt that any sort of Jesus existed at all.

In Part II, the focus shifts to God. We shall consider the ways in which a gods existence could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and we shall then examine such evidence/arguments. Many different issues will be discussed here, such as the plausibility of monotheism, and ultimately, the key issue of Part I will be explained as the most relevant point of all. Rare is the religious believer who wishes to prove the existence of merely some God. They wish to argue for their specific God. With Christianity at least, any evidence/arguments for the existence of a specific God tend to revolve around Jesus.

This book will undoubtedly touch on beliefs that many people hold dear to their hearts. The conclusions of this book could prove upsetting. I cannot stress enough that the intent is not to cause grief or to eliminate religion. I support peoples rights to believe in whatever they feel they need to believe in, in order to successfully navigate their often complicated lives. But this is a book about the evidence, and we shall be examining religious evidentialists claims critically.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the various scholars who have so generously offered me their support and encouragement during the creation of this book, and the masters dissertation and peer-reviewed journals articles that preceded and formed the basis of it. To Rod Blackhirst, Hector Avalos, Robert M. Price, Richard Carrier, Graham Oppy, Peter Slezak, David Nicholls, and Herman Philipse, I offer my heartfelt thanks and appreciation. Most of all, I wish to thank my mentor, Carole M. Cusack, whose support made this venture possible, and enabled me to fulfil my dream of working in the public service. May she never thirst.

About the author

A former fundamentalist Christian, Raphael Lataster is a professionally secular PhD researcher (Studies in Religion) at the University of Sydney. His main research interests include philosophy of religion, sociology of religion, Christian origins, logic, epistemology, Bayesian reasoning, justifications and social impacts of atheism, Taoism, overpopulation and sustainability concerns, pantheism, and pandeism. Being passionate about education, Raphael hopes to eventually teach in Religious Studies and possibly Philosophy (critical thinking and philosophy of religion), and also to make every effort to engage with the public, through popular books, speaking engagements, public debates and websites. His other interests include rock-climbing and volunteering with the State Emergency Service.

Raphael wrote his Masters thesis on Jesus mythicism (the view that even a historical, non-miraculous Jesus may not have existed), concluding that historical and Bayesian reasoning justifies a sceptical attitude towards the Historical Jesus. For his doctoral work, Raphael is analysing the major philosophical arguments for Gods existence (as argued by William Lane Craig, Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga and Thomas Aquinas), attempts to demonstrate the logical implausibility of the monotheistic concept, explores the theological tendencies of Philosophy of Religion, considers the plausibility of pantheistic worldviews, and ponders the sociological impact of certain sophisticated apologists, such as Craig, whom he dubs the New Theologians.