This project is an update to an earlier rebuttal, prior to the time Richard Carrier put his responses into book form under the title Not the Impossible Faith. By his own admission, the book does not contain any new material as opposed to the earlier, online version titled, "Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False?", so this is not an update in response to the book version. Rather, it is an update that further solidifies and affirms our own prior rebuttal, as I performed more research for my own upcoming book, Defending the Resurrection. I have also taken the time to respond almost line by line in some places, as it were, inasmuch as Carrier, being regarded as one of the Secular Web's most credible authorities, rightly deserves to be exposed for his blistering incompetence as frequently as possible.
It is worth noting again the story behind Carrier's rebuttal. The origins come of a time past when Carrier decreed that he "saw no reason" to respond to me any further. This decree was transparently self-serving, as Carrier had repeatedly shown himself incapable of even the most basic defenses of his arguments or of understanding those I put forward in response. (You can see the classic example of this here.) However, in time Carrier "saw" a "reason" to reply to me that involved dollar signs: On TheologyWeb, a person styled "Johnny Skeptic," frustrated by his own encounters there, paid Carrier a sum of roughly $5,000 to compose a response to my Impossible Faith article. (You can read more about that a thread here.) This should speak for itself in terms of Carrier's ethics as a supposed scholar.
I issued a response to Carrier almost immediately, and he has declined further response unless "Johnny" or someone else pays him again. I think that speaks for itself as well.
I have also added the corresponding chapters from Defending the Resurrection which are updates of the original "Impossible Faith" points. These will provide more ammunition, and further show how little Carrier has actually considered these subjects as well as provide further context for the reader. (I also provide responses to Carrier's arguments in DTR, but these are reflected already in this project update.)
To access it responses that are not samples or links, please subscribe to the E-Block, or you may simply get this reply by itself in exchange for a grautity/donation:
Point 2: Geographic Associations
Point 6: The Intolerance of Christianity
Point 7: Historical Connections
Point 8: Martyrs and Persecution
Point 14: The "Ignorance" of Jesus
Point 15: Other Factors (Ignored by Carrier; refers to his Ch. 1)
