The (non) existence of Jesus

[Clueless Morgan]

I'm reading Carrier's book, now.

Which one? On the Historicity of Jesus? I've read Proving History but haven't gotten to OTHOJ yet (waiting for the price to drop a bit, and getting through other books).

I think he makes some very good points in his criticisms of the methods historians use to discern historicity, and I confess he makes a strong case for the mythicist position, but I'm not fully convinced (I'm maybe 60/40 that's he's a mythicised historical figure rather than a historicised mythical figure). I'm hoping that when I get to OTHOJ that Carrier address more of the evidence historians cite for why they conclude Jesus was historical. I've read David Fitzgerald's 10 Reason Jesus Never Existed At All (or something close to that title) and while I find that book to be entertaining, that's my main criticism of it: it doesn't address the current historical position or directly refute the evidence they cite in a comprehensive way. Though, to be fair, I don't think it was meant to do that.

I also confess this isn't a topic I've read much about so I'm easily swayed right now due to sheer ignorance.

I think Carrier makes a good case. I've seen that video before and would be interested in an expert's rebuttal.

I think Carrier links to critiques of his books on his blog, but I haven't done a lot of digging to find them.

Actually validating this might be impossible, after all there can be multiple people with that name during that time period, and even if we find a proof of one of those persons, there is no way verify if he was the one from the stories.

The only way to verify the book is by verifying the possibility of the illogical BS in the book.....which can only be done after one decides to thow out common sense and sanity, out of the window.

To be honest I had the same thought, it may be that yeshua was a common name then

This is something I've been thinking about, though in a somewhat unrelated matter:

How would one go about trying to determine how common a name was during a specific time?

My particular interest right now is in when names that became more popular after the Protestant reformation (Thomas, Samuel, John, Matthew, etc.) started being shortened to their common "nickname" version that we often use today (Tom, Sam, John, Matt, etc.) I've been trying to look into this but my google returns have been thwarted by baby name websites.

Also, if you thought the OP video was interesting, you might like this one, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MclBbZUFSag&