Discussion on Mythicism

Free Inquiry is arguably the most influential secular lay journal in our nation. I have the honor, if it can be called that, of writing the lead article in the most recent, Feb/Mar 2026 issue of Free Inquiry.
Read it here: A CERN-Level Proof of Mythicism | Free Inquiry

This meeting will focus on this article and the related question of how we might know if Jesus was a real historical person or not.

There are a great many possible “domains of inquiry” that are mythic nonsense (young earth creationism, horoscopes, phrenology etc.). A primary benefit of secular humanism and/or atheism is the freedom to allocate our attention away from such nonsense. I have a formal measure of the expected availability of useful facts I wish to see before I even consider the possibility of the domain of inquiry yielding anything of real value. Expecting a single possible fact that is reliable at a coin flip level of certainty is the mathematical minimum for anything like a fact to emerge from an area of inquiry. I want something more than that, both in number of possible facts and the reliability of them. That requirement translates into a requirement for at least two facts at at least a 70% level of reliability. That level of reliability is only 8% of the way up on a logarithmic chart from a coin flip toward something that could be called scientific certainty. This is my definition of myth, which I use to avoid all domains of inquiry that are probable nonsense.

My article examines the historical signal to mythic noise ratio in the known early Christian historical record. That record is one of extreme complexity. The chains of causation through which any possible reliable historical truth might emerge from known history is likewise complex, with a great many opportunities for any truthful information to be totally corrupted by redactions, confused translations, polemical argumentation about theological truth, etc. My conclusion is that I can know with scientific certainty that no possible historical fact claims about a hypothetical Jesus could rise above my formal definition of likely myth.

I was asked to write my cover article by Ron Lindsay, the Editor of Free Inquiry, after I submitted an article critical of an Aug/Sep 2024 Free Inquiry article, Five Challenges to Christ Myth Theorists. Lindsay declined to publish that submission but I have posted in here:
https://secularhumanist.blogspot.com/2026/01/reply-to-bill-cooke-on-christ-myth.html

Richard Carrier is a Ph.D. level scholar who wrote a more professional level analysis of this Bill Cooke article. His blog post can be found here: That Phenomenally Stupid Article by Bill Cooke • Richard Carrier Blogs

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