Not the Impossible Faith

By: Richard Carrier

Narrated by: Richard Carrier

Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's Summary

Not the Impossible Faith is a tour de force in that genre, dissecting and refuting the oft-repeated claim that Christianity could not have succeeded in the ancient world unless it was true. Though framed as a detailed rebuttal to Christian apologist J.P. Holding (author of The Impossible Faith), Carrier takes a general approach that educates the listener on the history and sociology of the ancient world, answering many questions like: How did Christians approach evidence? Was there a widespread prejudice against the testimony of women? Was resurrection such a radical idea? Who would worship a crucified criminal? And much more.

Written with occasional humor and an easy style, and thoroughly referenced, with many entertaining "gotcha!" moments, Not the Impossible Faith is a must-listen for anyone interested in the origins of Christianity. Richard Carrier, PhD, is an expert in the history of the ancient world and a critic of Christian attempts to distort history in defense of their faith.

©2009 Richard Carrier (P)2013 Pitchstone Publishing

Fish, meet barrel.

In the course of listening to this audiobook I was reminded of Noam Chomsky's systematic, morbidly-fascinating - and somewhat disturbing; 'should I be watching this?' - demolition of B.F. Skinner's behaviourism.

You don't have to have read J.P. Holding's original to enjoy this book. There is a wealth of fascinating material in here, and the context is set up effectively enough to follow the refutation.

Or demolition.

As a happy agnostic - I don't call myself an atheist simply because I really couldn't be bothered feeling obliged to argue over such self-evidently irrational beliefs - Carrier's book was a (slightly guilty) pleasure, with much of historical interest. A Christian would be less likely to enjoy it, obviously, depending on the extent of their ahistoric fervour. But it's notable that reading Carrier and Bart Ehrman has made me MORE inclined to pick up a bible, not less...

It's debatable whether Carrier really should read his own books - mellifluous he ain't - but it's a perfect union of tone and content.

Excellent critique

Any additional comments?

The only thing I didn't like was the fact that he did a lot of arguing from authority; however, I realize that a good deal of it was him just citing ideas that others had before him (so he wouldn't seem like he was stealing other people's ideas). I realize that this is pretty necessary in a book about history, and the book would've been twice as long without saying "this guy said this, and I'm not going to go into why." Still, if he spent more time explaining his strongest arguments (after citing the source) than beating the dead horse that is "The Impossible Faith" by citing argument after argument and example after example, it would've been much more enjoyable I think.

Still, it was an excellent book, and an excellent critique, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. 100% worth the cost, and then some.

I leaned a lot

I didn't expect as effective an education into the world of 1st century Rome. Although Holding's hypothesis is so absurd today it required no debunk, this book does explain why Christianity was appealing in the early days of the Christian movement, before it was mandated or even sanctioned.

Evidence wins again over apologetics

Richard Carrier makes an overwhelmingly thorough and convincing argument that Christianity had the right message, audience, and good fortunes to become a successful world religion without any supernatural aid or even historical truth.

Truth made simple.

All the facts laid out chronologically, building a much better case for reasonable doubt than anyone has ever done.

Origins of Christianity

Excellent, evidence based, overview of the origins of Christianity.

Aside from this being a rebuttal to a feeble claim, it also presents the reader with background and context for each piece of evidence.

Very well researched book.

I enjoyed this book it was very thorough. Well researched the author did a great job. I felt like I was getting a lot of very good information.

Bloody awful audiobook...

What disappointed you about Not the Impossible Faith?

Although I personally concur with much if not all of what the author says, I have to tell you that, as an audiobook this is like having a sheet of cardboard in place of a steak. It's dry, and the fact that it's a response to another argument that we are not a party to makes it seem 'whiney'. The description is accurate but you won't find much of interest here.

What would have made a much better book is to give the same information without acknowledging that other author and his faults. Trying to tell some sort of coherent story rather than a point by point refutation of some other guy's weak argument would at least make the book worth reading by people other than those involved in these sorts of pissing contests.

I respect that the author is a phd etc and that his information seems good and well researched. His logic seems equally well done. But as a book, as a writer, this is pretty bad listening. Give it a pass.

Well studied and very approachable

Dr. Carrier is well aware of the differences in perspective and quality of truthfulness between the first few centuries CE and now. He maps out the differences between our post enlightenment understandings of evidence and proof and the effective arguments early Christian evangelists used, and explains why these are no ground for modern belief. He takes the reader through Holding’s argument for Christ and thoroughly refutes and debunks his claims. Very good work, would highly recommend to anyone interested in Christianity and the ancient romans as subjects

Much better book

Worth listening to twice! I enjoyed this book much more so than Proving History or On the Historicity of Jesus. They're all terrific of course and help us all to think more clearly about all these sorts of things. Carrier is doing the "Lord's work" in helping people like me.

Excellent research.

This book is a rebuttal of J.P.Holdings book The Impossible Faith. As usual Carrier has done a vast amount of research and put each point forward clearly, exposing the many errors, bad research and misrepresentation of sources that Holding has presented.

Richard does it again. So lucid.

The enjoyment of the work is magnified by the wonderful performance. Now for his next book.

super interesting insights and view of history

Even as a non academic I found it superbly interesting. A real insight into the early Christian world.

What a Thorough Rebuttal Looks Like

Richard Carrier's thorough scholarship and strong arguement makes you wonder why apologists like JP Holding keep trying to get up and take more punches when they should be throwing in the towel already.

Enjoy Carrier, but...

I’m a great fan of Carrier.. watch his vids, buy his books, like the message and I’ve gradually been more and more engaged with the whole topic of Christianity, it’s development, history, impact on the world. As an atheist, I always just ignored something that’s obviously nuts on so many levels. I now realise that I should couch the last sentence as ‘Christians and other religions make unsubstantiated claims that require greater evidence for me to ‘believe’. And this book is full of such evidence against a Christian apologist. Great detail and a sense of historical place is to be found in this book.

So why 3 stars? Simply because it’s too couched in a framework of a debate he’s having with someone else. This ruins the narrative for.. constant references to Holding this, holding that just detracted from the experience for me. I found this more and more annoying over time. I wish this had been written with generic titles, so we could avoid constant reference to someone else, which for me made the argument somehow more trivial.

Carriers voice is what it is. I like it and I’m very used to it after so many YouTube viewings, so that was ok.

One other point.. because it’s framed as a rebuttal to a specific claim from a specific person, I listened to this virtually randomly. Not an issue, buy fell free to skip around if you wish, it doesn’t detract.