Raphael Lataster

Raphael Lataster (born 1984) is an Australian author, doctoral student and proponent of the Christ myth theory. He has written and self-published two books on the subject: There Was No Jesus, There Is No God (2013), and Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists (2015), with Richard Carrier.

Lataster identifies his main research interests as including philosophy of religion, Christian origins, logic, Bayesian reasoning, sustainability, and alternative god-concepts such as pantheism and pandeism. Lataster's PhD thesis will analyse arguments for the existence of God by theologians including William Lane Craig and Richard Swinburne.

Lataster passed his Master of Arts (Research), undertaken in the Department of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney, with Distinction, where he is a Teaching Fellow and assistant researcher.He has written two academic articles as well as popular journalism pieces (see below) on the subject.

There Was No Jesus, There Is No God was published on 2 September 2013 using an independent publishing platform and was ranked 10th bestselling book in the Atheism category on Amazon Australia on 5 September. It continued to be ranked in the top twelve as late as 21 July of the following year. The book questions the existence of Jesus, and was positively reviewed by Religious Studies scholars Carole Cusack (one of Lataster's mentors) and professor Chris Hartney. Cusack wrote that, "Lataster re-presents and amplifies the arguments that the fictional dimensions of Jesus are foundational." Hartney wrote that Lataster "does more than most to argue that Jesus did not exist," and that Lataster "goes through the numerous arguments that demonstrate that the story of Jesus must have taken place" and "does a good job of dismissing all these." A second vanity published book, Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists, was published 12 November 2015, with Richard Carrier.

Lataster has debated Christian apologists including Randal Rauser. Rauser deemed the discussion "abortive", complaining of the standards of evidence insisted upon by Lataster, as well as personality differences. Lataster presented a program on the opening day of the 2015 Australian Historical Association Conference, "The Gospel According to Bart: The Folly of Ehrman’ s Hypothetical Sources."

Lataster's December 2014 Washington Post article, Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up, was criticised by Christian apologist and New Testament scholar (and former teacher of Lataster) John Dickson. Dickson commented, "As his former lecturer, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Raphael's 1000 words on Jesus would not receive a pass mark in any history class I can imagine, even if it were meant to be a mere "personal reflection" on contemporary Jesus scholarship. Lataster is a better student than his piece suggests. But the rigours of academia in general - and the discipline of history, in particular - demand that his numerous misrepresentations of scholarship would leave a marker little choice but to fail him."

Lataster additionally authored an article entitled "Pantheistic God-Concepts: Ancient, Contemporary, Popular, and Plausible Alternatives to Classical Theism" for publication in Pandeism: An Anthology (2017).

Raphael Lataster has received criticisms from other academics in print and bloggers, primarily Christians, regarding his treatment of historical sources, philosophical approach and debating ability. Notable Christian critics include his former professor John Dickson, Oxford theologian Benedikt Paul Göcke and Randal Rauser. On his part, Lataster has responded to Göcke and Rauser, and challenges Dickson to a debate.

Books

• Aramaic Peshitta Primacy for Dummies, self-published 2004.
• There Was No Jesus, There Is No God, self-published 2013.
• (with Richard Carrier) Jesus Did Not Exist: A Debate Among Atheists, self-published 12 November 2015

Articles

• Bayesian Reasoning: Criticising the ‘Criteria of Authenticity’ and Calling for a Review of Biblical Criticism. Published in the Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences (Volume 5, Issue 2, pp. 271–293) - May 2013.
• Is There a Christian Agenda Behind Religious Studies Departments? , January 2013.
• New Atheists and New Theologians. Published in Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (Volume 4, Issue 1) - June 2013.
• Richard Carrier: On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt. Journal of Religious History. Volume 38, Issue 4, pages 614–616, December 2014. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9809.12219
• Did historical Jesus really exist? The evidence just doesn't add up, Washington Post - 18 December 2014.
• Pantheistic God-Concepts: Ancient, Contemporary, Popular, and Plausible Alternatives to Classical Theism, Literature & Aesthetics (Volume 25, page 65) - 2015.
• Questioning the Plausibility of Jesus Ahistoricity Theories — A Brief Pseudo-Bayesian Metacritique of the Sources - April 2015
• "A Superscientific Definition of ‘Religion’ and a Clarification of Richard Dawkins’ New Atheism", Literature & Aesthetics (Volume 24, Issue 2, pp. 109–124).
• A Philosophical and Historical Analysis of William Lane Craig’s Resurrection of Jesus Argument, Think (Cambridge University, Volume 14, Issue 39, pp. 59–71), Spring 2015, doi:10.1017/S1477175614000219.
• The Attractiveness of Panentheism—a Reply to Benedikt Paul Göcke, Sophia, September 2014, Volume 53, Issue 3, pp 389–395.
• "Pantheistic God-Concepts: Ancient, Contemporary, Popular, and Plausible Alternatives to Classical Theism," in Pandeism: An Anthology, January 2017.