Published debate record
8 eligible one-on-one scorecards. Average published score: 80.5/100. Scores describe these debates, not the person's overall ability or worth.
Michael Jones vs Richard Carrier: Does God Exist? · 2025
Jones and Carrier closely contest whether consciousness, cosmic structure, morality, and origins comparatively favor theistic idealism or secular naturalism.
Michael Jones: 74 · Richard Carrier: 73. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Mike Licona vs Richard Carrier: Did Jesus Rise From the Dead? · 2010
Licona argued resurrection best explains early testimony; Carrier countered that prior probability, visionary mechanisms, and source limitations preserve stronger natural explanations.
Mike Licona: 80 · Richard Carrier: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Stephen Boyce vs Richard Carrier: Did Jesus Exist? · 2022
Boyce defended an earthly historical Jesus through Paul, kinship, and corroboration; Carrier pressed celestial compatibility, source dependence, ambiguity, and alternative appearance explanations.
Stephen Boyce: 78 · Richard Carrier: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Jonathan McLatchie vs Richard Carrier: Did Paul Believe in a Celestial Jesus? · 2018
Carrier narrowly prevailed by pressing Pauline ambiguity and source dependence, while McLatchie answered most forcefully through contextual analysis of the crucifying rulers.
Jonathan McLatchie: 80 · Richard Carrier: 83. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Dennis R. MacDonald vs Richard Carrier: Did Jesus Exist? · 2025
MacDonald defended a mortal Jewish teacher later mythologized; Carrier’s revelatory-origin model and challenges to literary and Josephian evidence narrowly prevailed.
Dennis R. MacDonald: 79 · Richard Carrier: 81. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Resurrection Evidence and Naturalistic Alternatives: William Lane Craig vs. Richard Carrier · 2009
Craig organized burial, appearances, and belief into a cumulative resurrection case, while Carrier challenged Gospel independence and preserved ordinary alternatives; their contrasting strengths produced a tie.
William Lane Craig: 80 · Richard Carrier: 80. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Did Jesus Exist? Craig Evans vs. Richard Carrier · 2016
Carrier prevailed 80–79 because Pauline ambiguity and limits on gospel corroboration narrowly outweighed Evans’s early letters, Josephus defense, and carefully qualified historical method.
Craig Evans: 79 · Richard Carrier: 80. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.
Mike Licona vs Richard Carrier — Did Jesus rise from the dead? · 2004
Licona narrowly prevails through cumulative historical breadth, while Carrier’s Pauline, visionary, source-critical, and prior-probability challenges keep every decisive inference closely contested.
Mike Licona: 82 · Richard Carrier: 81. Scores assess the reasoning in this debate.