Richard Carrier (From Wikipedia)
Richard Carrier holds a PhD from Columbia University in ancient history. He is a prolific author — his work includes books with provocative titles such as On the Historicity of Jesus, Proving History, Sense and Goodness without God, Not the Impossible Faith, Why I Am Not a Christian, and Hitler Homer Bible Christ.
According to his website, Dr. Carrier is also a very busy and highly sought “world-renowned author and speaker.”
So naturally I became curious: why is this guy practically panhandling for money on his website that has not one or two, but six different ways you can “Help Support Dr. Carrier?”
Seriously? Exactly how many mouths does this man have to feed?
Admittedly, the first option we’re offered seems reasonable enough — Dr. Carrier wants you to buy one of his books. As a fellow author with my own books and novels promoted here on this very website, it would be rather hypocritical of me to criticize another author for trying to market his own work.
So no problems with option #1.
Visitors to his website are also offered a second option, which is buying a book recommended by Dr. Carrier through a link provided. He apparently earns a small percentage of the sale. That also sounds like a fairly decent way to bolster one’s income — something I admit that I wouldn’t mind learning how to do myself.
The third option we’re offered is where things begin to get sketchy — we are invited to send “Dr. Carrier” a donation via Paypal, ostensibly just because he’s a swell guy and needs the money more than we do.
But why? For what? Apparently, as we’ll soon see, it’s to “get your money for nothing, and your chicks for free.”
We are then offered the (4th) option to take a monthly online course from Dr. Carrier.
Or (a 5th option) we could pay him a speaking fee.
Finally, we are given the opportunity to negotiate hiring Dr. Carrier as a “consultant” for $150 per hour, though we are warned he is “rarely available” and his “services are expensive.”
No kidding — $150 per hour works out to roughly $300 grand per year. So I’ve been wondering — why does this guy with a PhD from an Ivy League school need to beg for money?
Richard Carrier’s website does offer us a few clues.
For example, he doesn’t appear to hold a legitimate teaching position anywhere, except offering monthly online courses through something called the Partners for Secular Activism…which hardly sounds like an academic enterprise. It sounds more like a brief indoctrination into becoming some sort of an evangelist for atheism.
Unlike his nemesis Bart Ehrman, the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Carrier doesn’t have a cushy, secure full-time job to provide a steady income. So he’s got to scramble to make his money.
Furthermore, his lifestyle can be quite expensive — Carrier allegedly practices polyamory. That can’t be cheap, to constantly date and try to keep multiple women happy. He’s got more than a few mouths to feed. But if Dr. Carrier thinks his current lifestyle is expensive, just wait until one of these women has his baby. His monthly budget will get blown through the roof.
He might actually have to get a real job.
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