Richard Cevantis Carrier (born December 1, 1969) is an American ancient historian.[2] He is a long-time contributor to skeptical websites, including The Secular Web and Freethought Blogs. Carrier has published a number of books and articles on philosophy and religion in classical antiquity, discussing the development of early Christianity from a skeptical viewpoint, and concerning religion and morality in the modern world. He has publicly debated a number of scholars on the historical basis of the Bible and Christianity. He is a prominent advocate of the theory that Jesus did not exist, which he has argued in a number of his works.[3] However, Carrier's methodology and conclusions in this field have proven controversial and unconvincing to most ancient historians,[4][5][6][7] and he and his theories are often identified as fringe.[8][9][10]