CHAPTER 16 Six Years Later: A Call to Revise the Manifesto As we’ve seen, soon after "A Humanist Manifesto" was published in 1933, there were those who, for various reasons, wanted a revision of the document, and the call continued in the ensuing years. Dr. Charles Francis Potter, who had reprinted the manifesto in his […]

  CHAPTER 15 Responses from Individuals Comments on the manifesto received from individuals after publication were important to us because part of the motivation behind publishing the manifesto was to catalyze discussion and promote the development of humanism. Edgar S Brightman One valued letter came from Edgar S. Brightman, who was then teaching in the […]

  CHAPTER 14 Reactions from the Media Concurrent to its appearance in The New Humanist, the manifesto was released to the media. Both Albert Dieffenbach of Boston and Charles Francis Potter of New York had expressed their willingness to help with publicity, and undoubtedly their expertise was useful. The press releases yielded some surprising results. […]

Chapter 13 Publication of "A Humanist Manifesto" In desperation to meet the deadline for The New Humanist in which "A Humanist Manifesto" would first appear publicly, I crossed the last "t" and dotted the final "i," making some purely minor typographical corrections, and sent it to the printer. I did this even though Bragg and […]

CHAPTER 12 Responses to the Final Draft Having taken into consideration both the criticisms and suggestions we received, the final draft was completed and sent to everyone who had agreed to sign, as well as to the principal advance critics. The responses to the draft were diverse. Some authorizations to sign came by wire in […]

CHAPTER 11 Distinctions Between Literary and Religious Humanism In retrospect, I think it was inevitable that some persons would be overlooked who should have been asked to sign the manifesto and others asked whose positions were not fully known. We were, after all, working under pressure, with no budget, and with very little clerical help. […]

CHAPTER 10 The Search for Signers – Round Two With the editorial process completed, "A Humanist Manifesto" was ready to submit to a wider group of signers as a finished document. The considerations that went into deciding who to invite and who not to invite to endorse it were many. After much discussion, a list […]

CHAPTER 1 "A Humanist Manifesto" – A Historic Document When thirty-four individualists agree upon anything, it is an unusual event-especially when there is a preponderance of ministers involved. Even though "reasonable minds at work on the same or similar facts" are presumed to arrive at similar conclusions, this is not always the case. Yet in […]

Bibliography Ames, Edward Scribner. 1949. Religion. Chicago, IL: John O. Pyle (also, New York, NY. Henry Holt and Company, 1929). -. 1919. The Psychology of Religious Experience. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Ames, Van Meter (editor). Prayers and Meditations. 1970. Chicago, IL: The Disciples’ Divinity House, University of Chicago. Applying Basic Principles. 1983. Oak Brook, […]

The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto by Edwin H. Wilson CONTENTS PREFACE 1. A Humanist Manifesto–A Historic Document 2. The Background of Religious Humanism 3. The New Humanist–Sponsor of the Manifesto 4. “A Humanist Manifesto”–The Beginning 5. The Editing Process 6. Early Responses from Signers 7. Critiques from Humanists Who Did Not Sign 8. Unitarian […]

About This Debate Drange’s Opening Statement: The Arguments from Nonbelief and Confusion for the Nonexistence of God Wilson’s Opening Statement: The Transcendental Argument for God’s Existence Drange’s First Rebuttal Wilson’s First Rebuttal Drange’s Second Rebuttal Wilson’s Second Rebuttal Drange’s Third Rebuttal Wilson’s Third Rebuttal Drange’s Closing Statement Wilson’s Closing Statement

Review of Jesus After 2000 Years (2006) Doug Shaver   Review: Gerd Lüdemann. 2001. Jesus After 2000 Years: What He Really Said and Did. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. 695 pp. Reading Gerd Lüdemann’s Jesus After 2000 Years is intellectual exercise—good for you, and for some people even enjoyable, but probably not the average person’s idea […]

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Christopher McHugh     Closing Statement by Christopher McHugh In my first rebuttal, I made the point that Krueger’s opening statement only argued against a very narrow God-concept, and did not account for mystical notions of God like the one that I proposed. I wrote that I could, […]

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Christopher McHugh   Second Rebuttal by Christopher McHugh In this second rebuttal, I will offer refutations (limited by the length restrictions) of Krueger’s objections to the version of the ontological argument that I have presented. It will be shown that Krueger’s comments are nugatory because they are based […]

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Doug Krueger Closing Statement by Doug Krueger McHugh has failed to rebut my objections to his ontological argument. For example, I challenged McHugh to show how his move from “statement t is true” to “there is an object t that is real” is justified. McHugh responds: Necessary truths […]

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Doug Krueger   Second Rebuttal by Doug Krueger My task in this debate is considerably easier than I had anticipated because not only has McHugh used a well-known and well-rebutted argument in his opening statement (the ontological argument), he has further stated in his rebuttal that he “can […]

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Doug Krueger   Opening Statement by Doug Krueger Arguments for Atheism In this opening statement I will explain how we can be justified in believing that god does not exist. I would like to thank the hosts of this debate and Christopher McHugh for making this debate possible. […]

Theism or Atheism Krueger vs. McHugh A brief biographical sketch is available: Doug Krueger Christopher McHugh Opening Statement:    Doug Krueger    Christopher McHugh First Rebuttal:    Doug Krueger    Christopher McHugh Second Rebuttal:    Doug Krueger    Christopher McHugh Closing Statement:    Doug Krueger    Christopher McHugh

Copin’ with Copan The Defense of Zacharias that Fails Doug Krueger Some time ago I roasted Ravi Zacharias’ book A Shattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism in a review posted here on the Secular Web. Paul Copan, a graduate student pursuing a degree from Marquette University, has attacked my review, and, for good measure, […]

Alright. Five minutes and counting. Let’s return to a couple of points that I consider to be quite interesting. First of all, Dr. Craig now seems to have retreated, at least slightly, from the claim that the universe requires…that anything that…that anything that begins to exist requires cause. Alright. The cosmological argument, as I understood […]

Eight minutes. A lot of ground to cover in eight minutes. Let’s return just a minute to the question of whether one belief excludes another. My point was that if you have certain theistic belief, a well-fleshed out, alright, a detailed theistic belief, what you are saying is everyone who believes in something different than […]

Let me run down some preliminary points first. The question whether agnosticism or atheism…I think what we have here is a word allergy, perhaps. I claim that there is no rational justification for the belief in the existence of God. I also claim that the evidence is strongly against it; that the rational conclusion to […]

I do not believe in God and I am here to explain why. Any discussion of the discussion of the existence of God must, I think, begin with some preliminary definitions and points of principle. As commonly understood, atheism is the denial of the existence of God. I prefer a slightly different formulation, in which […]

On behalf of the sponsors: Campus Crusade for Christ, Athletes in Action, and Priority One Associates, welcome to a critical thinking event. A university should be more than simply a place of learning about things, but a place to grapple with issues of truth, who we are, where we come from and where we are […]

Moderator’s Comments Dr. Jesseph’s Opening Arguments Dr. Craig’s Opening Arguments (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s First Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s First Rebuttal (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s Second Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s Second Rebuttal (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s Third Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s Third Rebuttal (Off Site) Related Articles on Craig’s Arguments | Atheism Articles | GODEXIST Mailing List