Theodore Drange responds to Guthrie's critique. Drange finds Guthrie's essay "unclear," and contends that Guthrie "erred in many ways," including "misstating my views in many ways (and continuing such misstatements even in his concluding paragraph), ... in trying to argue that God (were he to exist) is unable to reduce human suffering, and ... in his attempt to formulate a divine desire that conflicts with God's desire to reduce human suffering."

The Cooke-Aijaz Debate: Closing Remarks from the Moderator (2003) Richard Carrier As moderator for the Cooke-Aijaz Debate I feel compelled to register my disappointment with both sides. Cooke’s approach was generally flippant and often insulting to his opponent, and to the religious generally. I would never recommend him for a debate again. Indeed, he largely […]

In Nonbelief and Evil, Theodore Drange presents what he calls the Argument from Nonbelief against the existence of God: the fact that not all people believe the gospel message before they die provides grounds for denying that the Christian God exists. Pardi contends, however, that there are good reasons to deny that this inference goes through; he argues that given the nature of free persons, it is not within the set of logically possible states of affairs that God is able to actualize. Further, Pardi contends that Drange has an inadequate understanding of religious belief that should be rejected and replaced with a more robust formulation.

"History shows that metaphysics is subjective, prevaricated to the extent of unintelligibility, and irrational; it is essentially ostentatious and philosophically so dense that it is inane. Likewise, many revelations are demonstrably and factually wrong. Both are anachronistic and have ceased to be inspiring sources of human knowledge. Any reliable human knowledge is empirical and scientific."

The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Doug Krueger First Rebuttal by Doug Krueger In this first rebuttal I will address some of the problems with McHugh’s argument for the existence of god. Subsequent posts will address his rebuttals to the arguments in my opening statement. McHugh has chosen as his sole weapon for his […]

(2002) Jeffery Jay Lowder In the matter of Newdow v. Congress, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. The court noted that these revisionist words (added in 1954) violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However, this ruling has been unpopular, to put it […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s Closing Statement: Behold the new god! Anthropocentric conceit! Having lunged and parried in cyberspace on the question of the possible existence of a god, how far have we got? I doubt anyone’s mind has been changed significantly. All that has probably happened as a result of these exchanges is […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s Second Rebuttal: Super Duper’s (or Was It Hyper Mega’s) Last Gasp One really wonders what value there is in thrashing out questions of the existence of God. The evidence against the existence of any sort of god is so overwhelming as to be hardly worth arguing. And, as I […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s First Rebuttal: Super Duper Defended…or Was It Hyper Mega? The opening statement of Mr Aijaz was a worthwhile, although unsuccessful, effort to retrieve some credibility for a cause long recognised as irrevocably lost by the vast majority of academics. But more than this, his arguments underscored the main point […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Opening Statement by Bill Cooke The Folly of the Super-dupers There is a beach at the northern extremity of New Zealand called the Ninety-Mile Beach. Oddly enough, the beach is ninety miles long. Imagine how many grains of sand there must be on this beach. Tens of millions? Now imagine one […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Imran Aijaz’s Closing Statement I find it rather surprising to see Dr. Cooke “wonder[ing] what value there is in thrashing out questions of the existence of God”. If a being like the God of classical theism does, in fact, exist, then man is part of a teleological worldview that is unfolding […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Imran Aijaz’s First Rebuttal: Critique of Dr. Cooke’s Arguments for Atheism I am grateful to Dr. Cooke for his well written and entertaining reflections on the case for atheism. It is unfortunate, however, that absolutely nothing in Dr. Cooke’s opening statement provided any sound justification for being an atheist. I shall […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Opening Statement by Imran Aijaz Prefatory Remarks I would like to thank Richard Carrier for making this internet debate possible, and for agreeing to moderate the exchange between Dr. Bill Cooke and myself. I would also like to thank Dr. Cooke for agreeing to participate with me in addressing the important […]

The Cooke-Aijaz Debate on the Existence of God (2002) The Cooke-Aijaz Debate: Closing Remarks from the Debate Moderator (2003) by Richard Carrier The debate moderator registers his disappointment with both sides, concluding that nothing new or useful came out of this debate.