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Dr. Nickles and Mr. Hyde Feel Your Pain

Most of us treasure our individuality and our freedom to decide just what to believe. This, after all, is the American way. It started with our founding fathers who saw the trouble European nations experienced from church interference with the state, and opted for a strictly secular government in this country. By maintaining strict neutrality toward religion, this new government could assure freedom of religion to all. Americans would be free to believe or not believe, as they chose.

The Sin of Silence

There is a sin among a large segment of the Christian clergy that I find despicable. It is the sin of omission, the sin of silence. It is the sin of promoting falsehoods in order to hold your job. It is the sin of not sharing with a congregation what you know to be true about the bible and Christianity.

100th Anniversary of the Death of Robert G. Ingersoll

July 21, 1999 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Robert G. Ingersoll (b.1833). Called "The Great Agnostic" by newspapers of the day and, by all accounts, the nation's most oft-heard orator, Ingersoll was an enlightened, humane freethinker, a visionary, an advocate for unpopular causes such as womens', childrens', and minority rights, and a combatant against superstition and hypocrisy.

A Dialogue on the Absurdity of Genesis 8:20 (Addendum to “Bible Absurdities”)

On June 24, 1999, a patron of the Secular Web challenged one of Donald Morgan's "Bible Absurdities" with this simple paragraph: "Remove genesis 8:20 from the absurdities list. They sacrificed one of each clean animal--they brought 7 pairs [GE 7:2] of each clean animal onto the arc." What ensued was a dialogue between then Editor in Chief of the Secular Web, Richard Carrier, and Donald Morgan regarding the alleged absurdity of sacrificing animals that were taken aboard the Ark for the purpose of preservation.

Religion is the Cause of Violence

It is religion that, historically, has always produced violence. From Moses to the Crusades, Henry VIII, Salem, Hitler, Kosovo. Today, in our own time, it is those countries without religion that are the LEAST vilolent. America is the most 'religious' of the world's industrialized nations, and yet is the most violent nation in the world.

Letter from Americans United for Separation of Church and State Concerning the New York State Senate’s Religious Ridicule Bill

Earlier this year, an actual blasphemy law was introduced into the New York State Senate. This measure would make it a crime to ridicule any religious belief or ridicule any concept of a deity upon which such beliefs are based in any public place. This bill is clearly unconstitutional in that it violates both Religions Clauses and the Free Speech clause of the First Amendment. This bill would give religionists special rights to silence those who disagree with their beliefs, placing the state on the side of assisting religious believers in suppressing public expressions of dissent, thus violating the Establishment Clause. It would also punish people for expressing their views on matters of religion, thus violating the Free Exercise Clause. In prohibiting speech because of the specific content and message of that speech, this legislation violates the Free Speech Clause. The letter to the New York State Senate contains a comprehensive constitutional argument as to why this measure is completely unconstitutional.

Can Mystical Experience be a Perception of God? A Critique of William Alston’s Perceiving God

William Alston's Perceiving God argues that some mystical experiences should be regarded as perceptions of God analogous to the perception of physical objects in sense experience. I conclude that there are several reasons for doubting that mystical experience generally—or Christian mystical experience specifically--can be a form of perception, even given Alston's epistemic commitments.

Drange-Wilson Debate: Wilson’s Closing Statement

(1999) In submitting this, my last installment, I wanted to make sure that I thanked Dr. Drange adequately for a very stimulating debate. Throughout he has conducted himself both as a scholar and gentleman, and this, despite the fact that both callings are currently against federal law. Before writing this section, I sat down and […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Drange’s Closing Statement

(1999) In my opening statement I presented two arguments for the nonexistence of the Christian God. They were the Argument from Nonbelief (ANB) and the Argument from Confusion (AC). Pastor Wilson attacked them in his first rebuttal, I defended them in my second, and then he raised some further criticisms in his third. I shall […]

Atheistic Teleological Arguments

The Anthropic Coincidences, Evil and the Disconfirmation of Theism (1995) by Quentin Smith“The anthropic principle or the associated anthropic coincidences have been used by philosophers such as John Leslie (1989), William Lane Craig (1988) and Richard Swinburne (1990) to support the thesis that God exists. In this paper I shall examine Swinburne’s argument from the […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Drange’s Third Rebuttal

(1999) In my first rebuttal, I took Pastor Wilson’s argument to be what I called “the Argument from Rational Thought” (ART). However, in his reply, Wilson indicated that I had misinterpreted his opening statement and that he was not actually putting forward an argument for the existence of God. What a bummer! It had certainly […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Wilson’s Third Rebuttal

(1999) In his second rebuttal Dr. Drange devotes himself to defending his two initial arguments against the existence of God, these being the Argument from Non-Belief (ANB) and Argument from Confusion (AC). Consequently, this seems as good a place as any to return once again to these arguments. What the ANB amounts to is the […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Drange’s Second Rebuttal

(1999) Pastor Wilson divided his first rebuttal into two parts, one in which he attacked my opening statement and another part in which he supplemented his own opening statement by dealing further with his Transcendental Argument for God (TAG). I shall here address only the first part. The second part will be taken up when […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Wilson’s Second Rebuttal

(1999) Dr. Drange commented that I had not provided “any clear statement of the argument.” By this I suppose he means that I did not number my premises and end with a “therefore.” Nevertheless, despite the obstacles I placed in his way, Dr. Drange did quite a good job placing my argument in a form […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Drange’s First Rebuttal

(1999) My task here is to critique Pastor Wilson’s opening statement and in particular his formulation of the Transcendental Argument for God (TAG). He has made that difficult by not providing any clear statement of the argument. Nowhere does he identify any premises. Nowhere does he conclude “Therefore, God exists” (or anything equivalent). The reader […]

Drange-Wilson Debate: Wilson’s First Rebuttal

(1999) Dr. Drange began his Argument from Confusion (AC) by noting that Christians differ among themselves. This is certainly true, and I am afraid I shall have to begin by providing him with yet another example of it. Fortunately for my case, this particular disagreement among Christians provides an answer to his Argument from Nonbelief […]

Pseudoscience and Rationality

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. . . Romans 1:20 For secular scientists and moderate Christians alike, there can be few developments of modern fundamentalism more perplexing and unfortunate than that of […]

Larry Taylor Canon

The Canon of the Bible (1999) Larry A. Taylor Criteria for Canonicity | Old Testament | OT Aprocrypha | Consistence for the NT | NT Canon | NT Apocrypha | Conclusion | Anachronisms in Daniel | Bibliography | Related Resources But in regard to the Canon itself, which they so superciliously intrude upon us, ancient […]

Voltaire

Voltaire (1694-1778) was the most brilliant writer of all time. His influence in securing liberty for humanity is inestimable. He changed his world and ours. Many founding fathers spoke of his influence in securing separation of State from Church in America.

Thomas Henry Huxley

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was a towering genius of the 19th Century. In 1859 Charles Darwin gave Huxley an advance copy of the Origin of the Species for critical comment. Huxley, upon completing the small book, declared: "How exceedingly stupid not to have thought of that."

ercy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was a sad genius who tried to live a happy life. He mastered Latin and Greek, pondered the great philosophers, and, suddenly he was reborn--he became an amalgam of Lucretius, Pliny, Hume, Locke, d'Holbach, Bacon, Voltaire, Spinoza, Franklin, Paine, and a host of other giants whose thoughts were melded into his flashing mind.