The Death of Matthew Shepard
Who must assume responsibility for creating an environment that stimulates and promotes such ignorant and brutal violence?
Moral Subjectivism Revisited
In this article, Keith Augustine responds to Theodore Schick, Jr.'s arguments against the subjectivity of moral values in his Free Inquiry article "Is Morality a Matter of Taste?"
Religious Freedom: What’s At Stake
The recent vote in the U.S. Congress on the Religious Freedom Amendment (RFA) should be a wake-up call that there are forces determined to make this a religious government. Despite the fact that every war occurring in the world today involves sectarian conflict, some elected leaders want to abolish our country's tradition of nonreligious civil rule and allow government to promote religious beliefs in this country.
Nonbelief as Support for Atheism
In this paper (originally presented as a talk) Theodore M. Drange seeks to improve upon J. L. Schellenberg's watershed argument that a perfectly loving God would reveal his existence clearly to people in order to get them to believe in him. Schellenberg's argument maintains that the existence of a large number of nontheists provides good reason to deny the existence of such a perfectly loving God. But Drange argues that a stronger version of the argument would add to God's attributes a strong desire for humanity's love. Since one cannot love God if one does not believe in him, God would more clearly desire widespread belief in his existence under Drange's revised formulation. Drange then responds to objections to this line of reasoning, particularly those couched in terms of a free-will or unknown-purpose defense, including Daniel Howard-Snyder's inappropriate-response defense. To this day Drange is unaware of any response by either Schellenberg or Howard-Snyder to his objections to their arguments.
Southern Baptists to Women: Submit to Male Leadership
The Southern Baptists claim that the American family is in crisis, and they want women to "submit graciously" to male leadership. Is there any reason to believe that things were better when men had a monopoly on making decisions? Was America a utopia that has been destroyed by women in thirty short years? And has anybody else noticed that most national and world leaders still are men? So how come everybody's talking about how bad things are?
Science, the Pope and the Shroud of Turin
The Pope recently viewed the Shroud of Turin and asked scientists to respect both the "scientific methodology and the sensibility of the faithful." But is there any evidence at all--scientific, historical, or otherwise--which supports the claim that the Shroud of Turin is the authentic burial shroud of Christ?
Craig’s Holy Spirit Epistemology
(1998) In Reasonable Faith, William Lane Craig makes a sharp distinction between knowing that God exists and being able to show this. He maintains that one knows that Christianity is true “by the self-authenticating witness of God’s Holy Spirit.”[1] One can show that God exists, that Jesus is his Son, and that other alleged Christian […]
The Role of Xianity in the Oppression of Women
For almost the last two thousand years, there has been one single institution which has had a significantly powerful realm of control and oppression over the everyday lives of the majority of individuals, especially women, in Western Europe and subsequently North America. This insidious institution is the Roman Catholic Church, or, in fact, Christianity in general (henceforth written xianity).
Is a Sound Argument for the Nonexistence of a God Even Possible?
A common objection to atheism—one stated by many scholars and laymen, theists and nontheists—is that it is impossible to prove the nonexistence of God. Yet there are actually two ways to prove the nonexistence of something. One way is to prove that it cannot exist because its very concept is self-contradictory (e.g., square circles, married bachelors, etc.). The other way is by carefully looking and seeing. Both of these methods can and have been used to disprove various conceptions of God.
Critique of John Warwick Montgomery’s Arguments for the Legal Evidence for Christianity
Montgomery asserts that Christianity's claims survive examination using the legal tests for evidence. He does this only by misstating and twisting the rules of evidence and the facts.
Why Be Moral?
The reasons for being moral depend on what it means "to be moral." On some possible definitions, the question, "Why be moral?" is meaningless. But in the case of the other definitions, it is possible to understand the question and even to answer it. Moreover, on the definitions which make the question meaningful, the atheist can answer the question just as well as the theist. Indeed, with respect to specific moral questions (e.g., "Why should people not rape?"), the atheist can provide a better answer than theists who accept the Bible as God's Word.
The Fine-Tuning Argument
Currently, a very popular theistic argument is the so-called "fine-tuning argument," the argument that God is the best explanation for the combination of physical constants which allow life. Drange argues that (1) God is a poor explanation, and that (2) there are better explanations than God for the combination of physical constants.
Science and Miracles
Using the simplified definition of a "miracle" as an event which violates a law of nature, Drange investigates the relation between science and miracles. He argues that scientists, as scientists, can't believe that such events ever occur, but leaves open whether they could consistently believe in miracles apart from their scientific work. If they do, it would only be in virtue of having compartmentalized minds.
Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey
Ten atheological arguments are presented (and briefly discussed) in each of which there is an apparently incompatible pair of divine attributes.
The Case for a Coherent God (2002) by Joseph A. Sabella
One response to the incompatible-properties arguments surveyed by Drange.
The Coherence of God: A Response to Theodore M. Drange (2003) by Ralph C. Wagenet
A second response to Drange's incompatible-properties arguments.
Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism
Drange argues that people who believe the sentence, "God exists," does not express a proposition are noncognitivists. Those who believe it expresses a true proposition are theists; those who believe it expresses a false proposition are atheists; and those who believe the evidence is insufficient to determine the truth of the proposition are agnostics.
Can Creationism Be Scientific?
Theistic creationism cannot be scientific; on the other hand, naturalistic creationism could be a scientific theory. However, "that is a moot point and has no application to public policy. There are excellent reasons (of both a scientific and pedagogical sort) for teachers not to present or discuss the theory in any science class."
Nonbelief vs. Lack of Evidence
Here are two atheological arguments, called the "Lack-of-evidence Argument" (LEA) and "the Argument from Nonbelief" (ANB). LEA: Probably, if God were to exist then there would be good objective evidence for that. But there is no good objective evidence for God's existence. Therefore, probably God does not exist. ANB: Probably, if God were to exist then there would not be many nonbelievers in the world. But there are many nonbelievers in the world. Therefore, probably God does not exist. Reasons are given for saying that although LEA is not totally implausible, ANB is a stronger atheological argument than it is.
Lively Answers to Theists
A Review of Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion by Robin Le Poidevin
The Religion of Hitler
Murphy reminds us that Hitler was a Christian, not an atheist as the Christians would have everyone believe.
The Religion of Freedom
Freethinkers employ reason when they are beseeched to join a religion. Religionists seem to employ reason in all areas of their lives except religion, and even here they use it to disregard all religions but their own.
Putting Matthew Shepard into Focus
This is an open letter to tell Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and his claque at the Family Research Council, that their right to spread hatred, veiled or blatant, will not be impaired if Colorado makes gays and lesbians eligible to be victims of hate crimes.
Robert G. Ingersoll: Man for All Seasons
Robert G. Ingersoll was known as the greatest orator our country ever produced. A hundred years ago, everyone knew of him.
Giordano Bruno
Most folks have never heard of Giordano Bruno, who was burned to death in the Square of the Flowers, in down-town Rome, on February 16, 1600, for the crime of thinking.
The Baptist and the Freethinker
If we learned real history in schools--the warts along with the dimples--then folks might lighten up on one another.
Summary and Assessment of Craig-Jesseph Debate
A summary and assessment of the 1997 debate on the existence of God between William Lane Craig and Doug Jesseph. Lowder concludes that the overall debate was a draw (in terms of quality of argument), but that Craig won as far as the effectiveness of presentation was concerned.
Constructing a Logical Argument
Logic & Fallacies Constructing a Logical Argument (1997) mathew [ Español / Spanish ] Introduction There is a lot of debate on the net. Unfortunately, much of it is of very low quality. The aim of this document is to explain the basics of logical reasoning, and hopefully improve the overall quality of debate. The […]
Jeff Lowder Jury Intro
Introduction (1997) Jeffery Jay Lowder Related documents: Introduction to “A Jury in Need of Dismissal” (AJINOD) (Off Site) by James Patrick Holding Holding’s rebuttal to this essay. (Strangely, Holding does not link to my essay from his site.) Is ETDAV an Apologetic?” by Jeffery Jay Lowder My reply. Straight from the Horse’s Mouthby James Patrick […]
Re-defining ‘Apologetics’
(1997) Jeffery Jay Lowder In his latest (and allegedly, his last) salvo in the lively debate over the stated purpose of Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict, James Patrick Holding declares that ETDAV is not an apologetic because Mr. Ron Lutjens, a member of the ETDAV research team, says so.[1] Moreover, Holding states that […]
Independent Confirmation and the Historicity of Jesus
(1997) Jeffery Jay Lowder When skeptics question the existence of Jesus, they often assume that anyone who accepts the historicity of Jesus must be able to provide extra-Biblical confirmation of his existence. According to this view, the New Testament does not provide prima facie evidence for the historicity of Jesus; independent confirmation is needed. In […]