Review of The Problem of the Soul (2005) Thomas Clark   Review: Owen Flanagan. 2002. The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of the Mind and How to Reconcile Them. New York: Basic Books. xvi+364 pp. This article was originally published in Human Nature Review, Vol. 2 (2002), pp. 356-358. This Secular Web version has […]

About the Drange-Wilson Debate   The topic for this debate is, “The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of the Christian God vs. the Arguments from Nonbelief and Confusion for the Nonexistence of that God.” The debaters have agreed to the following debate format: Opening statements, submitted independently of one another, due 1 February First rebuttals, […]

Interview with Theodore Drange   Atheism Definition of Atheism LOWDER: How do you define atheism? DRANGE: Atheism is the belief that God does not exist. I have put down some arguments in support of that usage in my essay “Atheism, Agnosticism, Noncognitivism.” LOWDER: Under your definition people who are pretty sure that God exists, people […]

Pascal’s Wager In the seventeenth century the mathematician Blaise Pascal formulated his infamous pragmatic argument for belief in God in Pensées. The argument runs as follows: If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But […]

Transcendental Argument It is impossible, this argument claims, for any authoritative rationality (including an atheist’s) to emerge from inchoate matter — the existence of God must be assumed, therefore, in order to deny God’s existence.  In addition to the articles below, see also related Debates, Reviews, and Links. To purchase related reading, go to the […]

Theistic Arguments: Reviews/Critiques Formal debates between theists and nontheists on topics relating to the theistic arguments: Scripture Miracles Design Cosmological Moral Experience Other To purchase related reading, go to the Secular Web Book Store.   Argument from Holy Scripture: Book Review: The Jesus Puzzle (2000) by James Still Still reviews the work by Earl Doherty, […]

Argument from Reason The Argument from Cognitive Biases (2018) by Aron Lucas A family of theistic arguments contends that the human ability to reason is to be expected under theism, but is surprising under metaphysical naturalism, and thus provides evidence favoring theism over naturalism. One common line of argument is that unguided evolution favors traits […]

Psychology of Religion On (False) Prophets and Messiahs (2016) by Michael Moore Innumerable claims to being a prophet or messiah should raise suspicions even among believers that a great many claimants have been false prophets. Nonbelievers go even further: all prophets are false. Among those that believe that some prophets are the real deal, one […]

Other Theistic Arguments Various articles related to general and other arguments for the existence of God(s). In addition to the articles below, see also related Debates, Reviews, and Links. To purchase related reading, go to the Secular Web Book Store. Argument from Confusion [ Index ] An atheological (i.e., argument for the nonexistence of a God) from […]

Ontological Arguments Ontological arguments contend that we can know that God exists in the same way that we know that 2 + 2 = 4: through reason alone. In other words, they claim to show that God exists without ever consulting experience or observation. Anselm provided the first ontological argument for the existence of God […]

The Bible in the Book of Mormon (1999) by Curt van den Heuvel “The Book of Mormon was written by someone who either had a KJV Bible in front of him, or was intimately familiar with its contents. When we add to this phenomenon other Book of Mormon problems, such as the lack of any […]

Joseph Smith “Prophet Puzzle” Revisited by Dan Vogel (Off Site) Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy (Off Site) Did Joseph Smith make an accurate prophecy or was his ‘prophecy’ just a product of his environment? Joseph Smith biography by C. Clark Julius (Off Site) Joseph Smith’s various First Vision accounts (Off Site) compiled by W. V. […]

Book of Mormon The Bible in the Book of Mormon (1999) by Curt van den Heuvel “The Book of Mormon was written by someone who either had a KJV Bible in front of him, or was intimately familiar with its contents. When we add to this phenomenon other Book of Mormon problems, such as the […]

Mormonism Book of Abraham Book of Mormon Joseph Smith Blacks Receive LDS Priesthood (1978) (Off Site) by Jerald and Sandra Tanner (Evangelical Christians) “Since we have probably printed more material critical of the Mormon antiblack doctrine than any other publisher, the new revelation comes as a great victory and a vindication of our work.” The […]

Moral Argument and Divine Command Theory: Reviews/Critiques "Why I Believe in Moral Absolutes" (1995) from Commentary on D. James Kennedy’s "Why I Believe" by Anachronist Anachronist critiques Chapter 7 of D. James Kennedy’s book, Why I Believe, which makes a "fairly good case, with only a few glaring weaknesses, for the moral system offered by […]

Moral Argument and Divine Command Theory: Related Links   The American Humanist Association (Off Site) A national organization founded in 1941 to promote humanism in the United States, the AHA represents both secular and religious naturalistic humanism and promotes, among other things, that the derivation of "the goals of life from human need and interest […]

Moral Arguments Moral arguments for theism include attempts to establish the existence of God from some (alleged) fact about morality. Many people hold that objective moral values are required to make sense of certain facets of human life, for instance, and that God is the only possible source of such values. The metaethical moral argument […]

Argument from Miracles The occurrence of miracles is frequently purported to be evidence of the supernatural, and therefore of the existence of a God.  In addition to the articles below, see also related Debates, Reviews, and Links. To purchase related reading, go to the Secular Web Book Store.   Resurrection [ Index ] Selected articles on the […]

Theistic Arguments: Links to Other Resources Formal debates between theists and nontheists on topics relating to the theistic arguments: Cosmological Design Miracles Moral Ontological Scripture Transcendental Wager Other To purchase related reading, go to the Secular Web Book Store. Argument from Holy Scripture: Biblical Criticism [ Index ] Selected articles on modern Biblical criticism and scholarship. Biblical […]

Judaism and Jewish Apologetics Guido G.B. Deimel “Those who wish to seek out the causes of miracles, and to understand the things of nature as philosophers, and not stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious and proclaimed as such by those whom the mob adore as the interpreters of […]

Judaism Elucidation of Genesis 1 (Off Site) by Shlomi Tal This article is a secular-minded elucidation of the first chapter of the book of Genesis based on the original Hebrew text, with translation and commentary. Genealogical Saga of Judaism (2001) by Shlomi Tal According to Orthodox Judaism, nothing has value unless it is for the sake […]

Related Sites The Holy Koran (Off Site) A searchable English translation of the Koran provided by the University of Virginia. Apostates of Islam (Off Site) “We are ex-Muslims. We committed the ultimate sin of thinking and questioned the belief that was imposed on us and we came to realize that far from being a religion of truth, […]

Islam General Islam A Declaration of Women’s Rights in Islamic Societies (1997) (Off Site) Ibn Warraq on the World Trade Center Atrocity (2001) (Off Site) by Ibn Warraq The Terrors of Islam (1994) (Off Site) by Antony Flew Jihad and Civilization – Part 1 (The Battle of Badr) (1999) (Off Site) by Anwar Shaikh Negationism and the Muslim Conquests […]

Hinduism Induced Religious Conversions: An Affront To Hindus (2002) by Balgrim Ragoonanan Ragoonanan explores some typical misunderstandings of Hinduism, provides useful information for both Christians and Hindus on the nature of Hinduism, and explains why Christian proselytizing is an affront to Hindus. [Editor’s note: This article is presented as an article of interest regarding Hinduism. […]

Religious Experience Craig’s Holy Spirit Epistemology (1998) by Michael Martin “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.’ … I will argue that Craig fails […]

Religious Experience According to the argument from religious experience (ARE), the “self-authenticating witness of God’s Holy Spirit” or other mystical experiences constitute direct evidence of communion with God or other supernatural beings. In “The Will to Believe” (1896) William James distinguishes between strong and weak versions of the argument. The strong version contends that religious […]

Divine Command Theory The divine command theory (DCT) of ethics holds that an act is either moral or immoral solely because God either commands us to do it or prohibits us from doing it, respectively. On DCT the only thing that makes an act morally wrong is that God prohibits doing it, and all that […]

Argument to Design: Reviews/Critiques Behe’s Empty Box [ Index ] (Off Site) An index of articles, both pro and con, on Michael Behe’s argument from irreducible complexity and his recent book, Darwin’s Black Box. Critiques of Michael Behe [ Index ] A collection of critical reviews of Behe’s Darwin’s Black Box. A Critique of Michael Denton’s Evolution: […]

Argument to Design: Related Links Atheistic Teleological Arguments [Index] From the II Modern Library. Boston Review: Articles on Evolution [Index] (Off Site) Critiques, responses to critiques, and responses to responses, from Dennett to Behe to Orr. Design in God’s Creation (Off Site) This online creationist resource from the U.K. features ?? items such as “Creation […]