Pascal’s Wager Is A Possible Bet (But Not A Very Good One): Reply To Harmon Holcomb III (1996) Graham Oppy   In “To Bet The Impossible Bet”, Harmon Holcomb III argues: (i) that Pascal’s wager is structurally incoherent; (ii) that if it were not thus incoherent, then it would be successful; and (iii) that my […]

Review of Dean L. Overman (1997) A Case Against Accident and Self-Organisation New York: Rowman & Littlefield   To judge from the dust-jacket, this book has received a considerable amount of praise–and not just from the usual suspects. In particular, the publishers seem keen to promulgate the view that there is widespread support for the […]

Curriculum Vitae   Name: Graham Robert Oppy Date of Birth: October 6, 1960 Place of Birth: Benalla, Victoria, Australia Citizenship: Australian Education: Primary:  1966-1972, Wendouree Primary (#1813), Wendouree       1972: Dux, Full Scholarship to Wesley College Secondary:  1973-1978, Wesley College, Prahran, Melbourne       1978 HSC: General Distinction; Special Distinctions: English, Chemistry Tertiary:   1979-1985, Melbourne University, Parkville, Melbourne       1985: B.Sc./B.A. […]

Review of: Craig, William Lane, and Moreland, J. P. (eds) Naturalism: A Critical Analysis London: Routledge, 2000, pp.xv+279, £60.00   The editors claim a threefold purpose for the essays which appear in this collection. First, the essays are intended to establish that naturalism “fails to deal adequately with a number of desiderata”. Second, the essays […]

Modal Theistic Arguments (1993) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published as “Modal Theistic Arguments”, Sophia, 32, 2, July 1993, pp.17-24] A modal theistic argument is a proof of the existence of God which makes use of the premise that God is a being who exists in every possible world. Such arguments have been […]

Book Review: Miller, B., From Existence To God: A Contemporary Philosophical Argument (London and New York: Routledge, 1992) pp. x, 206 (1994) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published in the Australasian Journal Of Philosophy, 72, 2, June 1994, pp.257-258)] This book is a synthesis of much previously published material, the existence of which […]

On “The Ontological Argument”: A Response To Makin (1991) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published as “Makin On The Ontological Argument”, Philosophy, 66, 255, January 1991, pp.106-114] In “The Ontological Argument”, (Philosophy 63, 1988, pp.83-91) Stephen Makin offers a defence of what he calls “Anselm’s Ontological Argument”. I am not much interested in […]

Craig, Mackie, And The Kalam Cosmological Argument (1991) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published as Religious Studies 27 (1991): 189-97.] In “Professor Mackie And The Kalam Cosmological Argument” (Religious Studies, 1984, Vol.20, pp.367-375), Professor William Lane Craig undertakes to demonstrate that J. L. Mackie’s analysis of the kalam cosmological argument in The Miracle […]

Some Emendations to Leftow’s Arguments About Time and Eternity (1998)   I am sympathetic to the view that, if God exists, then God is timeless. Consequently, I am (conditionally!) sympathetic to the project which Brian Leftow undertakes in Time and Eternity (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991). However, it seems to me that the case which […]

Godelian Ontological Arguments (1996) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published as “Godelian Ontological Arguments” Analysis 56, 4, October 1996, pp.226-230] There is now a considerable secondary literature on Godel’s ontological arguments; in particular, interested readers should consult Sobel (1987), Anderson (1990) and Adams (1995). In this note, I wish to draw attention to […]

Is God Good By Definition? (1992) Graham Oppy   [This article was originally published as “Is God Good By Definition?”, Religious Studies, 28, 1992, pp.467-474.] As a matter of historical fact, most philosophers and theologians who have defended traditional theistic views have been moral realists. Some “divine command” theorists have held that the good is […]

Time, Successive Addition, and Kalam Cosmological Arguments Graham Oppy   Craig (1981) presents and defends several different kalam cosmological arguments. The core of each of these arguments is the following ur-argument: 1. The universe began to exist. 2. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of its existence. 3. (Hence) The universe has a cause […]

Professor William Craig’s Criticisms of Critiques of Kalam Cosmological Arguments By Paul Davies, Stephen Hawking, And Adolf Grünbaum (1995) Graham Oppy   Kalam cosmological arguments have recently been the subject of criticisms, at least inter alia, by physicists–Paul Davies, Stephen Hawking–and philosophers of science–Adolf Grünbaum. In a series of recent articles, William Craig has attempted […]

Weak Agnosticism Defended[1] Graham Oppy Agnosticism has had some bad press in recent years. Nonetheless, I hope to show that agnosticism can be so formulated that it is no less philosophically respectable than theism and atheism. This is not a mere philosophical exercise; for, as it happens, the formulated position is–I think–the one to which […]

The Jesus of History: A Reply to Josh McDowell Gordon Stein, Ph.D. Editor’s Note: The following essay was written by the late Gordon Stein in 1982. It is a slightly-modified version of an article that appeared in the July/August 1982 issue of The American Rationalist under the same name. In this essay, Stein claimed that […]

Josh McDowell’s Charade (1982) Gordon Stein, Ph.D. [NOTE: The following article is copyright by Gordon Stein and is reproduced with his permission.] Josh McDowell is one of the most popular writers that fundamentalist Christianity has. He is also one of the least trustworthy. Almost nothing he says in his books (e.g., Evidence That Demands a […]

Review of "Answers to Tough Questions Skeptics Ask About The Christian Faith" by Josh McDowell and Don Stewart Gordon Stein, Ph.D. [NOTE: The following review appeared in the July/August 1982 issue of The American Rationalist.] I am puzzled by this book. Is it a sincere work, faulted by the fact that a little knowledge is […]

Christianity Untrue, Says Teacher Church Wants to Stop Him from Training Students for Ministry   By Ray Waddle, Religion Editor, The Tennessean [This article was originally published in The Tennessean, August 29, 1998, pp. 1B-2B.]   Gerd Luedemann no longer believes in Christianity, and he suspects a lot of Christians secretly agree with him. The […]

July 26, 2000   Prof. Dr. E. Muehlenberg Faculty of Theology George-August University 37073 Goettingen Germany Dear Prof. Dr. Muehlenberg: I write in response to your letter of April 4, 2000. Although an “open letter” would have been quite appropriate in such a case, it was not our intention that you would learn about our […]

Ten Golden Words (1995) Gerd Lüdemann   [The following essay was originally published as the Epilogue to Gerd Lüdemann, Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity (trans. John Bowden, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), pp. 219-220.] 1. The view of the Bible as the Word of God or as Holy Scripture belongs to […]

Positive Humanism Gerald A. Larue, Ph.D. There is a certain aspect of Humanism that inspires a Humanist to debunk the superstitious and simplistic assumptions of pseudoscience and organized religion. Perhaps through overemphasis, Humanism may project a negative image and be seen as a joyless put-down of everything that does not represent cold, hard rationalism or […]

  Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   A Word to the Reader TO get the most from this book, you will need a Bible, preferably in modern translation. Keep the Bible at hand, for few passages are quoted and the writer has assumed that you will read the biblical references. The […]

  Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Preface THIS book is concerned with the literature, history and religious thought of the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. The approach to these themes is chronological and utilizes literary and historical analytic methodology, as well as the results of archaeological, anthropological, geographical and Near […]

  Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   PART 2 – Before There Was an Israel PROLOGUE All human events occur within dimensions of space and time. Prerequisites for adequate evaluation of happenings are knowledge of the physical environment or stage-setting and comprehension of historical antecedents or factors preceding the event. Because […]

  Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Chart of Central Events in the Ancient Near East CHART XVIII. Chart of Central Events in the Ancient Near East Aegean and Greece Egypt Asia Minor Syria and Palestine Assyria Babylonia Iran 2800 Egyptian writing Early Bronze Walled Cities Cuneiform writing 2800 2600 Old […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 9 – The Settlement of Canaan THE Hebrews entered a land with its own highly developed culture. During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, Canaan was dotted with strong, walled, industrial and trade centers surrounded by orchards, vineyards, grain fields and pasture land. Wool […]

(1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 8 – Who Were the Hebrews? ACCORDING to biblical tradition, the Hebrews are peoples descended from Shem, one of Noah’s sons, through Eber, the eponymous ancestor, and Abraham. Gen. 7:22 f., reports that the flood destroyed all life except that in Noah’s ark; consequently, the whole human family descended from […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Chapter 7 – The People, from the Early Bronze to the Early Iron Ages MANETHO, the Egyptian priest-historian of the third century B.C., writes of Egyptian history in terms of dynasties. Modern historians, without abandoning Manetho’s pattern, prefer broader designations of Protodynastic, Old, Middle and […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Chaper 6 -The People, from the Paleolithic to the Chalcolithic Periods OUR study will concentrate on the biblical period which embraces less than two millennia of human history, but long before the Hebrews entered the historical scene there were people living in the Fertile Crescent […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Chapter 5 – The Land AS the land-bridge between Africa and Asia, Palestine early became a thoroughfare for wandering peoples, tradesmen, and armies. Over its highways came products and ideas from Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Aegeans and desert nomads. In itself, the land gave […]