Modern Library

Criminals and psychos among ministers.

This is a compendium of quotations supporting the separation of state and church compiled by Ed and Michael Buckner. All of these quotes have been throughly researched. None are "out of context" or otherwise misleading. For example, the bogus John Adams' quote, "...this would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it ..." is not included. This compendium is an excellent reference for debating zealots who claim that this is a "Christian Nation", all of Founding Fathers were twice borns, and other nonsense.

Waco was merely the latest faith disaster.

Is the Bible the work of God? Is it a valid guidebook? How can we know? This introduction serves as a very basic preface to the makeup of the Bible and to how the Bible came about, as well as to some basic kinds of possible biblical problems—especially the kinds of problems inherent in a fundamentalist/literalist approach to the Bible that views the Bible as the inerrant, infallible, inspired, and plenary "Word" of a perfect, omnipotent, and loving God.

The author uses a two-letter system of abbreviations for the various books which make up the Bible. Although not unique, it is somewhat unusual. This is the key to those abbreviations.

In the author's opinion, these particular verses are so inconsistent with each other and/or with reality as to be fatal to the claim that the Bible was inspired by a perfect and omnipotent "God."

In the author's opinion, these verses represent absurdities which would not be characteristic of inspiration by a perfect and omnipotent "God."

In the author's opinion, these verses represent atrocities which would not be characteristic of inspiration by a perfect, omnipotent, just, and loving "God."

In the author's opinion, these verses represent inconsistencies which would not be characteristic of inspiration by a perfect "God." Note: The author makes a subtle distinction between the terms "inconsistency" and "contradiction"; please see his explanation in the disclaimer at the top of this article, and keep in mind that at least some of the listed inconsistencies could certainly be considered biblical contradictions.

In the author's opinion, these verses represent precepts and/or guidelines which would not be characteristic of inspiration by a perfect "God," precepts and/or guidelines which are even sometimes downright ridiculous.

In the author's opinion, these verses could be taken as being sufficiently vulgar as to be unworthy of having been inspired by a perfect "God," verses which--were they not in the Bible--would likely be considered even by many Jews and Christians to be "vulgar."

Religious killings are little noticed.

The great existentialist's atheism.

The "book is a logically deft and clearly written introduction to the philosophy of religion. It should be useful for undergraduate courses, though parts, such as the discussion of the modal ontological argument, are quite complex and certain to confuse beginners. The book is also a brief for atheism. In general, it serves both of its functions well. However, the three parts of the book are unequal in value. I found part 3, in which Le Poidevin examines the possibility of religion without God, to be of less interest than the earlier sections. Further, though I regard part 1, 'The Limits of Theistic Explanation,' as a nearly complete success, I have some reservations about the treatment of the problem of evil in part 2."

Religious slaughter through the centuries.

A Debate Between Duane Gish and Frank Zindler.

Saints who exterminated doubters.

A Debate Between John Koster and Frank Zindler.

A Debate Between John Koster and Frank Zindler. Cover Page.

A Debate Between John Koster and Frank Zindler. Foreword.

A Debate Between John Koster and Frank Zindler. Introduction.

A Debate Between John Koster and Frank Zindler. Debate Transcript.

University of Pittsburgh [This article was originally published in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 56, No. 3, Sept. 1989, pp. 373-394.] 1. Introduction Various writers confuse the genuine question “Does the physical universe have a temporal origin, and–if so–what does physical cosmology tell us about it?” with the quite different pseudo-problem “Was there a creation of […]

A Debate Between John Morris and Frank Zindler.

Real scripture written in quarks, gravity, photons, galaxies.

Abstract This thesis examines various attempts to construe theism as an explanatory hypothesis and to defend it with arguments similar to those employed in the confirmation of scientific hypotheses. It is the aim of this work to show that such a construal fails to confirm theism and in actuality leads to its disconfirmation. The first […]

Bibliography of Works Cited Bernstein, Richard J. Beyond Objectivism and Relativism. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983. Beversluis, John. C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1985. Boden, Margaret. “Miracles and Scientific Explanation.” Ratio, 11 (1969). Bultmann, Rudolf. “Neues Testament und Mythologie: Das Problem Entmythologisierung der neutestamentlichen Verkuendigung.” (1941) […]

Conclusion Works highly critical of theism sometimes end on a note of hesitancy. After carefully criticizing theism, skeptics sometimes feel an onus to offer alternative forms of spirituality or at least to argue that life in a godless universe need not be meaningless. Such doubt and hesitancy are hardly surprising. Although the tide of secularism […]

Introduction The philosophical defense of theism has taken many different directions in recent years. The effort to produce strictly demonstrative theistic proofs has not been completely abandoned, but it has long since moved from centre stage. Some of the new modes of philosophical theism are quite ingenious, such as Alvin Plantinga’s effort to construe belief […]

Chapter One Creationism: The Theistic Hypothesis as Pseudoscience One of the more significant social movements of the past few years has been the revival of militant Protestant fundamentalism in the United States. Following the 1925 Scopes trial–a judicial victory but a public relations disaster for Biblical literalists–there came a period of retreat during which fundamentalism […]