[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
Richard Carrier Howto
What Do We Do When Some Theist We Don’t Know Sends Us E-mail? (1997) Richard Carrier The Basic Guidelines 1) Always respond. 2) If the letter was abusive or childish, politely but curtly say so, and that you wish to have no further contact with such a rude and immoral person, or else you […]
Richard Carrier Improbable Persecuted
Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction] Richard Carrier 8. Who Would Want to be Persecuted? 8.1 Social Foundations of Martyrdom 8.2 Paul and Tertullian 8.3 Where Holding Gets It Wrong 8.4 Where Holding Gets It Right 8.1. Social Foundations of Martyrdom James Holding rightly downplays the issue of martyrdom, since legend and […]
Richard Carrier Indef 4e
Craig’s Empty Tomb & Habermas on Visions (1999, 2005) Richard Carrier [Part 4E of a larger Review of In Defense of Miracles.] The Resurrection of Jesus Two chapters are devoted to the resurrection of Jesus. First, Craig argues that Jesus was miraculously resurrected and that we can know this from an analysis of […]
Richard Carrier Nazarethlaw
The Nazareth Inscription (2000) Richard Carrier Several authors have advanced a particular inscription as early evidence of the empty tomb story in the Gospels. I will not attempt to trace all uses of this argument (I have encountered several), but I will note the two most important examples: it was used most recently by […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection 2c
This file has been relocated: it is now Section III of Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds.
Richard Carrier Resurrection 3g
This file has been relocated: it is now Section VII of General Case for Spiritual Resurrection: Evidence Against Resurrection of the Flesh.
Richard Carrier Sci
Scientific Studies (Bibliography of Skepticism in the Ancient World) (1998) Richard Carrier (copyright 1999) Scientific Studies Biddle, Bruce Jesse, and Marlin, Marjorie M., “Causality, Confirmation, Credulity, and Structural Equation Modeling,” in Child Development, Vol. 58, Feb., 1987, pp. 4-17. Bower, Bruce, “True Believers: the Thinking Person May Favor Gullibility Over Skepticism,” in Science News, […]
Richard Gale Theodicy
R. M. Adams’s Theodicy of Grace (1998) Richard Gale The following article was originally published in Philo, 1 (1998) pp. 36-44. Robert M. Adams, in a brilliant, thought-provoking essay, “Must God Create the Best?”[1], puts forth a theodicy for God’s creating inferior people to those he could have created or, in general, a less […]
Robby Berry Skeprayr
A Response To “The Skeptic’s Prayer” Robby Berry “The Skeptic’s Prayer” is a tract taken from the Handbook Of Christian Apologetics, by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli. I first learned of the tract when Jeff Lowder posted it to the Usenet newsgroup, alt.atheism. What follows is my response to the tract. Introduction The following prayer […]
Robert Price Beyond Born Again Chap8
________________________________________ 97 Beyond Born Again Section III– Can Evangelical Theology be Born Again? Chapter 8: Biblical Ventriloquism ________________________________________ 98 “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be….” — I John 3:2a “Watch what you say They’ll be calling you a radical, A liberal, oh fanatical, […]
Robert Price Price Rankin Index2
Jesus: Fact or Fiction? A Dialogue With Dr. Robert Price and Rev. John Rankin About this Debate [ 3K ] Opening Statement by Robert Price [ 24K ] Opening Statement by John Rankin [ 26K ] Dialogue [ 27K ] Questions from the Audience [ 58K ] Closing Statement by Robert M. Price [ 3K ] Closing Statement by John Rankin [ 4K ]
Science Creationism Debates
Creationist Debates Is Creationism Science? (Gish-Zindler Debate) (1990) [ Index ] A debate between Duane Gish and Frank Zindler that was aired on a radio program hosted by Jim Bleikamp. Zindler tries to get Gish to move beyond merely attacking evolution and provide positive evidence for creationism. E-mail Conversation with a Creationist (Alan Hale vs. Anonymous) (1997) […]
The Fool Late
The author has requested that he be referred to as “Gaunilo II.” We have therefore moved his files into a new directory. The address for his files is now: /library/modern/gaunilo2/late.html Please update your links. Thank you.
Theism Christianity Codes
Bible Codes About Minimal Skip by Brendan McKay (1997) (Off Site) Assassinations Foretold in Moby Dick! by Brendan McKay (1997) (Off Site) The Bible Code: A Book Review by Allyn Jackson (1997) (Off Site) The Demise of Drosnin by Brendan McKay (1997) (Off Site) Hidden Messages and The Bible Code by David E. Thomas (1997) […]
Theism Cosmo Reviews
Cosmological Arguments: Reviews/Critiques Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: The Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (Book Review) (2000) by Richard Carrier The errors in David Becks’ arguments for God in the book In Defense of Miracles are examined. The first of three arguments is the modern incarnation of the cosmological “first cause” argument, which […]
Theism Moral
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 […]
Timm Triplett Horner Triplett
Mr. Triplett’s Opening Remarks
Tyler Wunder Davis 6
Concluding Remarks: Return to DT and the Possibility of Rational Resurrection-Belief and Resurrection-Doubt On its barest interpretation, DT claims that both belief in and scepticism of the resurrection can be rational given an awareness of the most persuasive argumentative cases for both sides in the resurrection-debate; consequently, the truth or falsity of DT will […]
Andrei Volkov Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky Did Say It: A Response to David E. Cortesi (2011) Andrei I. Volkov I recently read an old Secular Web article by David E. Cortesi titled “Dostoevsky Didn’t Say It” (2000). This essay is now widely cited and referenced across the Internet. When believers attribute to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1880) the phrase […]
Understanding the Limits of Knowing
Understanding the Limits of Knowing Answering The False Claims of Creationists by Bill Schultz Table of Contents Introduction How We Come To “Know” Things Science Is The Organized And Methodical Accumulation Of Knowledge Why Science And Religion Might Disagree About What “Knowing” Entails Why Science Is “Biased” Towards Naturalism Dualism: The Essence Of The Disagreement […]
Bruce Russell Intervene
Why Doesn’t God Intervene to Prevent Evil? (1996) Bruce Russell (This article was originally published in Philosophy: The Quest for Truth [third ed., ed. Louis P. Pojman, Belmont: Wadsworth, 1996], pp. 74-80.) Bruce Russell is professor and chair of the philosophy department at Wayne State University. He has published several articles in philosophy of […]
Church State Pledge
The Pledge of Allegiance “Under God” in Pledge of Allegiance [ Index ] (Off Site) A collection of resources from the Pluralism Project. Pledge of Allegiance Restoration Project [ Index ] (Off Site) This is the website of Michael Newdow, the atheist father who sued to have the words, "Under God," declared to be an unconstitutional insertion into the Pledge […]
Curt Heuvel Bom Kjv
The Book of Mormon and the King James Version (1999) Curt van den Heuvel Introduction The King James Version of the Bible is, in all likelihood, the most successful of all the English translations. Volumes have been written on its distinctive and rhythmic style, and it is still regarded as a triumph of modern […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Biblio
References Alfven, Hannes, and Gustaf Arrhenius. 1976. Evolution of the Solar System NASA SP345, National Space and Aeronautics Administration, Washington, D.C. Aller, M. F. 1971. “Promethium in the star HR465” Sky & Telescope, vol.41, pp.220-222 Anderson, J. L. 1972. “Non-Poisson distributions observed during counting of certain carbon-14-labeled organic (sub) monolayers” Physical Chemistry Journal, vol.76, pp.3603-3612 […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments
Specific Creationist Arguments Dave E. Matson It only takes one proof of a young earth to decide the issue. The Sun is Shrinking! Cosmic Dust Accumulation on the Moon and Earth Comet Burnout Meteorites, Fossil Craters and Geologic Strata The Moon is Receding and it Could Only Have Been So Close U-236 and Th-230, Both […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Niagara
Young-earth "proof" #17: Erosion rates limit Niagara Falls to an age of less than 10,000 years. Therefore, the earth is young. 17. If Dr. Hovind is right, then the Niagara Falls are less than 10,000 years old. What of it? Since when does the age of the Niagara Falls have anything to do with the […]
David Zaitzeff Asa Arch
Asa and Archer: Does the Bible contain errors? David Zaitzeff The Bible contains many passages which seem to contradict other passages. Unbelievers, skeptics and modernist Christians see these passages as evidence the Bible contains errors. Conservative or “fundamentalist” Christians respond with books on “Bible difficulties.” These books attempt to explain the contradictions. The usual […]
The Secular Case Against Abortion
The Secular Case Against Abortion by Jennifer Roth It seems that I was premature in proclaiming that Mr. Carrier and I had reached agreement on a number of key issues. I had hoped to focus attention on the question of the definition of a person, since I believed (and still believe) that to be the […]
Debates Secularist Gaymarriage
On The Issues of Gay & Lesbian Marriage: Gays and lesbians, along with heterosexual supporters, have been campaigning the government to legalize gay marriages. Society, for the most part, is still lobbying against such change. The issues involved are quite simple: homosexuals simply want the same rights that are afforded straight people. Opposing parties, however, […]
Debates Secularist Segregate
On The Issues Involved in Segregation: The issues involved in segregation closely parallel those involved in the subject of multiculturalism although there are some important differences. Having a separate debate on this subject also allows some of the arguments to be examined more closely. Segregation involves placing emphasis on the difference among peoples rather than […]