[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
Testimonials Carrier
From Taoist to Infidel (2001) Richard Carrier My experiences with religion as a child were all good. My mother was a church secretary at a First Methodist Church only a block from our home, and I attended Sunday School fairly regularly, but my parents rarely insisted that I attend any sermons. The religion sold at […]
Theism Bible Mormon
Argument from Holy Scripture: Mormon Scripture Book of Abraham [ Index ] In 1835, Joseph Smith acquired a collection of papyrus fragments from a traveling Egyptian show. He claimed to be able to translate these fragments, and the Book of Abraham is the result. The articles selected here confront the origins and “divine” nature of this text. […]
Theism Christianity Prophecy
Prophecy The Argument from the Bible (1996) by Theodore Drange “Almost all evangelical Christians believe that the writing of the Bible was divinely inspired and represents God’s main revelation to humanity. They also believe that the Bible contains special features which constitute evidence of its divine inspiration. This would be a use of the Bible […]
Theism Experience
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 […]
Theism Mormonism X 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 lack of any […]
Thomas Clark Skeptics
Review of Skeptics and True Believers (2005) Thomas Clark Review: Chet Raymo. 1998. Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection Between Science and Religion. New York: Walker and Company. 288 pp. This article was originally published at naturalism.org in 1998, home page of the Center for Naturalism. This version contains minor editorial changes. Science […]
Travis Denneson Antichrist
Nietzsche’s The Antichrist (1999) Travis J. Denneson I. Introduction In his book, The Antichrist, Nietzsche sets out to denounce and illegitimize not only Christianity itself as a belief and a practice, but also the ethical-moral value system which modern western civilization has inherited from it. This book can be considered a further development of some […]
Vic Stenger Ross
The Functional Equivalent of God (1998) Victor J. Stenger Review of The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God. Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress 1995. In Chapter 1, the author of The Creator and the Cosmos tells us of a meeting he attended in which a distinguished philosopher […]
Adolf Grunbaum Explanation
Creation As a Pseudo-Explanation in Current Physical Cosmology Adolf Grünbaum University of Pittsburgh [This article was originally published in Erkenntnis 35: 233-254, 1991.] Introduction In his posthumously published The Direction of Time (1956, p. 133), Hans Reichenbach wrote: “At the present state of cosmology, it is very difficult to come to a conclusion […]
Anachronist Why I Believe 56 Hv Hl
CHAPTERS 5 & 6: WHY I BELIEVE IN HEAVEN / HELL (Non Sequitur) After that long analysis of the chapter on creationism, I need a rest! Fortunately, the next two chapters in Why I Believe can be reviewed relatively quickly. The chapter on Heaven begins by first trying to establish the immortality of the human […]
Bill Schultz Agnostic
The Essence Of Agnosticism by Bill Schultz The word “agnostic” was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley, and so there can only be one single point of departure for any discussion of the essence of agnosticism. That point is the definition of agnosticism chosen by Huxley himself: Agnosticism is not a creed but a method, the […]
Religion And The U. S. Supreme Court – Now
Religion And The U. S. Supreme Court – Now by Bill Schultz Table of Contents Introduction The Legacy of the Founding Fathers The “Sleeping Dog” 14th Amendment An Era Of Religious Orthodoxy The Great Change The Changed Law Evolves New Laws Against Religious Discrimination The Modern Teeter-Totter The Law as Things Stand Now The Law […]
Church State Articles Vouchers
School Vouchers Articles Achievement Effects of the Milwaukee Voucher Program by John Witte The Effectiveness of School Choice in Milwaukee: A Secondary Analysis of Data from the Program’s Evaluation (August 14, 1996) by Jay P. Greene, Paul E. Peterson and Jiangtao Du A Critical Analysis of the Greene-Peterson-Du Paper (American Federation of Teachers) Educational Vouchers: […]
Corey Washington Craig Washington Question
Question: Yes Dr. Craig, I’m slightly puzzled. You, um, said in the beginning of your argument that the universe cannot be infinite because it leads to, um, logical contradictions, such as, "How can you have inifnity minus infinity?", and I accepted your argument at that point. But then in my mind, God Himself cannot be […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Additional Topics
We will now look at several arguments, which may or may not be supported by Dr. Hovind, that enjoy a wide circulation. I will also present a couple of arguments indicating that the earth is much older than a few thousand years. Woodmorappe’s Collection of Bad Radiometric Dates Supplying the Water for Noah’s Flood Coal […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Geologic Column
It is a Poor Base for Calibrating C-14 Dating It is Based On the Assumption that Evolution is True It is a Fictitious Invention to Discredit the Bible It is Invalidated by Out Of Place Fossils and Strata The Assumed Age of a Sample Dictates the Method Used
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Lava
Young-earth "proof" #12: The volume of lava on earth divided by its rate of efflux yields only a few million years. The earth is not billions of years old. 12. At present, when mountain ranges are actively being built up, the output of magma is almost certainly much higher than usual. There may have been […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Sediment
Young-earth "proof" #21: Given the rate of sediment transport into the ocean by the world’s rivers, the ocean basins should have a much thicker layer of sediment than they actually have. Only a small amount of sediment is on the ocean floor, indicating a few thousand years of accumulation. This embarrassing fact explains why the […]
Debates Secularist Abortion Carrier1
Abortion is not Immoral and Should not be Illegal by Richard C. Carrier Introduction This opening argument against the immorality and illegality of abortion is simple, short and largely unoriginal: the arguments have all been voiced and heard a thousand times before. As will become apparent, the present argument leaves numerous fundamental assumptions as […]
Debates Secularist Capital
On The Issue of Capital Punishment: Capital Punishment is still used in the US Penal System as punishment for serious crime. Great controversy exists on whether it is a just solution, a moral one, and an effective one. Arguments are many and varied both for and against capital punishment. It is often assumed that the […]
Debates Secularist Iq
On The Issues Involved in Intelligence and IQ: The Intelligence Quotient has been under scrutiny for decades yet it continues to be used in testing within our educational institutions. What is intelligence? How advanced is our understanding of the concept and how applicable are IQ tests in generating worthwhile results? Many people believe intelligence is […]
Debates Secularist Vegie
On The Issues Involved in Vegetarianism: Vegetarianism is a chosen lifestyle for a variety of reasons. Common among those reasons is the opposition to the meat industry and the techniques and treatment involved. Other reasons include health and nutrition, the cost of meat and meat by-products, the humane alternative, and more. Critics also employ a […]
Doug Krueger Krueger Mchugh Mchugh3
The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Christopher McHugh Second Rebuttal by Christopher McHugh In this second rebuttal, I will offer refutations (limited by the length restrictions) of Krueger’s objections to the version of the ontological argument that I have presented. It will be shown that Krueger’s comments are nugatory because they are based […]
Edwin Wilson Manifesto Ch5
CHAPTER 5 The Editing Process That there was no one writer of "A Humanist Manifesto" becomes clear as one reviews the editing process. Following the receipt of Dr. Sellars’ first draft and some initial correspondence, the meetings of an editorial committee-Curtis Reese, A. Eustace Haydon, Raymond Bragg, and myself-were convened by Bragg and held in […]
Farrell Till Horner Till Horner2
Okay., this concept of extraordinary proof that’s required here is critical, and so I’m going to touch on that first. This statement, "extraordinary events require extraordinary evidence," creates a phantom standard that virtually nothing could meet. It amounts, as Dr. Till… [Turning to Till] Dr. Till, I just gave you an honorary doctorate. As Mr. […]
Farrell Till Turkel
Reply to Robert Turkel (1998) Farrell Till [Editor’s Note: We publish here in its entirety Farrell Till’s series of replies to Robert Turkel, the anonymous apologist of Tekton Apologetics Ministries also known as James Patrick Holding. Although the Internet Infidels have known Mr. Turkel’s real name for over a year now, he requested that […]
Finngeir Hiorth Domino
Imaginative Atheism (1997) Finngeir Hiorth Michael Martin: The Big Domino in the Sky and Other Atheistic Tales, Prometheus Books, 59 John Glenn Drive, Amherst, New York 14228-2197, U.S.A., 1996, paperback, 244 pp. With his massive book Atheism, a Philosophical Justification (Temple Univ. Press, Philadelphia 1990, 541 pp.) Michael Martin established himself as a […]
Gerald Larue Otll Chap14
Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 14 – The History of the Kingdoms THE record of Solomon’s greatness fails to indicate the seething bitterness and resentment that must have been developing among the people. Only when Rehoboam appeared for succession rites were the feelings expressed by those who bore […]
Gerald Larue Otll Chap29
Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 29 – The Period of Jewish Independence Read I Macc. Chs. 1-14 THE story of Jewish Independence recorded in I Maccabees reads like an adventure story. Jewish resistance to Antiochus’ proscription of Judaism began in 168 at Modin, a village in the hill […]
Graham Oppy Miller
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 […]