[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
Michael Martin Glynn
Patrick Glynn’s God: the Evidence Michael Martin Patrick Glynn, a former atheist with a Ph.D. from Harvard, argues in God: The Evidence[1] that new scientific discoveries in cosmology, psychology, and medicine add up “to a powerful–indeed, all-but-incontestable–case for … the existence of soul, afterlife and God (p. 2).” Written in a breezy popular style […]
Michael Martin Martin Frame Tang5
Final Response to Frame Michael Martin I would like to thank John Frame for the courtesy and care with which he has carried on the discussion. Our discussion has been stimulating and has raised many important issues in the philosophy of religion which believers, atheists, and agnostics must take seriously. Although it would be […]
Michael Martin Suffering
Human Suffering and the Acceptance of God (1997) Michael Martin Why is there so much human suffering in the world if God is all good and all powerful? As I have shown elsewhere although there have been many answers to this question none are successful.[1] However, an answer has been offered by William Craig […]
Michael Moore Religious Violence
Religion and Violence (2017) Michael Moore There is no greater social evil than religion. It is the cancer in the body of humanity. — A. C. Grayling (2005, p. 34) The connection between religion and violence is a long-standing one. Its roots can be found in Edward Burnett Tylor’s description of the “murderous practices” found […]
Nontheism Atheism
Atheism About Atheism [ Index ] Various introductions to atheism, including its definition; its relationship to agnosticism, theism, and noncognitivism; and its value. Arguments for Atheism [ Index ] In this section, “arguments for atheism” means “arguments for the nonexistence of God.” In the jargon of the philosophy of religion, such arguments are known as “atheological arguments.” The argument […]
Nontheism Atheism Ground Morality
Without God, What Grounds Right and Wrong? Adams’s Open-Question Argument Against Ethical Naturalism (2006) by Stephen Sullivan In Finite and Infinite Goods, Robert Merrihew Adams offers an interesting variation on G. E. Moore’s famous open-question argument against ethical naturalism. In giving causal-explanatory reasoning the last word in ethical inquiry, he says, ethical naturalists negate a […]
Nontheism Atheism Whymoral
Why Should Atheists Be Moral? Does the Christian Theism Advocated by J.P. Moreland Provide a Better Reason to be Moral than Secular Humanism? (1998) by Richard C. Carrier Carrier refutes Moreland’s claim that theism offers more and better reasons to live a moral life than atheism or secular humanism. Doing the Right Thing (1998) (Off Site) […]
Paul Draper General Intro
General Introduction (2007) Paul Draper God is not dead, but the Supreme Being’s academic health is far from perfect. This is not a comment about God, of course. It is a comment about the professoriate, especially at elite universities and especially in the arts and sciences. Metaphysical naturalism, which is a form of atheism […]
Paul Obrien Gentle Atheism13
I want to discuss some emotional issues that religious beliefs serve to address and accommodate. Although it seems obvious that a belief should be concerned with the truth, it is less obvious to some that a belief’s implications help determine its worth. It is even less obvious that a belief needs to conform to one’s […]
Peter Kirby Tomb Appearance
Appearance Traditions The first appearances were to Peter and his associates. The first appearance recounted in the formula found in 1 Corinthians 15 is the one to Kephas. This is widely acknowledged to be the earliest and best evidence that is available. The Gospel of Mark, the oldest of the four, alludes to the appearance […]
Quentin Smith Anthropic
The Anthropic Coincidences, Evil and the Disconfirmation of Theism (1992) Quentin Smith The following article was originally published in RELIGIOUS STUDIES in 1992 (Volume 28, pp. 347-350). The anthropic principle or the associated anthropic coincidences have been used by philosophers such as John Leslie (1989), William Lane Craig (1988) and Richard Swinburne […]
Quentin Smith Universe
Internal and External Causal Explanations of the Universe (1995) Quentin Smith The following article was originally published in PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES in 1995 (Volume 79, pp. 283-310). PART ONE: THE FORMULATION OF THE CONTROVERSY I A certain controversy about explaining all contingent beings erupted in the 18th century and has continued up to the present […]
Reason Agnosticism Agnostic
The Origin of the Word Agnostic Bill Young There is little doubt that Thomas Henry Huxley invented the word agnostic in the Spring of 1869. However, there is conflicting evidence about when this was and what it originally meant. According to R. H. Hutton, as published in the New English Dictionary, Huxley first used the […]
Richard Carrier Bigbangredux
I Was a Big Bang Skeptic (2002) Richard Carrier The ultimate resource has now become available online surveying all the evidence supporting the Big Bang theory, compiled by professional cosmologists: Evidence for the Big Bang (2006), by Bjürn Feuerbacher and Ryan Scranton, in the Talk.Origins Archive. For readers interested in why we should believe the […]
Richard Carrier Carrier Wanchick Bios
Who We Are (2006) Welcome to Naturalism vs. Theism: The Carrier-Wanchick Debate. Here Richard and Tom explain who they are. Richard Carrier: Richard Carrier is a published historian and philosopher, with a several degrees in intellectual history, including an M.Phil. from Columbia University, where he is currently working on his doctorate in ancient science. […]
Richard Carrier Foster0
Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000) Richard Carrier Originally published in 1998 and revised in 2000. T A B L E of C O N T E N T S: Who is David Foster? Some of Foster’s Strange Notions Exercises in Self-Refutation Why Foster Needs […]
Richard Carrier Improbable Luck
Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction] Richard Carrier 18. How Successful Was Christianity? 18.1 Assumptions 18.2 Numbers: What the Christians Say 18.3 Numbers: What the Experts Say 18.4 With Whom Did Christianity Begin? 18.5 The Rise of World Christianity 18.6 Conclusion 18.1. Assumptions In previous chapters, we have sufficiently demonstrated that there was nothing […]
Richard Carrier Indef 4b
Geivett’s Exercise in Hyperbole (1999, 2005) Richard Carrier [Part 4B of a larger Review of In Defense of Miracles.] Going Too Far Douglas Geivett’s basic conclusion that it is possible to use miracles as evidence for the existence of God is formally correct (as is his reversed version of the argument, which I […]
Richard Carrier Moreland Naturalism
The Carrier Theory of Value and the Ethical Adequacy of Metaphysical Naturalism(2001) Richard Carrier In the May/June, 1996 issue of Promise, J.P. Moreland publisheda paper called “TheEthical Inadequacy of Naturalism” (pp. 36-39). In it he repeated anumber of fallacies and falsehoods about Secular Humanism that must berefuted, and in the process I will […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection 2
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story (6th ed., 2006) Richard Carrier Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds After years of study as an historian, I now believe that Jesus simply died, and the rest was invented, consciously or not, by his disciples, as a means to carry on his teaching […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection 3d
This file has been relocated: it is now Section IV of General Case for Spiritual Resurrection: Evidence Against Resurrection of the Flesh.
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story (6th ed., 2006) Richard Carrier Main Argument What follows is a half-hour lecture I have given on several public occasions, first at Yale on 26 October 2000 at the request of the Yale College Humanists and Secularists. It was followed by a Q & A session of nearly two hours. […]
Richard Gale Atheism And Theism
Review of ‘Atheism and Theism’ (1999) Alexander Pruss and Richard Gale The following article is a review of the “great debate” by J.J.C. Smart and J.J. Haldane. The original debate was published by Blackwell Publishers in 1996. This review will be published in FAITH AND PHILOSOPHY in January 1999. The participants in […]
Rob Sarver Chap11
Rebuttal to ETDAV, Chapter 11 Rob Sarver Opening Remarks
Robert Price Beyond Born Again Chap5
________________________________________ 62 Beyond Born Again Section II– The Evangelical Apologists: Are They Reliable? Chapter 5: Evidences That Demands A Mistrial “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest of man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” — […]
Robert Price Price Rankin
Jesus: Fact or Fiction? A Dialogue With Dr. Robert Price and Rev. John Rankin This debate was transcribed by Pieter Crow. About this Debate Opening Statement by Robert Price Opening Statement by John Rankin Dialogue Questions from the Audience Closing Statement by Robert M. Price Closing Statement by John Rankin
Robin Collins Not Self Caused
Objections to Smith’s Cosmological Argument (2008) Robin Collins Summary of Smith’s Argument My Response to Smith Summary of Smith’s Argument In his opening case, Quentin Smith has presented an ingenious argument for the claim that the universe is self-caused, and hence its existence is self-explanatory. He then goes on to claim that the fact […]
Science
Science and Religion Creationism Physics Another Case Not Made: A Critique of Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator (2005) by Paul Doland In this chapter-by-chapter critique of Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator, Paul Doland comments on the general direction of the book before analyzing Strobel’s interviews with his various experts on specific […]
Stewart Goetz Dualism
An Argument from Consciousness and Free Will (2007) Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro 1. Free Will 2. Consciousness 3. Closing Remarks Naturalism and theism are two powerful accounts of the nature of the cosmos. While there is common ground between the two—for example, both affirm the existence of a stable physical world with laws […]
Testimonials Tallberg
… "And It Came To Pass"… Eric Tallberg As a somewhat recent convert to the secularist point of view, I feel I ought to say a few words (well, maybe a lot more than "a few") regarding how I came to a state resulting in my occasional and often misunderstood diatribes, both written and oral, […]