Modern Library

Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction]   Richard Carrier   7. Was Christianity Highly Vulnerable to Inspection and Disproof? 7.1 General Argument 7.2 The Problem of Differing Research Paradigms 7.3 The Problem of Luke’s Methods as a Historian 7.4 First Example: Luke on Paul’s Trial 7.5 Holding’s Argument Backfires 7.6 Second Example: Luke on Agrippa’s Cause of […]

What’s Good and Bad in In Defense of Miracles (1999, 2005) Richard Carrier   [Part 2 of a more comprehensive Review of In Defense of Miracles.]   Many of the chapters in the book In Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God’s Action in History (1997) make arguments that need to be addressed, or at […]

Kooks and Quacks of the Roman Empire: A Look into the World of the Gospels (1997)   Richard Carrier   We all have read the tales told of Jesus in the Gospels, but few people really have a good idea of their context. Yet it is quite enlightening to examine them against the background of […]

This file has been relocated: it is now Section X of Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds.

This file has been relocated: it is now Section I of Rebutting Lesser Arguments.

Thallus: An Analysis (1999) Richard Carrier   [A formal peer reviewed version of the research in this article is now available in volume 8 of the Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism, under the title “Thallus and the Darkness at Christ’s Death” (PDF). The new article updates and supersedes the old.] This is a preliminary […]

The Witch Killers of Africa (2003) Richard Petraitis   In June of 2001, villagers of Congo’s northeast provinces began a bloody witch eradication campaign, sparing neither neighbor, nor friend. Alleged witches were unceremoniously hacked apart by machete-wielding vigilantes, bringing about a scene of carnage unmatched since the machete killing-sprees of the Rwanda Crisis. The innocent […]

________________________________________ 159 Beyond Born Again Appendix: Getting A New Start Some readers may have been taken aback at my suggestion at the end of Chapter 10, that I can deem leaving Evangelicalism a viable option. It is clear to me that there are individuals whose experience with Evangelical Christianity has been negative enough in the […]

Christ a Fiction (1997) Robert M. Price   I remember a particular Superboy comic book in which the Boy of Steel somehow discovers that in the future, he is thought to be as mythical as Peter Pan and Santa Claus. Indignant at this turn of events, he flies at faster than light speed and enters […]

Resurrection. Resurrection is the Semitic and biblical alternative to the Greek idea of immortality of the soul on the one hand, and to the Indian idea of reincarnation on the other. Resurrection refers to the glorious hope that at the end of earthly history, the righteous of past ages will rise bodily to new life […]

Those who closely study the origin, development, and structure of the universe tend to disbelieve in any spiritual dimension to it. Science has inadvertently discovered that religious pictures of the world are false; when speaking to the same questions, science and religion invariably get different answers. Cosmology has no need for a First Cause since the Big Bang might simply be a transitional phase in an infinitely old universe or, alternatively, there may be no "before" the Big Bang anymore than there is a "north" of the North Pole. Appeals to alleged fine-tuning are presumptuous: physicists extrapolating from the earliest well-understood moment after the Big Bang using the laws of physics alone would erroneously deem our universe inhospitable to life. How, then, can we reliably anticipate the likelihood of life arising in hypothetical universes with different laws? Even supposing that physical constants are in fact "tunable" (which they may not be), constants might take on different values in other universes; and as Carroll puts it, "intelligent observers will only measure the values which obtain in those regions which are consistent with the existence of such observers." Finally, cosmology betrays unintelligent design: entire classes of fundamental particles exist that would have no impact on life in they had never existed. Evidently, a simple materialist formalism could offer a complete description of the universe.

A Critique of Fundamentalism (II) Steven J. Conifer [Author’s Note: The following is an extension of my essay “A Critique of Fundamentalism,” in which I critique chapters 1 and 5 of Henry M. Morris’ and Martin E. Clark’s The Bible Has the Answer. The essay is located on the Secular Web at https://infidels.org/library/modern/steven_conifer/fundamentalism.html.]   4.1. […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Chapter 3: Why I Believe in God (Non Causa Pro Causa) The first two chapters dealt with Biblical history as it relates to prophecy and archaeology. This chapter veers away from history and enters the realm of theology, a much more nebulous subject. As theology, I cannot address the main thrust of this chapter: that […]

Evolution Science and Creation Theology Anthony J. M. Garrett 63 High Street, Grantchester Cambridge CB3 9NF England (This paper is dedicated to the memory of David Stove.) In writing an article on the theology of human evolution I must first declare that I have no expert knowledge, either as theologian or as evolutionary scientist (I […]

Induced Religious Conversions: An Affront To Hindus (2002) Balgrim Ragoonanan   After reading the Rev. Pat Robertson’s appeal for converting Hindus to Christianity, the information below was developed. It is most important for Hindus to respond with correct information when disparaging comments are made about their religious beliefs. Hindus must also be prepared to increase […]

Religion And The U. S. Supreme Court – Cases (3 of 4) by Bill Schultz From 1961 through 1980 Table of Contents Main Text The Law as Things Stand Now Links To Supreme Court Opinions, Etc., Founding-1942 Links To Supreme Court Opinions, Etc., 1943-1960 Links To Supreme Court Opinions, Etc., 1961-1980 (this file) Links To […]

About This Transcript Jeffery J. Lowder   This is a transcript of a debate on the existence of God, between Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. Corey Washington, which took place on 9 February 1995 at the University of Washington, before an audience well over 1500 people. I have taken the time to transcribe this […]

Rejoinder to Cliff Hanlon’s “Three R’s” Dave E. Matson   August 3, 1998 Cliff Hanlon, President The Berea Foundation Dear Mr. Hanlon, Your rebuttal of my article relating to the speed of light was forwarded to me via the Internet Infidels, a fine organization which carries a web copy of my book “How Good Are […]

Dr. Hovind (R1): The atmospheric C-14 is presently only 1/3 of the way to an equilibrium value which will be reached in 30,000 years. This nullifies the carbon-14 method as well as demonstrating that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. The above is offered as a simple fact of research. Knowing how faulty […]

Young-earth "proof" #28: The oldest historical records go back less than 6000 years. 28. What does the age of the oldest known historical records have to do with the age of the earth? If, in fact, they go back 6000 years, what of it? Records couldn’t be kept until writing was invented. Of course, we […]

Young-earth "proof" #24: Given the rate of salt influx to the oceans, they should be much saltier than they are if the earth were billions of years old. 24. Dr. Hovind is assuming that salt cannot be removed from the oceans. The more sophisticated creationists, such as Melvin Cook, know better than to make that […]

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 […]