Modern Library

What Is Agnosticism? (1981) H. J. Blackham [This article was originally published in "Free Inquiry," Summer, 1981, pp. 31-33.] Winds of Doctrine As a definition of the limits of knowledge, "agnosticism" needs to be understood historically. Summarily and roughly, philosophy at the time of Plutarch (first century A.D.) offered six positions: on the one hand, […]

Seriat’in Çelismeli ve Tutarsiz Hükümleriyle Körletilen Zekalar: Din Adami’nin Olumsuz Rolü I) Seriat hükümlerindeki çeliskiler, ve tutarsizliklar konusunda din adami’nin olumsuz tutumu: II) Çeliskilerin nedenleri ve din adami’nin bu nedenlerden habersizligi: III) Din adami tartisma ve soru sorma yollarini kapali tutmakla çeliskili düsünme aliskanligini sürdürür. Seriat ortaminda ve din adami’nin elinde yetisen kisilerin ortak özelligi, […]

  Toplumsal Geriliklerimizin Sorumlulari: Din Adamlari DIPNOTLAR 1 Atatürk’le konusanlarin kullandiklari sözcük bu degil fakat çok daha agir bir sözcüktür. Bunun yerine yukardaki deyimi koyduk 2 Gerek bu alinti ve gerek biraz yukarda belirttigimiz hususlar için Atatürkün Ocak 16-17, 1923 tarihli konusmalarini içeren su yapita bakiniz: Gazi Mustafa Kemal-Atatürk’ün 1923 Eskisehir-Izmit Konusmalari, (Türk Tarih Kurumu […]

Library: Modern Documents: James Still: What Is a Gospel? What Is a Gospel? James Still Gospel is derived from the Greek word euaggelion and means “good news.” The genre of gospels include the four canonical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as well as some extrabiblical gospels written in the second century. The good […]

Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations: Obeying a Rule On Only One Occasion in §199 James Still Wittgenstein argues that meaning and use should not be conflated; the whole use of the meaning of a word (the steps to be taken) cannot be understood in a flash nor can the use fit the meaning simultaneously in that flash […]

The Historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection The Debate between Christians and Skeptics Jeffery Jay Lowder (1995) Related documents: “Historical Evidence and the Empty Tomb Story: A Reply to William Lane Craig” (2001) Lowder provides a point-by-point rebuttal to Craig’s case for the empty tomb. Along the way, Lowder defends a naturalistic explanation of the empty tomb. […]

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“Secular” Does Not Mean “Atheistic” Jeffery Jay Lowder June 20, 2000   Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in a Texas case that public schools cannot allow student-led prayer before high school football games. Reaction to this ruling among believers has been mixed. While some believers (especially those who belong to minority faiths) welcomed […]

Man and Creation Review of Michael Bauman, editor, Man and Creation: Perspectives on Science and Theology, 1993, Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 306 pp., $9.95. (This was originally posted in four parts to the talk.origins newsgroup between January 2 and February 9, 1994.) Before Christmas I mentioned that I had recently obtained a copy of […]

Opening Statement John C. Rankin   Bob, thank you very much. It’s interesting, when I was a young boy, I remember listening to the radio and these debates over labor unions, and about the rank and file. And I would listen to this as an 8- or 9-year old. And I finally asked my father, […]

Revelation’s Place in the Christian Bible (2007) Keith Gilmour   “A repulsive film in which intellectuals have found acres of social and political meaning; the average judgement is likely to remain that it is pretentious and nasty rubbish for sick minds who do not mind jazzed-up images and incoherent sound.[1] This was Leslie Halliwell’s assessment […]

About this Transcript Jeffery Jay Lowder This transcript is a slightly modified version of the transcript available in print from the National Center for Science Education. In the annotations, I have removed references to pages within this manuscript and replaced them with references to the appropriate speech. Since I was not typing with divine inspiration, […]

Objection #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot Be True (2001) (Interview w/ William Lane Craig, Ph.D.) Kyle J. Gerkin   Craig is quite notorious on the Secular Web. If you are interested in the transcript of a debate between Craig and (atheist) Dr. Douglas M. Jesseph on the existence of God, it may be […]

Faith and History A Critique of John Warwick Montgomery’s Apologetics Mark Hutchins Introduction This paper will offer a critical view of John Warwick Montgomery’s approach to Christian apologetics, specifically his attempt to show skeptics that history provides a credible basis for belief in the New Testament Jesus. While Montgomery has not been the only Christian […]

The Yoga-Sutras of Patanjali and The Cloud of Unknowing: A Preliminary Step in Assessing the Ontological Accuracy of the Mystical Experience (1996) Mark I. Vuletic   [This paper was written for a seminar in mysticism taught by Neal Grossman at The University of Illinois at Chicago in Spring, 1996] Proponents of mysticism sometimes offer the […]

אתאיזם: טיעונים נפוצים (1997) mathew המאמר המקורי כאן   מבוא המסמך הזהמכילתגובות לטיעונים שעלו לעתים תכופות בקבוצות דיון המוקדשים לדיון באתאיזם.התשובותהמובאות כאן אינן מתיימרות להיות מקיפות או סופיות. מטרת המסמך אינו לסייםאתהדיון, אלא להרים את רמתו.   הערה לגירסה העברית חלקמהתשובותהעוסקות בטיעונים שנוגעים רק לנצרות ו\או בארצות-הברית לא תורגמו לעברית,מתוךמחשבה שנושאים אלה לא יענינו את […]

Davis on the Rationality of Belief in the Resurrection (2005) Michael Martin   Introduction From 1998 to 2000, I engaged Christian apologist Steven Davis in an exchange on the rationality of belief in the Resurrection in the pages of Philo.[1] Subsequently, I assumed that the debate had ended, but to my surprise Davis recently published […]

Problems with Heaven (1997) Michael Martin   Introduction Belief in Heaven is an essential part of the great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Famous theologians have written about it and ordinary theists hope to go there after death. Unfortunately, atheists have had little to say about Heaven although some atheist writings are indirectly […]

On a New Argument for Agnosticism (2001) Michael Martin   In a recent Internet paper entitled "A Formal Justification of Agnosticism,"[1] Bill Schultz defends agnosticism by denying the universality of the Principle of Excluded Middle (P v ~P).[2] In addition, he accuses me of using the Principle of Excluded Middle to try to "force agnostics […]

Atheism and Humanistic Value Theory (1996) Michael Martin   What is the relation between atheism and humanistic value theory? Can one be an atheist [1] and not accept any humanistic value theories? Can one accept a humanist value theory and believe in God? These are the sorts of questions that I want to address in […]

Religion as a Total Institution (2019) Michael Moore According to sociologist Nicki Lisa Cole, “A total institution is a closed social system in which life is organized by strict norms, rules, and schedules, and what happens within it is determined by a single authority whose will is carried out by staff who enforce the rules” […]

About Atheism An Introduction to Atheism (1997) by mathew This is a gentle but thorough introduction to the different varieties of atheism and agnosticism. It covers many common misunderstandings, and defines and explains terms used elsewhere. Recommended for all readers, religious or not. To provide a sense of cohesion and progression, the author has presented […]

How Should Atheists Live? Atheism and Humanistic Value Theory (1996) by Michael Martin “Atheism and humanistic value theory . . . are distinct and separable positions. . . . [Humanists must] defend their humanistic values without support from either atheism or theism. Since humanistic values can be supported by both camps, both belief and nonbelief […]

Naturalism As defined by philosopher Paul Draper, naturalism is “the hypothesis that the natural world is a closed system” in the sense that “nothing that is not a part of the natural world affects it.” More simply, it is the denial of the existence of supernatural causes. In rejecting the reality of supernatural events, forces, […]

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 […]

Assessment of the Evidence   As the postmodernists would urge us all to do, I will begin with a confession of my interest in this matter, of biases that operate on levels seen and unseen, from the motivation to make my efforts in writing appear worthwhile to my general disbelief in the Christian religion. There […]

Two Ways to Prove Atheism (1996) Quentin Smith   [This speech was delivered before the Atheist Alliance convention in Minneapolis, MN on April 6, 1996.] Today I will discuss two ways to prove atheism: that scientific cosmology can prove atheism and that the existence of gratuitous evil proves atheism. I’ll begin with scientific cosmology. Scientific […]

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Browse the Secular Web Bookstore for books on Freethought. Freethought Freethought Challenges of the ’90s (1992) by Fred Edwords Science and technology are transforming the world’s values more dramatically and more completely than organized religion has ever been capable of. Because so many people cannot deal comfortably with the moral dilemmas raised by the new […]

Carrier’s Opening Statement (2006)   Naturalism Is True, Theism is Not Method If we want all our beliefs to be more likely true than false, then we must proportion our beliefs to the evidence. So if our reasons to believe are few and unreliable, our confidence should be low, and if our reasons to believe […]