[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
J E Hill Creation Debate
Should Both Sides of the Debate on Evolution be Included in Textbooks? (2008) J.E. Hill and Seth Cooper [Though originally published in the Spring Hill Review, subsequent editorial changes have been implemented by the Secular Web editor.] BackgroundLetter to Seth Cooper: Should Both Sides of a Debate be Included Online?Response from Seth Cooper Cooper’s Opening […]
James Still Institution Narrative
Library: Modern Documents: James Still: The Institution Narrative of Luke 22:19-20 The Institution Narrative of Luke 22:19-20 James Still 1. Introduction In the gospels, issues involving fasting, eating, and drinking plague Jesus. Just after his forty day fast in the wilderness, Satan tempts Jesus to turn a stone into bread (Mt. 4:3; Lk. 4:3). While […]
Jeff Lowder Jesus Resurrection Chap2
The Importance and Nature of the Resurrection Christians universally agree that the resurrection of Jesus is central to their faith. Popular apologist Josh McDowell wrote, "The resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christianity stand or fall together" (1982, p. 179). Terry Miethe, a Christian professor of philosophy at Oxford, has maintained that "`Did Jesus rise from […]
Jeff Lowder Jury Feedback
Feedback on Jury Several years ago, I idly picked up a copy of _Evidence that Demands a Verdict_. Even upon casual reading, I found McDowell’s scholarship inane to the point of nausea. It seems obvious to me that Biblical Inerrancy is an obvious fraud, and those who attempt to demonstrate it are not attempting to […]
Ken Saladin Saladin Gish2 Gish Assess
Gish’s Assessment of the Debate [Assessment of the debate from Acts & Facts (Institute for Creation Research), 17(8):2,4 (August 1988).] Auburn University Debate Dr. Duane Gish’s opponent for the debate on the campus of Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, on the evening of May 10, was Dr. Kenneth Saladin, Professor of Biology at Georgia College, Millidgeville, […]
Mark Vuletic Cataract
Cataract (2009) Mark Vuletic “I firmly declare,” averred the pious Dr. M, “that the existence of horrendous suffering does not count in the slightest against the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, and infinitely benevolent God.” “How do you figure?” replied the skeptical Dr. X. “Think of all of the horrible things in the world we […]
Mark Vuletic Ntse
Methodological Naturalism and the Supernatural (1997) with post-conference notes (updated 4-7-1997) Mark I. Vuletic [The following paper was presented on Saturday, February 22, 1997, 9:15 a.m., at Naturalism, Theism, and the Scientific Enterprise – an interdisciplinary conference at the University of Texas, Austin. Please consider this paper a work-in-progress. Although its reception at the […]
Mathew Intro Russian
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Michael Martin Education
Atheistic Education Michael Martin [This article was originally published in The American Rationalist.] In discussing atheistic education it is necessary to draw a couple of important distinctions. The first is between getting someone to be an atheist and educating an atheist. One can accomplish the former in many different ways. For example, one might […]
Michael Martin Induction
Does Induction Presume the Existence of the Christian God? (1997) Michael Martin [The following article was originally published in Skeptic, Vol. 5, #2, pp. 71-75.] Readers of this journal may have heard of the Cosmological, the Teleological, and the Ontological Arguments for the existence of God. Indeed, many readers will know the basic problems […]
Michael Martin Meynell
Hugo Meynell’s Is Christianity True? (1998) Michael Martin In Is Christianity True? Hugo A. Meynell, a Cambridge Ph.D. who teaches at the University of Calgary, provides an affirmative answer to the question posed in the title of his book.[1] After a short introduction in which he gives reasons for believing in God, he devotes […]
Michael Martin Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein’s Lectures on Religious Belief (2001) Michael Martin In 1938 Wittgenstein gave a series of three lectures on religious belief at Cambridge. We do not have his own lecture notes but we do have twenty pages of notes taken down by one or more of his students.[1] Wittgenstein did not check their accuracy and they […]
Nontheism Atheism Confusion
Arguments from Confusion “There are two things,” your mother may have warned, “that you should never discuss over dinner: religion and politics.” Confusion about such fundamental issues as the nature of God or ultimate reality, the purpose of life, how one should live, what has been revealed to mankind, what constitutes right and wrong, what […]
Nontheism Naturalism Pluralistic
Pluralistic Naturalism There are two main kinds of naturalism: materialism and pluralistic naturalism. Materialism, or physicalism, is a “monistic” form of naturalism in that it maintains that only one basic kind of stuff exists–physical stuff. Pluralistic naturalism, by contrast, combines naturalism with ontological pluralism, the idea that there is more than just one basic kind […]
Paul Draper Intro3
Introduction to Section Three: Science and the Cosmos (2008) Paul Draper Sometimes philosophers defend conventional wisdom, but it’s always more fun when they challenge it; and that’s exactly what both of the interlocutors do in our third debate. Consider the following two examples of conventional wisdom about religion. (1) According to conventional (proreligious) wisdom, […]
Paul Obrien Gentle Atheism16
The concern I have about the preceding discussion is that it makes the nonrational aspects of our religious beliefs sound like these ideas that we just "shop" for or choose easily, as if beliefs automatically obeyed the will. But oftentimes it is not at all clear that we can just pick and choose certain beliefs; […]
Peter Kirby Tomb Dependence
Dependence on Mark We have seen that there is no mention of the empty tomb story in early Christian writings outside of the four gospels. This situation is made worse if the evangelists do not demonstrate any independence in reporting this story. This would be somewhat strange because, were the story historical, it would […]
Quentin Smith Cause
Can Everything Come to Be Without a Cause? (1994) Quentin Smith Western Michigan University The following article was originally published in DIALOGUE: CANADIAN PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW in 1994 (Volume 33, pp. 313-323). It is rare to find an argument for the principle that it is impossible for the universe to come to be without a […]
Radio 2001
§ Our Philosophy: Infidel Interview with Richard Carrier The Secular Web is the definitive resource for online atheists, humanists, agnostics and freethinkers. We’ve grown tremendously over the last five years as more and more people have come to see that metaphysical naturalism is a worldview that makes sense. In this interview, Editor-in-chief Richard Carrier describes […]
Richard Carrier Addendad
Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000) Addendum D: Precedents Richard Carrier Since I wrote this, I discovered that a real expert, Bernd-Olaf Küppers, had already done something similar to what I do in the rest of this chapter. His work is rigorous enough to […]
Richard Carrier Carrier Oconnell Carrier1
Carrier’s Opening Statement (2008) Two Bodies: One in the Sky, One in the Grave 1. Basic Argument When the Apostle Paul was asked “How are the dead raised? With what sort of body do they come?” he answered “that which you sow is not the body that will come to be” but “God […]
Richard Carrier Carrier Wanchick Carrier4
Carrier’s Closing Statement (2006) Wanchick Failed to Make His Case Naturalism Is True The best methods known for ascertaining the facts have only discovered results corresponding to naturalism. Wanchick hasn’t shown otherwise. The results of inferior methods cannot supercede the results of superior methods, because, by definition, the probability of an inferior result being […]
Richard Carrier Foster2
Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000) 2. Some of Foster’s Strange Notions Richard Carrier I will begin with examples of the more trivial of Foster’s strangeness, simply to prepare you for the worst. To begin with, Foster makes several amateurish philosophical errors that betray […]
Richard Carrier Improbable
Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) Richard Carrier Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle to Succeed Now available as a book, fully updated and reorganized. This is the definitive edition of “Was Christianity Too Improbable to Be False?” Even better than online, improved and revised throughout. Available at […]
Richard Carrier Improbable Radical
Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction] Richard Carrier 16. Were Christian Teachings Too Radical for Anyone to Buy? Holding then throws in a hodgepodge of miscellaneous difficulties we might categorize under the general argument that “Christian teachings were too radical to be popular.” That may be true—after all, Christianity […]
Richard Carrier Indef I
Review of In Defense of Miracles (1999, 2005) Richard Carrier The material previously contained at this location has been moved into the combined Summary.
Richard Carrier Ntcanon
The Formation of the New Testament Canon (2000) Richard Carrier Contrary to common belief, there was never a one-time, truly universal decision as to which books should be included in the Bible. It took over a century of the proliferation of numerous writings before anyone even bothered to start picking and choosing, and then […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection 2d
This file has been relocated: it is now Section IV of Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds.
Richard Carrier Resurrection 3h
This file has been relocated: it is now Section VIII of General Case for Spiritual Resurrection: Evidence Against Resurrection of the Flesh.
Richard Carrier Scilit
Test Your Scientific Literacy! (2001) Richard Carrier Do you think you know what science is? You may be surprised. Scientific literacy is hard to acquire and is not widespread. Science is, after all, a very complex and nuanced affair that can only be truly understood with wide experience and deep thought. It took the […]