Modern Library

On The Subject of Cryonics: The technology of cryonics seeks to cheat death by freezing people in the hope that future medical technology will revive them. Since its beginning in the 1960s, cryonics has not garnered much support from the general public or medical community. Even secular non-religious people, which should be more inclined to […]

On The Subject of Overpopulation: Whether or not our global community is overpopulated is a subject of great controversy. Many supporters of continued growth in the human population refer to the Bible’s teachings and God’s Master Plan. Among secularists, however, there are some who believe that our world is underpopulated or simply not overpopulated. What […]

Qur’an: A Work of Multiple Hands? Denis Giron [The Qur’an] is strikingly lacking in overall structure, frequently obscure and inconsequential in both language and content, perfunctory in its linking of disparate materials, and given to the repetition of whole passages in variant versions. On this basis it can plausibly be argued that the book is […]

Let me run down some preliminary points first. The question whether agnosticism or atheism…I think what we have here is a word allergy, perhaps. I claim that there is no rational justification for the belief in the existence of God. I also claim that the evidence is strongly against it; that the rational conclusion to […]

CHAPTER 10 The Search for Signers – Round Two With the editorial process completed, "A Humanist Manifesto" was ready to submit to a wider group of signers as a finished document. The considerations that went into deciding who to invite and who not to invite to endorse it were many. After much discussion, a list […]

CHAPTER 9 Style and Semantics It is my contention that those who signed "A Humanist Manifesto" in 1933 sought verbal integrity and a semantic change from traditional religious terms in order to clarify their naturalistic approach. However, as is the case with most editorial matters, a great deal of the response to the written word […]

It is an honor to be here. On the topic under discussion, I affirm that Jesus of Nazareth died and rose bodily from the grave. I offer two points in support of this claim. First, the New Testament documents are historically reliable accounts. Second, these documents reveal that Jesus really died on the cross and […]

Introductory Remarks (Jeff Lowder, Debate organizer) Our moderator for this evening is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California at Davis, where he double-majored in both Greek and Latin. Although his journalism career started in broadcast news at KQED-TV in San Francisco, he quickly found his niche with newspaper journalism, and he […]

Review of Jenny Teichman Social Ethics: A Student’s Guide (1997) Finngeir Hiorth   Teichman, Jenny: Social Ethics, A Student’s Guide, Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford 0X4 1JF, UK, and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02142, USA, paperback, 193 pp., glossary, bibliography, index.   In the preface of this book Jenny Teichman, a philosopher and […]

Humanism, Reason, and the Arts (1992) Frederick Edwords [This is the text of a talk presented to various audiences in the 1990s. Its author was at the time executive director of the American Humanist Association.] We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams; […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 19 – From Manasseh to the Deuteronomic Reform Read II Kings 21-35; II Chron. 33-36 WHEN Hezekiah died (687), his son Manasseh, still a young boy, was enthroned.1 The folly of adhering to a policy of antagonism toward Assyria was apparent, and Manasseh pledged loyalty […]

Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue   Chapter 4 -Other Methods of Approach OTHER patterns of approach to biblical literature have been developed and most of these supplement the historical-literary method. Each new methodology causes the scholar to reconsider familiar material in the light of new evidence or from a different angle […]

Josh McDowell’s Charade (1982) Gordon Stein, Ph.D. [NOTE: The following article is copyright by Gordon Stein and is reproduced with his permission.] Josh McDowell is one of the most popular writers that fundamentalist Christianity has. He is also one of the least trustworthy. Almost nothing he says in his books (e.g., Evidence That Demands a […]

Pascal’s Wager Is A Possible Bet (But Not A Very Good One): Reply To Harmon Holcomb III (1996) Graham Oppy   In “To Bet The Impossible Bet”, Harmon Holcomb III argues: (i) that Pascal’s wager is structurally incoherent; (ii) that if it were not thus incoherent, then it would be successful; and (iii) that my […]

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 the Debate RESOLVED: THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IS SUPERIOR TO THE THEORY OF SPECIAL CREATION AS AN EXPLANATION FOR THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE RELATED TO ORIGINS. A DEBATE HELD AT: AUBURN UNIVERSITY AUBURN, ALABAMA 10 MAY 1988 SPEAKING FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE: Kenneth S. Saladin, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biology Georgia College Milledgeville, Georgia SPEAKING FOR […]

Objection #1: Since Evil & Suffering Exist, A Loving God Cannot (2001) (Interview w/ Peter John Kreeft, PH.D.) Kyle J. Gerkin   A Bear, A Trap, A Hunter, And God The idea here is that God must allow some short term suffering in order to achieve a greater good. The analogy employed by professor Kreeft […]

Best-Selling Errancy An Essay on Inconsistencies in the Bible Mark D. Ball, Ph.D. Introduction The Goodness of God The Requirements for Salvation Vowing The Relationship Among Fear, Love, and Punishment Endnotes Bibliography Introduction “The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason,” says Thomas Paine in the preface to his treatise on religion, […]

Notes on Christianity and the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (1998) Mark I. Vuletic   Philip Dorrell (1995) makes a number of claims about Christianity and “Many Worlds Interpretation” (MWI) of quantum mechanics. I find some of those claims objectionable, and some of them worth adding to. Rejection of MWI as Christian Doctrine? Dorrell […]

Copan’s Critique of Atheistic Objective Morality Michael Martin   Related documents: Atheism, Christian Theism, and Rape (1997) by Michael Martin “One of the more dramatic debating maneuvers used by Christian apologists against atheists is to argue that atheists can provide no objective reason for not raping people. This startling claim follows from the apologists’ wider […]