[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
Richard Carrier Cause
Was Christianity the Cause of Modern Science? Sources of the Claim (as of 2000) Richard Carrier Was Christianity the Cause of Modern Science? This is a list of all known places where the claim is made that Christianity was in some sense the cause of modern science. I am eagerly seeking others that […]
Richard Carrier Foster9
Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000) 9. The Odds of Life Evolving by Chance Richard Carrier Advance to: Shuffling Cards Advance to: Typing Monkeys Advance to: Hemoglobin and the T4 Genome I have surveyed most of the strangeness of Foster’s book. But I have […]
Richard Carrier Improbable Galilee
Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction] Richard Carrier 2. Who Would Follow a Man from Galilee? 2.1 Two Key Problems 2.2 Getting the Context Right 2.3 Working Class Rabbi 2.4 The Galilean Connection 2.5 The Gospel of John 2.6 The Role of Messianic Prophecy 2.7 Why a Virgin Birth? 2.8 Conclusion 2.1. Two Key Problems James […]
Richard Carrier Indef 3a
The Problem with Miracles and the Shaky Groundwork of Corduan and Purtill (1999, 2005) Richard Carrier [Part 3A of a larger Review of In Defense of Miracles.] Defining “Miracle” Purtill defines a miracle as “an event brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature […]
Richard Carrier Laupot
Severus Is Not Quoting Tacitus: A Rebuttal to Eric Laupot (2006) Richard Carrier In “Tacitus’ Fragment 2: The Anti-Roman Movement of the Christiani and the Nazoreans,” a paper that was originally published in Vigiliae Christianae (54.3, 2000: pp. 233-47), Eric Laupot argues that a passage in Sulpicius Severus actually comes from the lost section […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection
Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story (6th ed., 2006) Richard Carrier I don’t buy the resurrection story. That would normally be all I need say. But I am routinely asked why. This collection of short essays serves to answer that question. There are many reasons I am not a Christian. My atheism is based […]
Richard Carrier Resurrection 2j
This file has been relocated: it is now Section XI of Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds.
Richard Carrier Resurrection 4b
This file has been relocated: it is now Section II of Rebutting Lesser Arguments.
Richard Carrier Theory
Proving a Negative (1999) Richard Carrier I know the myth of “you can’t prove a negative” circulates throughout the nontheist community, and it is good to dispel myths whenever we can. As it happens, there really isn’t such a thing as a “purely” negative statement, because every negative entails a positive, and vice versa. […]
Robert Price Beyond Born Again Chap1
________________________________________ 9 Beyond Born Again Section I– The Born Again Experience: A Brave New World? ________________________________________ 10 Chapter 1: A Might Fortress Is Our Mentality “Hey, wouldn’t you like to be born again Live a new life that’s free Without sin, no ties to philosophy.” — Anne Herring and Matthew Ward, “Learn a Curtsey” “You’ll […]
Robert Price Hamblin
Reply to Professor Hamblin (2004) Robert M. Price This article was originally published in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Fall 2004). Reprinted with permission. I am gratified and delighted that my modest piece “Prophecy and Palimpsest” was of sufficient interest to call forth the remarks of Professor Hamblin in Dialogue […]
Robert Price Son
A Rejoinder to Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict "Jesus– God’s Son" (1997) Robert M. Price Introduction | Commentary on McDowell’s Introduction | Trial of Jesus | Equality with the Father? | "I Am" | "He Who Has Seen Me" | "I Say Unto You" | Bibliography | Related Resources This chapter is […]
Shlomi Tal Saga
Genealogical Saga of Judaism (2001) Shlomi Tal Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One, it is written in Deuteronomy 6:4. Judaism is essentially the story of the relation between one human race and their deity. The tragic consequences of racial hatred in the past century do not retract from the […]
Steven Conifer Ar
The Argument from Reason for the Nonexistence of God (2001) Steven J. Conifer [The following essay is derived from my forthcoming book, The Plausibility of Atheism: Eight Essays in the Philosophy of Religion, which shall be available via amazon.com by June of 2001.] 1. Prefatory Comments I shall herein propound an evidential atheological argument which […]
Testimonials Daniels
From Missionary Bible Translator to Agnostic (2003) Ken Daniels Contents 1. Purpose of this testimonial 2. Life as an Evangelical Christian 2.1 2.1 Early years: Unquestioned faith 2.2 Crisis #1 2.3 Crisis #2 2.4 Marriage and missions 2.5 Crisis #3 2.6 Crisis #4: Return from the mission field 2.7 A brief recovery of […]
Theism Bible Scientology
Argument from Holy Scripture: Scientology Aleister Crowley (Off Site) by Jeff Jacobsen “Hubbard had connections with the occult. He was, at one time, Aleister Crowley’s pal. It shows in his work, too. Apart from that, the idea put forward in the OT’s–to have control over matter, energy, space and time–is very much indebted to gnosticism.” Dianetics […]
Theism Christianity Resurrection
Resurrection 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 […]
Theism Experiences
Religious Experience Craig’s Holy Spirit Epistemology (1998) by Michael Martin “In Reasonable Faith, William Lane Craig makes a sharp distinction between knowing that God exists and being able to show this. He maintains that one knows that Christianity is true ‘by the self-authenticating witness of God’s Holy Spirit.’ … I will argue that Craig fails […]
Theism Ontological
Ontological Arguments Ontological arguments contend that we can know that God exists in the same way that we know that 2 + 2 = 4: through reason alone. In other words, they claim to show that God exists without ever consulting experience or observation. Anselm provided the first ontological argument for the existence of God […]
Travis Denneson Power
Society and the Individual in Nietzsche’s The Will to Power (1999) Travis J. Denneson I. Introduction In The Will to Power, specifically the section entitled "The Will to Power as Society and Individual," Nietzsche’s ideas concerning how his doctrine of the will to power is manifested in both societies as a whole and in individuals […]
Vic Stenger Schrev
Fitting the Bible to the Data (1998) Victor J. Stenger Review of The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom by Gerald L. Schroeder. New York and London: The Free Press, 1997. How can both the Bible and science be right? Israeli physicist Gerald Schroeder says he can show us how. Let’s […]
Adolf Grunbaum Comments
Some Comments on William Craig’s “Creation and Big Bang Cosmology” Adolf Grünbaum University of Pittsburgh [This article was originally published in Philosophia Naturalis, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 225-236, 1994.] I. Introduction Craig makes a whole array of assertions, some of which call for much more detailed scrutiny than is possible in a […]
Anachronist Why I Believe 4 Cretin
WHY I BELIEVE IN CREATION (Bifurcation) I said to myself concerning the sons of men, God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, […]
Bill Schultz Scotus Cases4
Religion And The U. S. Supreme Court – Cases (4 of 4) by Bill Schultz From 1981 through the Present 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 Links To […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Copyright
How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments? Copyright Statement Copyright © 1995 Dave E. Matson. Copies of this paper may be made and sold by Edward T. Babinski, the National Center for Science Education, and all other groups who are battling the attempts by "scientific" creationists to adversely affect the quality of science education. All […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Internal Heat
Young-earth "proof" #10: Jupiter and Saturn are cooling off rather rapidly. Since they still give off internal heat, they cannot be billions of years old. 10. Jupiter is not cooling off that rapidly! Based on the fact that Jupiter is radiating twice as much energy as it receives from the Sun, and given its mass […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Saturn
Young-earth "proof" #9: Saturn’s rings are unstable which indicates that they are less than millions of years old. If Saturn’s rings are less than millions of years old, then what of it? That doesn’t prove that the planet is less than billions of years old. Recent study suggests that the rings are not older than […]
Abortion is not Immoral and Should not be Illegal
by Richard C. Carrier Fundamentals of Agreement and Disagreement Jen Roth has composed her case well, and I can see this debate will be of great value to everyone, not only secularists. I will begin with the major points of fundamental agreement and disagreement between us. Roth is quite right when she identifies the two […]
Debates Secularist Capital About
About the Capital Punishment Debate The topic for this debate is: Is There a Humanist Case For Capital Punishment? The debaters have agreed to the following debate format: Opening statements, submitted independently of one another, 1 January 2001 First rebuttals, submitted independently of one another, due 1 February 2001 Second rebuttals, submitted independently of one […]
Debates Secularist Memes
On The Subject of Memetics: Memes began as a metaphor in Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene for the promulgation of ideas and information. It was later taken on as a serious idea by Susan Blackmore, Aaron Lynch and others. Critics of memetics think the idea has gone too far and that there is no basis […]