[ Author Index | Subject Index ]
The Modern Library contains material written during or after 1970, which tends to be more scholarly than Kiosk material.
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 Narlikar
DISCUSSION: NARLIKAR’S “CREATION” OF THE BIG BANG UNIVERSE WAS A MERE ORIGINATION ADOLF GRÜNBAUM University of Pittsburgh [This article was originally published in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 60, No. 4, December 1993, pp. 638-646.] In Grünbaum (1989, 374, 390), I objected to Narlikar’s (1977, 136-137) designation “event of ‘creation'” for a supposed first cosmic instant […]
Anachronist Why I Believe 7 Moral
Chapter 7: Why I Believe in Moral Absolutes (Contradiction) Note: At this point, my hard-working little laptop computer died for good. Fortunately, I had backups of my finished work (chapters 1 through 6 and the Appendices), and work-in-process (chapter 7). However, all of my references and my collection of notes covering subsequent chapters, painstakingly gathered […]
Antony Flew Survival
Could We Survive Our Own Deaths? (1998) Antony Flew Part I: The Great Obstacle (a) Could we survive our own individual deaths? Surely it is obvious that we do not, that we could not? For is anyone prepared to contest the truth of the major premise in that most famous of all exemplary syllogisms: […]
Bill Schultz Weddings
Secular Wedding Ceremonies (1999) by Bill Schultz The question arises, from time to time, about what nontheists can do if they want something more elaborate than a courthouse wedding, performed by some clerk, but they don’t want to go through anything which looks like its a “church wedding.” Well, there is an alternative, but it […]
Church State Christian Nation
Is America a Christian Nation? Getting Out God’s Vote (n.d.) by Frederick Edwords and Stephen McCabe Is America a Christian Nation? (n.d.) by The Freedom From Religion Foundation (Off Site) America has never been a Christian nation. We are a free nation. Anne Gaylor, president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, points out: "There can […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Additional Topics Bad Dates
A1. Woodmorappe’s Collection of Bad Dates Eat one of those and your tummy will curl right up! Seriously speaking, a favorite attack on radiometric dating involves dangling "horror stories" about gross errors before the reader, thus giving the impression that radiometric dating is totally unreliable. Woodmorappe (1979), with his collection of some 350 bad radiometric […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Geologic Column Assumed Age
Dr. Hovind (G5): The assumed age of a sample will dictate which radiometric dating method is used. One method will only give results for a young age; another will only give results for a very old age. Thus, the assumed age of a sample dictates the method which, in turn, gives the assumed age! G5. […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Magnetic Field
Young-earth "proof" #11: Since the earth’s magnetic field is decaying at an exponential rate, its strength would have been unrealistically high 25,000 years ago. Thus, Earth is less than 25,000 years old. 11. Dr. Hovind is almost certainly talking about Barnes’s magnetic field argument (1973) or some echo of it. Henry Morris, himself, once praised […]
Dave Matson Young Earth Specific Arguments Space Dust
Young-earth "proof" #7: Space dust would be vacuumed out of our solar system by the Poynting-Robertson effect in a few thousand years. Since that is not the case, the earth is very young. The Poynting-Robertson effect is an effect that sunlight has on small dust particles orbiting the sun. The continuing absorption of sunlight robs […]
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 […]
How To Handle Bibliolaters
Over the years I have been confronted by numerous bibliolaters: people who take the Bible to be inerrant and, thus, put it beyond intelligent criticism. Since theirs is a particularly pernicious religion (absurdly claiming that certain antique documents are divinely inspired), it has seemed important to me to develop strategies for dealing with such manifest foolishness
Doug Jesseph Jesseph Craig
Moderator’s Comments Dr. Jesseph’s Opening Arguments Dr. Craig’s Opening Arguments (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s First Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s First Rebuttal (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s Second Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s Second Rebuttal (Off Site) Dr. Jesseph’s Third Rebuttal Dr. Craig’s Third Rebuttal (Off Site) Related Articles on Craig’s Arguments | Atheism Articles | GODEXIST Mailing List
Doug Krueger Krueger Mchugh Mchugh4
The Krueger-McHugh Debate: Theism or Atheism (2003) Christopher McHugh Closing Statement by Christopher McHugh In my first rebuttal, I made the point that Krueger’s opening statement only argued against a very narrow God-concept, and did not account for mystical notions of God like the one that I proposed. I wrote that I could, […]
Edwin Wilson Manifesto
The Genesis of a Humanist Manifesto by Edwin H. Wilson CONTENTS PREFACE 1. A Humanist Manifesto–A Historic Document 2. The Background of Religious Humanism 3. The New Humanist–Sponsor of the Manifesto 4. “A Humanist Manifesto”–The Beginning 5. The Editing Process 6. Early Responses from Signers 7. Critiques from Humanists Who Did Not Sign 8. Unitarian […]
Edwin Wilson Manifesto Ch6
CHAPTER 6 Early Responses from Signers Dr. E. A. Burtt Dr. E. A. Burtt of Cornell University’s Sage School of Philosophy, was one of the most prompt and thorough critics of the proposed manifesto. Six years later, in the first edition of his excellent book, Types of Religious Philosophy, Dr. Burtt placed religious humanism in […]
Farrell Till Horner Till Horner3
Well, this may seem to you like a long, drawn-out event, but I guarantee that to us we’re thinking more time, I need more time. I want to use my outline as my outline for what we’re going to do here. I said I’m going to make two main points: there are good reasons to […]
Reply to Robert Turkel
Part 1 Part 2 >>> Reply to Robert Turkel Farrell Till TILL James Patrick Holding is the pseudonym used by a would-be apologist whose real name is Robert Turkel. Perhaps I should say that Holding has SAID that his real name is Robert Turkel, but I have no way to confirm this. […]
Finngeir Hiorth Humanism
Review of Tony Davies’ Humanism (1997) Finngeir Hiorth Davies, Tony (1997) Humanism, Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE and 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001, 152 pp., bibliography, index, paperback GBP 6.99, hardback also available. Anybody who knows anything at all about humanism knows that there are many humanisms. So […]
G A Wells Holding
A Reply to J. P. Holding’s "Shattering" of My Views on Jesus and an Examination of the Early Pagan and Jewish References to Jesus (2000) G.A. Wells In the series ‘Tekton. Building Blocks for Christian Faith’, J. P. Holding has written a long article entitled ‘Jesus. Shattering the Christ-Myth’, with sub-title ‘The Reliability of the Secular References to […]
Gerald Larue Otll Chap15
Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 15 – E BROADLY speaking, E can be said to include the literature which remains in the Pentateuch after P and D (easily identified) and J sources are removed, although in numerous passages it is difficult to distinguish between J and E.1 Distinctiveness […]
Gerald Larue Otll Chap3
Old Testament Life and Literature (1968) Gerald A. Larue Chapter 3 – The Analysis of the Pentateuch PERHAPS the portion of the Bible which best demonstrates the results of the historical-literary approach is the Pentateuch.1 The five books were named by the Jews of Palestine according to the opening Hebrew words: I. Bereshith: "in […]
Gerd Ludemann 10words
Ten Golden Words (1995) Gerd Lüdemann [The following essay was originally published as the Epilogue to Gerd Lüdemann, Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity (trans. John Bowden, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), pp. 219-220.] 1. The view of the Bible as the Word of God or as Holy Scripture belongs to […]