Modern Library

The Naturalistic Fallacy  and Other Mistaken Arguments  of Paul Copan (2000) Michael Martin   Paul Copan has replied in the form of a letter[1] to my rebuttal[2] of his critique[3] of my Secular Web paper.[4] In this paper I will respond to his defense of the ontological foundation of theistic morality, his claim that ethical […]

Zens’ Defense of TAG (2000) Michael Martin   In a recent internet paper entitled "A Christian Response to atheist thinker, Michael Martin on TAG and the foundation of induction," Adam Spurgeon Zens attempts to defend Greg Bahnsen’s inductive form of the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (TAG).[1] Unfortunately, Zens does not seem to […]

Debates See also Theistic Arguments: Debates [ Index ] Debate Transcripts The Cooke-Aijaz Debate: Does God Exist? (2002) An Internet debate on the existence of God between Dr. Bill Cooke of the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists and Imran Aijaz of the Auckland University Islamic Society. (See also the debate review, below). The Craig-Washington Debate: […]

Can Life Have Meaning without God? Can Secular Philosophy Give Us Objective Morality? (2003) by Taner Edis This is a review of Michael Martin’s Atheism, Morality, and Meaning (Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2002). “Michael Martin is an eminent atheist philosopher, and he gives us a hard-hitting critique of those theistic arguments which claim that all is […]

Magical Thinking & the Paranormal “Paranormal” is one of those adjectives that admits of many different definitions, as it entails somehow being “above” or “outside of” the norm when what constitutes “the norm” does not exactly admit of a clear definition. Despite this ambiguity, it is useful to think of paranormal phenomena as occurrences whose […]

In Defense of Sensible Naturalism (2007) Paul Draper             Varieties of Naturalism           Plantinga’s Objective Probabilities           The Inscrutability of P(R/N&E)           Plantinga’s Faulty Inference Should awareness of one’s evolutionary origins make one skeptical about one’s cognitive faculties? In other words, should it lead one to question the reliability of the psychological mechanisms that produce one’s beliefs? Darwin […]

Thomas Aquinas made this argument famous in the 13th century, though Aristotle had his own version of it centuries earlier. This argument appeals to such notions as cause and effect, and it addresses that which can be as confounding as a Zen koan. It seems certain that the world exists and we exist in the […]

Improbabilities in Mark I will start with those objections to the plausibility of the story that have little merit and proceed to those that are more serious. As always, I am not declaring any of these to be insuperable, but I do think that some provide a degree of evidence against the story. It is […]

Atheism, Theism and Big Bang Cosmology (1991) Quentin Smith The following article was originally published in AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY in March 1991 (Volume 69, No. 1, pp. 48-66). I. Introduction The idea that the big bang theory allows us to infer that the universe began to exist about 15 billion years ago has attracted […]

The Coherence of God: a response to Theodore M. Drange (2003) Ralph C. Wagenet   Theodore M. Drange, in his article Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey (1998), presents a collection of arguments designed to demonstrate that a being with the attributes commonly associated with God cannot exist because the attributes are mutually incompatible. If Drange is […]

Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000)   Addendum E: Zero Entropy Richard Carrier   Although there is no such thing as zero entropy in reality, it does exist as a mathematical ideal. In Thermodynamics: Foundations and Applications by Elias P. Gyftopoulos and Gian Paolo Bereth (MacMillan, […]

Carrier’s First Rebuttal (2008)   A Weaker Case Cannot Defeat a Stronger   O’Connell makes five arguments. None establish his case. I will treat each in turn, then reiterate my conclusion.   1. Vocabulary Argument O’Connell: Whenever the word “resurrection” (anastasis) occurs in Jewish sources within and around the first century A.D., it always denotes […]

What We Are Debating (2006)   Welcome to Naturalism vs. Theism: The Carrier-Wanchick Debate. Here Richard and Tom cowrote and approved a joint statement stating as clearly as is reasonable what claims each intends to defend here. JOINT STATEMENT In the present debate Richard Carrier and Tom Wanchick will each be defending a different thesis […]

Bad Science, Worse Philosophy: the Quackery and Logic-Chopping of David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists (2000)   3. Exercises in Self-Refutation Richard Carrier   Some of Foster’s philosophizing can be used against his own position. Chapters 4 and 5, for example, are the only good chapters in the book, in my opinion, though they do not […]

Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction]   Richard Carrier   13. Would the Facts Be Checked? 13.1 Boiling away the Hyperbole 13.2 Evidence from Acts 13.3 Evidence from Early Apologists 13.4 Conclusion   13.1. Boiling away the Hyperbole Revisiting an earlier argument, James Holding contends that “Christian claims would have been easy to check out […]

Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2006) [See Introduction]   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 […]

Richard Carrier [The following article was originally published in the Fall 1996 issue of Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, published by the Institute for Critical Thinking at Montclair State University (Upper Montclair, NJ).] William Reinsmith’s paper “Religious Life and Critical Thought: Do They Need Each Other?” was well written and very communicative, but I […]

What an Atheist Ought to Stand For (1999) (Revised 2004)   Richard Carrier   A Justifiable Lament There is a common and justifiable lament that atheists are so preoccupied by naming and arguing what they are against, that people rarely hear what atheists are for. This is not only heard from the religious critics of […]

This file has been relocated: it is now Section V of Probability of Survival vs. Miracle: Assessing the Odds.

This file has been relocated: it is now Section IX of General Case for Spiritual Resurrection: Evidence Against Resurrection of the Flesh.

Comprehensive Bibliography on Skeptical Thought in the Ancient World (1998) Richard Carrier (copyright 1999)   This bibliography is not as complete as I would like. However, it does contain every reference that could be found in every relevant electronic database known to me (and accessible through Columbia University), including everything that could be found in […]

Joseph Smith as a Prophet Richard Packham   The Latter-Day Saints (“Mormons”) hold as among the first and most important principles of their religion, on which all the rest is based, that the founder of their church, Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844) was literally a prophet of God, if not the greatest prophet ever to have […]

McNally’s Challenge Robert McNally This is an experiment for Christians (or theists in general) who are in a crisis of faith. Perhaps you’re hanging around atheist areas of Usenet or the Web because you’ve begun to doubt your faith, and are hoping to find something there to push you one way or the other. Well, […]

________________________________________ 143 Beyond Born Again Footnote References Introduction Malcolm Boyd, Christian, Its Meanings in an Age of Future Shock (New York: Hawthorn Bokos, 1975), p. 70. Clark H. Pinnock, Biblical Revelation– The Foundation of Christian Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), p. 14. Carl F. H. Henry, Frontiers in Modern Theology (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968), pp. […]

Closing Statement Robert M. Price   Well, my presentation has not tried to promote a dogma, as some have heard. I think that may be a result of just sort of hearing what you’re used to hearing, perhaps. I don’t mean to preach any notion as infallibly true. I seek in any teaching I do […]

Duane Gish Duane Gish quote about ER 1470 (1997) (Off Site) by Jim Foley An example of Gish misquoting a scientist. Creationist Arguments: Duane Gish and Wadjak Man (1998) (Off Site) by Jim Foley Gish claimed that Eugène Dubois concealed information on the Wadjak skulls until 30 years after their discovery. Even after being shown […]

The author has requested that he be referred to as “Gaunilo II.” We have therefore moved his files into a new directory. The address for his files is now: /library/modern/gaunilo2/late.html Please update your links. Thank you.

Biblical Criticism Ancient Historical Writing Compared to the Gospels of the New Testament (2016) by Matthew Wade Ferguson Unlike historical writing, the New Testament Gospels read like ancient prose novelistic literature. Outside of Luke, the Gospel authors say nothing about any textual sources for Jesus that they consulted, and even Luke does not name, explain, […]

Theistic Arguments: Debates These are formal debates between theists and nontheists on topics relating to the theistic arguments: Scripture, Miracles, Design, Cosmological, Moral, Transcendental, and Other. To purchase related reading, go to the Secular Web Book Store. See also Atheism: Debates Argument from Holy Scripture: The Barker-Horner Debate: Did Jesus Really Rise From the Dead? […]

Moral Argument and Divine Command Theory: Reviews/Critiques "Why I Believe in Moral Absolutes" (1995) from Commentary on D. James Kennedy’s "Why I Believe" by Anachronist Anachronist critiques Chapter 7 of D. James Kennedy’s book, Why I Believe, which makes a "fairly good case, with only a few glaring weaknesses, for the moral system offered by […]