Modern Library

(2002) Jeffery Jay Lowder In the matter of Newdow v. Congress, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. The court noted that these revisionist words (added in 1954) violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. However, this ruling has been unpopular, to put it […]

The Cooke-Aijaz Debate on the Existence of God (2002) The Cooke-Aijaz Debate: Closing Remarks from the Debate Moderator (2003) by Richard Carrier The debate moderator registers his disappointment with both sides, concluding that nothing new or useful came out of this debate.

Does God Exist? (2002) Opening Statement by Imran Aijaz Prefatory Remarks I would like to thank Richard Carrier for making this internet debate possible, and for agreeing to moderate the exchange between Dr. Bill Cooke and myself. I would also like to thank Dr. Cooke for agreeing to participate with me in addressing the important […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Imran Aijaz’s First Rebuttal: Critique of Dr. Cooke’s Arguments for Atheism I am grateful to Dr. Cooke for his well written and entertaining reflections on the case for atheism. It is unfortunate, however, that absolutely nothing in Dr. Cooke’s opening statement provided any sound justification for being an atheist. I shall […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Imran Aijaz’s Closing Statement I find it rather surprising to see Dr. Cooke “wonder[ing] what value there is in thrashing out questions of the existence of God”. If a being like the God of classical theism does, in fact, exist, then man is part of a teleological worldview that is unfolding […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Opening Statement by Bill Cooke The Folly of the Super-dupers There is a beach at the northern extremity of New Zealand called the Ninety-Mile Beach. Oddly enough, the beach is ninety miles long. Imagine how many grains of sand there must be on this beach. Tens of millions? Now imagine one […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s First Rebuttal: Super Duper Defended…or Was It Hyper Mega? The opening statement of Mr Aijaz was a worthwhile, although unsuccessful, effort to retrieve some credibility for a cause long recognised as irrevocably lost by the vast majority of academics. But more than this, his arguments underscored the main point […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s Second Rebuttal: Super Duper’s (or Was It Hyper Mega’s) Last Gasp One really wonders what value there is in thrashing out questions of the existence of God. The evidence against the existence of any sort of god is so overwhelming as to be hardly worth arguing. And, as I […]

Does God Exist? (2002) Bill Cooke’s Closing Statement: Behold the new god! Anthropocentric conceit! Having lunged and parried in cyberspace on the question of the possible existence of a god, how far have we got? I doubt anyone’s mind has been changed significantly. All that has probably happened as a result of these exchanges is […]

Review of Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature, by Larry Arnhart.

A Critique of Dennis McKinsey’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy Jeffery Jay Lowder Updated: August 9, 2002 Dennis McKinsey has made somewhat of a second career for himself out of arguing against the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy. The former editor of Biblical Errancy newsletter, McKinsey is the author of a massive book entitled, The Encyclopedia of […]

Updated: June 4, 2002 The following book review is a revised version of the original review published in Philo 2 (1999), pp. 89-102. Review of Lee Strobel The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998. Lee Strobel, an ex-investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune who […]

The Case for a Coherent God By Joseph A. Sabella Hyper Link Index Introduction 1A. Scientifically Coherent God Universe vs. Multidimensional Near-Death Experiences Morally Coherent God Summary 1B. Divine Properties 1C. Conclusion Arguments Against & For the Idea of a Coherent God 1.1. Perfection-vs.-Creation Drange – Sabella 1.2. Perfection-vs.-Creation Drange – Sabella 2. Immutability-vs.-Creation Drange […]

According to a form of the kalam cosmological argument expounded by William Lane Craig, there cannot be a beginningless temporal world because the application of Cantorian set theory of transfinite arithmetic to the real world generates counterintuitive absurdities, thereby disclosing that an infinite set of real entities is metaphysically impossible. This article shows how this is not the case by pursuing a novel approach wherein it is understood that an infinite set of real entities is not a set, considered as a technical term of art, within the meaning of Cantorian theory. Upon accepting the original version for publication, Quentin Smith, then editor of Philo, wrote: "Your paper has been studied thoroughly for some time and there is agreement that it is at least an undercutting defeater of [William Lane] Craig's beliefs about real infinites, probably even an overriding defeater. More importantly, it introduces a novel metaphysical theory of the relation of transfinite arithmetic to concrete reality." Guminski's persuasive challenge to Craig's account of why Cantorian transfinite arithmetic should not be deemed to apply to the world of concrete entities has yet to be answered by Craig. The world wonders.

One of the theistic maneuvers used to explain and justify the hiddenness of God is the so-called "Feigned-allegiance Reply" (FAR). Although some arguments against FAR have been published in the literature, Plugaru here presents what he believes is a new and valid attack on FAR (NAFAR).

Review of Warranted Christian Belief (2002) Tyler Wunder Review: Alvin Plantinga. 2000. Warranted Christian Belief. New York: Oxford University Press. xx+508 pp. [This review was originally published in Philo Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring-Summer 2002): pp. 103-118. This Secular Web version contains some minor changes by the author, but otherwise is faithful to the version […]

Did Jesus Exist? Earl Doherty and the Argument to Ahistoricity (2002) What follows is a critical review of The Jesus Puzzle: Did Christianity Begin with a Mythical Christ? Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus, a work by Earl Doherty (Canadian Humanist Publications: Ottawa, Canada; revised edition, 2000). This does not address anything on Doherty’s […]

Gerkin takes the classic theistic Argument to Design from William Paley's Natural Theology, "the watchmaker analogy," argues that it is logically flawed as an argument for theism, then turns it on its head and reformulates it as an argument for atheism.

Related documents:  “The Rest of the Story” (2002) by Jeffery Jay Lowder Lowder’s review of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ. On July 13, 2000, I happened to be flipping through radio stations when I stumbled upon a talk radio show with a voice familiar to me. As luck would have it, it was Lee […]

Michael Behe Behe, Biochemistry, and the Invisible Hand (2001) (Off Site) by Niall Shanks and Karl Joplin Published in Philo Vol. 4 No. 1, this essay takes creationist biochemist Michael Behe to task for failing to make an evidentially grounded case for the supernatural intelligent design of biochemical systems. In Shanks’ and Joplin’s earlier work […]

(2001) (Interview w/ Lynn Anderson, D.MIN) Kyle J. Gerkin This is perhaps the weakest objection of all. Since Christians often seem so damn sure of themselves, I can see where an outsider might think that doubters need not apply. However, any rational person realizes that there is no such thing as absolute certainty, and simple, […]

From Which Religious Sect Did Jesus Emerge? by Sid Green We know from the first-century Jewish historian Josephus that three main sects dominated first-century Palestine: the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes. Green asks the question “from which did Jesus emerge?” and takes us on a fascinating tour of the evidence. The Evil Atheist Conspiracy by James […]

A summary of the 2001 debate between Paul Kurtz and William Lane Craig on ethics without God.

It is long overdue that people who do not believe in any god are elected to significant political office. Atheists must start electing some of their own, and Eddie Tabash, the only admitted atheist to run for political office in 2000, describes what is necessary for this to happen, and how we need to overcome crippling assumptions and prejudices and start getting politically savvy, just as the Christian Right has done.

(2001) [A somewhat shorter and significantly different version of this paper, entitled “Epiphenomenalism as Twofold Support for Atheism,” was delivered before the Fall 2000 meeting of the West Virginia Philosophical Society, held October 20-21 at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV.] 1. INTRODUCTION My aim in this essay is to present two atheological arguments of […]

In the "The Historicity of the Empty Tomb Evaluated" [Index], Peter Kirby considers arguments both for and against the historicity of the empty tomb, ultimately arguing against the historicity of the empty tomb.

The first part of this essay discusses what naturalism in the philosophy of religion should entail for one's ontology, considers various proposed criteria for categorizing something as natural, uses an analysis of these proposed criteria to develop theoretical criteria for both the natural and nonnatural, and develops a set of criteria for identifying a potentially supernatural event in practice. The second part of the essay presents a persuasive empirical case for naturalism based on the lack of uncontroversial evidence for any potential instances of supernatural causation, with particular emphasis on the lack of evidence for supernatural causation in our modern scientific account of the history of the universe and in modern parapsychological research.

Philosopher of science and zoologist Michael Ruse answers the question posed in the title his book Can a Darwinian be a Christian? in the affirmative. Ruse argues that a conflict only arises from a literal reading of Genesis. If Christianity actually depended upon such a literal reading, Ruse concedes, the resulting conflict with science would simply be all the worse for Christianity; but, pace Alvin Plantinga, Christianity does not depend upon such antiquated literalism. Although Ruse thinks that conflict can be avoided by merely adopting methodological naturalism without conflating it with the metaphysical variety, Parsons has his doubts, particularly when it comes to the issue of design. Parsons notes, for instance, that a loving Creator could've done much better than create us through a process that depends upon the vast waste, pain, and ugliness of natural selection, and that apparent design has increasingly given way to naturalistic explanations in biology--forcing theists to look for other gaps for God to fill.

Objection #4: God Isn’t Worthy Of Worship If He Kills Innocent Children (2001) (Interview w/ Norman L. Geisler, Ph.D.) Kyle J. Gerkin I would broaden this to include not only children, but any innocent person. I also do not think the extreme case of “killing” is necessary to void God’s worshipful status. The simple cause […]

Parsons argues that the question, 'Why be moral?,' is no more of a problem for the nontheist than for the theist.