Added Reaffirming Belief in Miracles: A Brief Rebuttal to Loftus (2026) by Don McIntosh to the Argument from Miracles page under Arguments for the Existence of a God, and the Resurrection page under Christianity in the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library.
In a hard-hitting and comprehensive reply to a previous paper by Don McIntosh defending the rationality of belief in miracles, John Loftus argued that McIntosh’s defenses are ultimately self-defeating: his denial of laws of nature in particular, coupled with his religious definition of miracles as “signs and wonders,” would leave no way to distinguish miracles from very rare but natural occurrences. In turn that would leave no way to discern true from false miracle claims, including the ancient and unverifiable claims in the Bible made by credulous and superstitious people. In this brief rebuttal McIntosh pushes back against Loftus’ arguments affirming inductive reasoning and the laws of nature/science, as well as his arguments against the divine creation of life, predictive prophecy, and miracles in the Gospels. McIntosh concludes that in light of the relevant information available, belief in a miracle-working God is rationally justified.
New in the Kiosk: The Demon in the Mirror: Radical Doubt and the Ethics of Uncertainty (2026) by David Falls
René Descartes imagined an evil demon powerful enough to deceive us about almost everything, including what we see, remember, and believe. This essay asks what is left when certainty falls away, and whether doubt must lead to isolation or despair. It looks at how thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Jean-Paul Sartre tried to make sense of life without absolute answers or guaranteed meaning. The essay argues that kindness, honesty, and responsibility still matter because our choices affect real people, even when we cannot be certain about the larger purpose of existence. In a time when certainty is often worn as a badge of virtue, admitting that we may be wrong can be an act of humility, openness, and moral courage.
Recommended reading: Truth Addict: How to Ask Questions, Test Ideas, and Get Answers in a Data-Driven World by John V. Kane
What makes some evidence strong, some evidence weak, and some evidence total nonsense? Individuals, policymakers, and businesses across the globe want to make decisions based on evidence. But not all evidence is created equal. In Truth Addict: How to Ask Questions, Test Ideas, and Get Answers in a Data-Driven World, John V. Kane provides the layperson’s guide to data, truth, and the gap between them. Whether it’s collected through laboratory experiments or public surveys, market research or archival records, data has a story to tell us—but only if we can read it. Drawing on engaging examples, Kane details the logic of gathering and analyzing data as a means of getting us closer to the truth, even if the truth hurts. Developing research questions. Defining variables. Choosing metrics. Testing hypotheses. Quantifying relationships. Ruling out chance. Considering alternative explanations. Knowing not just that “correlation does not equal causation,” but also how to tell the difference. These are key steps along Kane’s “Road to Evidence,” a journey that begins with curiosity and ends at objective knowledge. You don’t have to be a math whiz to study our social world—Truth Addict provides every reader tools to uncover the reality within the numbers.