Added Review of Naturalism and Religion: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation (2025) by Glenn Branch to the Naturalism page under Nontheism in the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library.
In this article National Center for Science Education deputy director Glenn Branch reviews Graham Oppy’s scholarly and meticulous, yet still accessible, Naturalism and Religion. After defining naturalism as the thesis that all causal entities and causal powers are natural, and that the best means for identifying those entities and powers is the scientific method, Oppy goes on to define a religion as a belief system that, among other things, is committed to the existence of non-natural causal entities and/or powers, and thus is incompatible with naturalism. As might be expected, Oppy argues that naturalistic big pictures balance the virtues of scientific theories best given all of the available evidence. At mid-way Oppy assesses well-known theistic arguments against naturalism from Alvin Plantinga and Michael Rea and then goes on to consider general Thomistic critiques. The book then turns to the extent to which science does, and does not, conflict with religion. After assessing a number of arguments against the explanatory power of naturalism, the final chapter highlights the combination of the minimal ontological commitments and great explanatory power of naturalism: we know that natural causal entities and powers exist, but have little evidential reason to posit the existence of anything more.
New in the Kiosk: Simon Greenleaf and the Atheist Professor Urban Legend (2025) by Robert G. Miller
Simon Greenleaf was a great legal scholar and the author of a seminal book of legal apologetics titled The Testimony of the Evangelists. Numerous apologists tell variations of an inspiring story about how evidence for Jesus’ resurrection supposedly convinced this eminent professor to convert from atheism to Christianity, but in this essay Robert G. Miller shows that the story has no basis in fact. In addition, Miller reports that he contacted a number of apologists who have spread this urban legend, and provided them with the evidence demonstrating that it is not true. Although many honest and sincere Christians deleted or corrected previous misinformation about the legend, the most popular apologists (e.g., Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, and Norman Geisler) continue to promote the falsehood.
Recommended reading: A Drop of Reason: Essays from the Secular Web (2025) edited by David Misialowski
In 1995, the Secular Web made its debut online with the goal of promoting a naturalist view of reality, without recourse to God or gods or any supernatural realm. Now, thirty years on, the site is still going strong, and during that period it has assembled an impressive collection of scholarly essays from contributors. Now, to commemorate the site’s 30th anniversary, we have assembled a number of those essays in book form: A Drop of Reason. Please enjoy this stellar collection of critical thinking.