What’s New Archive

---

What's New Archive ● 1997 ● December

---

• December 30, 1997

• • Review of Physics of Immortality (1997) [ 14K ] (Off Site) by Ben Grobbelaar
    

  • Review of Scientists Confront Creationism (1997) [ 42K ] (Off Site) by Ben Grobbelaar
    Comments on the published book 'Scientists Confront Creationism' by Laurie R. Godfrey (1983).

  • The Grand Design (1997) [ 30K ] (Off Site) by Ben Grobbelaar
    The alternative explanation for the complexity and diversity of nature.

  • Philosophical Skepticism: A Review of Why People Believe Weird Things (1997) [ 10K ] (Off Site) by Ben Grobbelaar
    The important contribution that skepticism makes to the evolution of science and knowledge.

  • Added the Ben Grobbelaar Author Page to the Modern Library

  • Added the following links to the Thomas Paine Author Page:

  • • African Slavery in America (1775) [ 10K ] (Off Site)
    • Agrarian Justice [ 37K ] (Off Site)
    • The American Crisis (1776 - 1783) [ Index ] (Off Site)
    • Dissertationon First Principles of Government (1795) [ 51K ] (Off Site)
    • Friends of Thomas Paine (Off Site)
    • On Thomas Paine (1870) [ 55K ] by Robert Ingersoll
    • Paine's Letter to Washington Proved His Humanitarianism [ 14K ] (Off Site) by Joseph Lewis
    • The Resurrection of Thomas Paine (1953) [ 16K ] (Off Site) by Joseph Lewis
    • Thomas Paine (1892) [ 44K ] by Robert Ingersoll
    • Thomas Paine and the Age of Reason (1957) [ 19K ] (Off Site) by Joseph Lewis
    • Thomas Paine National Historical Association (Off Site)
    • Thomas Paine Originals (Off Site)
    • Thomas Paine Ring (Off Site)
    • Thomas Paine Secretary of State [ 14K ] (Off Site) by Joseph Lewis
    • Tom Paine Society (Off Site)
    • Vindication of Thomas Paine (1877) [ 104K ] by Robert Ingersoll

• December 29, 1997

• • Updated the list of list of active volunteers in the II FAQ

  • Added "Is There Anything Good About Atheism?" (1997) by Adrian Barnett (Off Site) to the atheism section of the Modern Library
    Although atheism does not entail a moral code or purpose, atheism is quite compatible with philosophies like humanism which do have a system of ethics and purpose.

  • Added Story Headline, Boy Scouts Discriminate Against Atheist and Homosexual in California to the News Wire

• December 28, 1997

• • Added News Wire to the Current Issues of the Activists' Corner

  • Added "Comprehensive Bibliography on Skeptical Thought in the Ancient World" by Richard Carrier

  • Added the following links to the Mark Twain author page in the Historical Library:

  • • LittleNelly Tells a Story Out of Her Own Head (1907) (Off Site) [ 28K ]
    • Little Bessie (1907) (Off Site) [ 28K ]
    • The Ten Commandments (1905 or 1906) (Off Site) [ 33K ]
    • Thoughts of God (Off Site)
    • The War Prayer (Off Site)
    • Biography of Samuel Clemens by Thomas S. Vernon (Off Site)
    • The Mark Twain Association of New York, Inc. (Off Site)
    • Mark Twain (Center for Rational Thought)

  • Added "No Holy Night" (1997) by Michael R. Gates to the Biblical errancy section of the Modern Library
    A refutation of the Nativity.

  • Added a list of related sites on Biblical errancy to the Biblical errancy section of the Modern Library

  • Added The Polytheism Of The Bible And The Mystery Of Lucifer by F.T. DeAngelis to the Biblical Errancy section of the II Bookstore

• December 24, 1997

• • Added Humanist World Congress, January 10-14, 1999, Mumbai (Bombay), India to the events page

  • New subject index of the Historical Library
    Compiled by Chad Doctermann

  • Is God in Time Prior to Creation? A Critique of the kalam Argument
    "Whichever way we think about God's relation to time -- whether as timeless or as temporally everlasting -- there are serious problems for the kalam argument. If God is timeless prior to creation, then the case Craig makes for premise (1) is in serious trouble. His argument for thinking that the cause of the universe (if there is one) must be a person is also seriously undermined. If, on the other hand, we think of God as temporally everlasting, then there is no way to avoid conflict with Craig's own arguments for the impossibility of an actual infinite series of events."

  • Removed the Craig-Krueger Debate from the list of upcoming debates

  • Updated the Craig-Atkins Debate on the list of upcoming debates

• December 23, 1997

• • Added The Christian Coalition: Dreams of Restoration, Demands for Recognition by Justin Watson to the Radical Religious Right section of the II Bookstore

• December 19, 1997

• • Added a Summer Camps page to the Events

  • Faithful Flock Favors Friday Flounder
    Humanists cannot make a positive case for humanism without simultaneously criticizing harmful religious doctrines.

• December 18, 1997

• • MLM Survivors Page to the list of position papers on Amway
    

  • Added PBS Firing Line Debate on Evolution/Creation

  • Added "Amway - Is It a Scam?" to the list of position papers on Amway
    A fantastic site with original articles, excellent links, and a mirror of the Sidney Schwartz site that was taken down in response to Amway pressure.

  • Added the Craig-Krueger Debate to the debates page

• December 17, 1997

• • Updated the Craig-Flew Debate

• December 10, 1997

• • Added Women and the Koran to the Islam section of the II Bookstore

  • Updated The Craig-Parsons Debate on the list of upcoming debates

  • Added the First Amendment Ring to the list of Web Rings

  • There are now 147 sites in the Freethought Ring.
    If you haven't yet made your site a part of the growing network of inter-connected freethought sites, now is the time to do so!

  • Added the Craig-Flew Debate to the list of upcoming debates

  • Updated the Craig-Tabash Debate on the list of upcoming debates

  • Removed the brief statement that we have asked Leadership University to add a link to the essay they are responding to, to "A Big Bang Cosmological Argument For God's Nonexistence" by Quentin Smith
    (Leadership University added the link.)

  • Added How to Think About Weird Things : Critical Thinking for a New Age to the logic section of the II Bookstore
• December 9, 1997

• • Added The Craig-Atkins Debate on the existence of God to the list of upcoming debates

  • Can Science Prove that Prayer Works? by Hector Avalos (1997) (Off Site)

  • Morality Requires God...or Does It? by Theodore Schick, Jr. (1997) (Off Site)

  • Author page for Theodore Schick, Jr.

  • Author page for Hector Avalos

• December 8, 1997

• • A Declaration of Women's Rights in Islamic Societies (1997) (Off site)

  • Author page for John E. Dodes

  • The Mysterious Placebo by John E. Dodes (1997) (Off site)

  • Ghostly Photos by Joe Nickell (1996) (Off site)

  • Investigative Files: Miracle Photographs by Joe Nickell (1996) (Off site)

  • Author page for Robert Baker

  • Added a brief statement that we have asked Ravi Zacharias to link to Doug Krueger's rebuttal, to "That Colossal Wreck by Doug Krueger

  • Added Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century by Michio Kaku to the science section of the II Bookstore

• December 7, 1997

• • Added a brief statement that we have asked Leadership University to add a link to the essay they are responding to, to "A Big Bang Cosmological Argument For God's Nonexistence" by Quentin Smith
    Quentin Smith published an article on a Big Bang cosmological argument for God's nonexistence. William Lane Craig wrote a rebuttal, which has been published by Leadership University. We have asked both Dr. Craig and Leadership University for a link to Smith's article.

  • Added a brief statement about SCCCS's refusal to acknowledge Martin's latest rebuttal to "Butler's response" by Michael Martin

  • Added a brief statement about Leadership University's refusal to acknowledge critical rebuttals to "Do Atheists Bear a Burden of Proof?" by Keith Parsons

  • Added The Craig-Parsons Debate to the list of upcoming debates

• December 5, 1997

• • If Looks Could Kill and Words Could Heal (There'd be a lot more dead and a lot fewer sick people around.) by Robert Baker (1994) (Off site)

  • Prayer Wars by Robert Baker (1997) (Off site)

• December 3, 1997
• • October 1997 Feedback

  • Added "James the Brother of Jesus : The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls" by Robert Eisenman, to the II Bookstore. This controversial book lays bare the machinations of St. Paul in creating the early Christian religion.

• December 2, 1997

• • Added Panel discusson on evolution versus intelligent design.

• December 1, 1997

• • Updated the index of responses to the argument from religious experience section

  • December web.scan: Should atheists celebrate Christmas? For that matter, should Christians? Plus the astronomical Star of Bethlehem, and Christmas around the world.

    (Last month's web.scan was accidentally missed from the "What's New?" page.)

  • Human Suffering and the Acceptance of God (1997) [ 13K ] by Michael Martin
    A refutation of William Lane Craig's theodicy based upon the idea that human suffering can lead to acceptance of God.

  • Added the Modern Rationalist to the magazines section of the library (Off Site)
    The Modern Rationalist is an English Magazine published from South India, Tamil Nadu.

  • Why Negative Existential Claims are the Default Position (1997) by Victor A. Danilchenko (Off Site)

See "What's New?" for past months.

We also recommend checking the following pages to keep abreast of recent changes at the following highly recommended sites:

• American Civil Liberties Union
• American Humanist Association
• Council for Secular Humanism
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Inc.
• Operation Clambake (anti-$cientology site)
• Skeptic's Society
• Talk.origins Archive