What’s New Archive

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What's New Archive ● 1997 ● October

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• October 19, 1997
• • Added Facing the Wrath : Confronting the Right in Dangerous Times and Roads to Dominion : Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States (Critical Perspectives), both by Sara Diamond, to the Radical Religious Right section of the II Bookstore
    
    
  • An Atheological Argument from Evil Natural Laws (1991) [ 42k ] by Quentin Smith
    Quentin Smith argues that the natural law that animals must savagely kill and devour each other in order to survive is an evil natural law and that the obtaining of this law is sufficient evidence that God does not exist.
    
    
• October 18, 1997
• • Added Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer to the Psychology of Belief section of the II Bookstore
    
    
  • Added Questioning the Millennium : A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown by Stephen Jay Gould to the Science & Philosophy section of the II Bookstore
    
    
  • Added The Tomb of God : The Body of Jesus and the Solution to a 2,000-Year-Old Mystery by Richard. Andrews, Paul Schellenberger to the resurrection of Jesus section of the II Bookstore
    
    
  • Updated the Ex-Christians section of the II Bookstore
    
    
  • Added "The Churching of America, 1776-1990 : Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy", by Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, to both the Church/State and the History of Religion sections of the II Bookstore.
    
    
  • Atheism, Theism, and Big Bang Cosmology (1991) [ 63K ] by Quentin Smith
    Smith argues that the Big Bang theory is incompatible with Christian theism and other theist perspectives.
    
    
  • A Big Bang Cosmological Argument For God's Nonexistence (1992) [ 63k ] by Quentin Smith
    Smith argues that it is unreasonable to believe that God created the big bang.
    
    
• October 17, 1997
• • "That Colossal Wreck" by Douglas E. Krueger
    Ravi "Zacharias's AShattered Visage: The Real Face of Atheism is an unsuccessful attempt to refute or discredit atheism. He concentrates on some of the more prounounced problems with atheism, as he perceives them, and in the course of this review I will show why some of his approaches fail. I say 'some' because I will address only the most salient errors. A thorough refutation of all of the mistakes in his 200-page book would require another 300 pages or more, as these sorts of things are short in the telling and long in the refuting."
    
    
  • Douglas E. Krueger author page
    
    
• October 16, 1997
• • Added Faulkenberry and Judge Moore on ABC's 20/20 to the Television Events Page
    
    
• October 15, 1997
• • Turning the Corner in the Search for the Origin of Life by Peter Wills (Off Site)
    
    
• October 13, 1997
• • Network Discretion Advised (Off Site)
    ABC News is taking a poll. The question for the poll is, "Would you allow your child to watch a lesbian kiss on television?" At the time this "What's New?" page was updated, 8,659 people had responded: 65.1% said yes while 34.8% said no. Cast your vote today!
    
    
  • San Diego Association for Rational Inquiry (Off Site)
    
    
  • Humanist Association of San Diego (Off site)
    
    
  • Added Stephen Hawking's Universe to the television events page
    
    
  • Created a television page in the Events directory
    
    
  • Added Student Sues To Separate Church, College (The Salt Lake Tribune, October 12, 1997) to the Church-State Directory in the Activists' Corner
    
    
• October 12, 1997
• • Added a Book of Mormon section to the Mormonism section of the Modern Library
    
    
  • Added a Book of Abraham section to the Mormonism section of the Modern Library
    
    
  • Added Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus to the list of books about the alleged Resurrection of Jesus in the II Bookstore
    
    
• October 11, 1997
• • Added Americans United for Separation of Church and State 50th National Conference to the Conventions page
    
    
  • Added several sites to the list of other sites' "What's New?" pages at the bottom of this page
    
    
  • Added Third Annual Clearwater Florida Protest Against Scientology (Off Site) to the Events page
    
    
  • "Does Induction Presume The Existence Of The Christian God?" by Michael Martin
    Michael Martin describes and refutes the inductional form of the Transcendental Argument for God's existence.
    
    
  • Added FACTNet Coercion Links to the list of Amway-related position papers in the Activist's Corner
    FACTNet has included Amway in a list of organizations "alleged to be using coercive persuasion mind control techniques."
    
    
  • Added several new books to the Mormonism section of the II Bookstore:
  • • The Quest for the Gold Plates
    • The Lion of the Lord
    • Studies of the Book of Mormon
    • New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
    • by His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
    • Mormon Polygamy: A History
    • No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith: The Mormon Prophet
    • The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past
      
      
  • Added "Blacks Receive LDS Priesthood" (Off Site) by Jerald and Sandra Tanner to the Mormonism section of the Modern Library
    "Since we have probably printed more material critical of the Mormon anti-black doctrine than any other publisher, the new revelation comes as a great victory and a vindication of our work."
    
    
  • Added "Joseph Smith As a Prophet" (Off Site) to the Mormonism section of the Modern Library
    "Summarized above are some of the sixty prophecies of Joseph Smith which were not fulfilled. Mormons may object that some of them may still be fulfilled, for example, Jesus will yet come, the Far West temple will yet be built, New York will yet be destroyed, Salem will yet belong to the Mormons, etc. Yet many of the prophecies cannot be fulfilled: the dates for their fulfillment were given, and those dates have passed; the people whose deeds were prophesied have died without their performing those deeds."
    
    
• October 10, 1997
• • Added an Amway directory to the Radical Religious Right section of the Activists' Corner
    
    
  • Added two responses to the September 1997 Feedback. These can be accessed by clicking here and here.
    
    
  • Added a request for a documented list of businesses that support the Radical Religious Right to the Call for Papers
    We're looking for a list of companies that support radical religious right wing causes, as well as other such things. We've heard that Amway, In & Out Burgers, Target, and Domino's Pizza are major contributors to groups like Focus On the Family and the Christian Coalition, but we'd like to see a DOCUMENTED list of corporations and the right wing political and religious causes they support.
    
    
• October 9, 1997
• • The new bookstore page on science and philosophy receives three additions. The first is the last book by Carl Sagan: "Billions and Billions : Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium". The second is Stephen Hawking's modern classic: "A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes". The last is a theistic counterpoint to Hawking, Paul Davies': "About Time : Einstein's Unfinished Revolution"
    
    
  • September 1997 Feedback
    
    
• October 8, 1997
• • A new bookstore page on science and philosophy starts with two books by John Gribbin: "Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality : Solving the Quantum Mysteries" and "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat : Quantum Physics and Reality"
    
    
  • Added Americans United, Atlanta Chapter Press Release -- 10/08/97: Minister Uses Public School Assembly for Sermon to the list of ews Articles About Prayer in Schools
    
    
  • In Defense of Moral Subjectivism: An Argument for the Subjectivity of Moral Values (1997) by Keith Augustine
    
    
  • Added NGLTF exposes divisive policies of "Promise Keepers" (National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 31 May 95) to the Position Papers on Promise Keepers page
    "In Colorado, we've seen Promise Keepers and Bill McCartney attack our families and communities. The hypocrisy of this movement is very dangerous. It draws people in who have certain emotional needs, and then exploits them in divisive ways."
    
    
  • Added What about Women and Promise Keepers? (Off Site) to the Position Papers on Promise Keepers page
    "'Something special happens when men come together in the name of Jesus Christ.' The conferences are designed to address specific men's issues. We have discovered that men are more apt to hear and receive the full instruction of the sessions when they are within an all-male setting. One of the primary goals of each conference is to deepen the committment of men to respect and honor women."
    
    
  • Added 6 new links to the Position Papers on Promise Keepers page
    A collection of links to newspaper editorials and position statements (both pro and con) on the Promise Keepers.
    
    
  • News Articles about the Promise Keepers (Off Site)
    A collection of links to over 10 different newspaper articles about the recent Promise Keepers rally in Washington, D.C.
    
    
• October 7, 1997
• • September 1997 Internet Infidels Newsletter
    It's back, after an absence lasting almost one year.
    
    
  • CNN Coverage of North Texas Church of Freethought (NTCOF)
    CNN will be running a segment TONIGHT (7 October 1997) at 9pm Central Time.
    
    
  • Is a Proof of the Non-Existence of a God Even Possible? (1997) [ 21K ] by Jeffery Jay Lowder
    A common objection to atheism -- one stated by many scholars and laymen, theists and nontheists -- is that it is impossible to prove the non-existence of God. In this paper, I shall argue that there is no a priori reason why the disproof of a specific god is impossible.
    
    
• October 6, 1997
• • Halloween Special
    For October's Internet Infidels web.scan, Mathew surveys some of the Halloween sites on the web. Somes of these sites are scary: there are actually people out there who believe the stuff on the pages Mathew surveys.
    
    
  • Where Were You Before You Were You? by Judith Hayes (The Happy Heretic, October 1997)
    If the idea of ceasing to exist when you die is scary, have you stopped to think about where you were before you were born?
    
    
  • Women Without Superstition by Annie Laurie Gaylor is the II Book of the Month for October 1997
    
    
  • Closing Statement by Michael Martin [ 9K ]
    Michael Martin's closing statement in his Internet debate with Phil Fernandes on the existence of God
    
    
• October 5, 1997
• • We have updated the list of freethought-related conventions. Check out the updated web page for information on the Freedom From Religion Foundation 1997 convention in December; the Atheist Alliance 1998 convention next April; and a series of Campus Freethought Alliance conventions.
  • There is a new policy in effect for feedback messages. Check the feedback form.
    
    
  • USA Weekend Quick Poll on "feelings about the Bible" (Off Site)
    Allows visitors to vote for one of three choices: inerrancy, inspiration (but not inerrancy), and "the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men." Cast your vote today!
    
    
• October 4, 1997
• • A Representative Example of Intellectual Dishonesty in the pathlights.com Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia by Mark I. Vuletic
    
    
• October 1, 1997
• • Campus Atheists, Agnostics and Humanists at Western Michigan University (Off Site)
    
    
  • UCCS Freethinkers (Off Site)
    
    

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