What's New Archive ● 1998 ● April
What's New?
The following is an itemized list of new items available on the Secular Web.
- April 28, 1998
Added "Richard Dawkins on Evolution and Religion" (1996) [ 27K ] (Off Site)
Transcript of a PBS "ThinkTank" interview with the famous evolutionary biologist at Oxford University.Added "Seeking the Biology of Spirituality" (1998) [ 36K ] (Off Site) by Robert Lee Holtz (LA Times, April 26, 1998) to the Mysticism and the Paranormal section of the Modern Library
Added "Myth America: The Language of Conspiracy Theories" (1998) [ 19K ] (Off Site) by Linda Mastellone to the Mysticism and the Paranormal section of the Modern Library
"Just because people are sincere doesn't mean they are being logical or factual. Remember to listen closely and think skeptically. Then, no one can pull the wool over your eyes. The next time Hard Copy or Unsolved Mysteries presents a fantastic story about a conspiracy, listen closely and you can hear the logical fallacies."
- April 27, 1998
Added "From Jesus to Christ (1998) (Off Site) to the Christianity section of the Modern Library
Transcripts of the entire television show broadcast by PBS.
- April 25, 1998
Added "Freethought: Preparing for the New Enlightenment" (1997) [ 29K ] (Off Site) by Gerald Larue
Added a Shroud of Turin page to the Christianity section of the Modern Library
Added a Jesus Seminar page to the Christianity section of the Modern Library
Added Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (Off Site) to the Local Organizations page
Massively updated the Atheism Web's listing of Freethought Organizations
This was the first major update in almost a year. Please check to make sure that the listings for groups in your area are correct.
- April 18, 1998
Added Rationalist Society of St. Louis to the list of local organizations
Added Review of A.N. Wilson's Paul: The Mind of the Apostle (1997) [ 30K ] (Off Site) by Earl Doherty to the Christianity section of the Modern Library
Added Can the Historical Jesus be Made Safe for Orthodoxy?: A Critique of The Jesus Quest by Ben Witherington III (1997) [ 47K ] (Off Site) by Robert J. Miller to the historicity of Jesus section
Added Review of Robert Funk's Honest to Jesus (1997) [ 46K ] (Off Site) by Earl Doherty to the historicity of Jesus section
Added Review of Spong's Liberating the Gospels (1997) [ 64K ] (Off Site) Earl Doherty to the Biblical criticism section
Added Review of Burton Mack's Who Wrote the New Testament? (1997) [ 86K ] (Off Site) by Earl Doherty to the historicity of Jesus section
- April 17, 1998
Added "Happy Easter, Dr. Laura!" [ 14K ] by Judith Hayes (The Happy Heretic, Easter Special 1998)
- April 16, 1998
- April 15, 1998
Added "Craig's Holy Spirit Epistemology" (1998) [ 24K ] by Michael Martin
"In Reasonable Faith, William Lane Craig makes a sharp distinction between knowing that God exists and being able to show this. He maintains that one knows that Christianity is true 'by the self-authenticating witness of God's Holy Spirit.' ... I will argue that Craig fails to make clear what an experience of the Holy Spirit is and does not justify his thesis that this experience is universal, veridical, and unmistakable. I will further maintain that, even if one grants his position, his claim that nonbelievers are without excuse for nonbelieving must be rejected unless one assumes that all beliefs are actions, and that he gives no reason to accept this assumption."Added March 1998 Feedback [90K]
Questions and comments from readers of the Secular Web.
- April 13, 1998
Added a review of "Patrick Glynn's God: The Evidence" (1998) [ 29K ] by Michael Martin
"Glynn's God: The Evidence presents no persuasive evidence for God and the soul. His evidence from cosmology, psychology, and medicine do not add up to an all-but-incontestable case. Indeed, the evidence he puts forth can be challenged, his arguments are deficient, his presentation of alternative theories is unjust, and his grasp of the relevant material is defective."A "stop press" update to this month's web.scan on "Advertising and censorship" [ 12K ]
- April 9, 1998
Added "The Anthropic Principle" (1995) [ 14K ] (Off Site) by Philip Dorrell
"The Weak Anthropic Principle can explain things that otherwise seem inexplicably improbable. But we must be careful not to apply it wrongly, and in some cases a hybrid of Anthropic and non-Anthropic explanations may be the correct answer. The Anthropic principle either implies or assumes the existence of multiple Universes and Realities, and it could perhaps give direct evidence of such multiplicity."Added a link to "God and the Many Worlds Theory" (1995) (Off Site) by Philip Dorrell
"Some of you might have noticed the gradual appearance of a new semi-official Christian Doctrine. This new doctrine says that, 'The Many Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics is not true.' ... [This is because] in recent times Christians have become very fond of the proof of the existence of God which is deduced from the alleged improbability of the origin of life."
- April 3, 1998
Added "The Way We Were?" [ 10K ] by Judith Hayes (The Happy Heretic, April 1998)
- April 2, 1998
Added April web.scan: "Advertising and censorship" [ 12K ]
No April fooling -- web.scan asks some serious questions about advertising's influence on free speech, and how it might potentially affect The Secular Web.Added Jesus Doesn't Live Here Anymore by Skipp Porteous to the ex-Christians section of the II Bookstore
Added Atheists United (Off Site) to the list of National Organizations
Added Amazing Conversions: Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion to the ex-Christians section of the II Bookstore