What's New Archive ● 2005 ● November
What's New on the Secular Web?
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November 25, 2005
Added Death of an Infidel by Janice Rael to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
This is a tribute to Richard Allan Glenn, better known in freethought circles as "WinAce," who recently died at the age of twenty from complications of cystic fibrosis.
November 21, 2005
Added "Christian Work in the Devil's Strongholds" : Atheism in England in 1913 by Michael Young to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, discussions on Atheism had a popularity and vigour that would astound most of us today. By contrast, in England today, religion is hardly mentioned and the main concern with any religious talk seems to be not to upset people with what you say.
November 14, 2005
Added Another Case Not Made: A Critique of Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator (2005) by Paul Doland to the Christian Apologetics and Apologists page, as well as the Creationism Book Reviews, Science and Religion, Big Bang Cosmology, Argument to Design, and Immortality index pages in the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library.
In this chapter-by-chapter critique of Lee Strobel's The Case for a Creator, Paul Doland comments on the general direction of the book before analyzing Strobel's interviews with his various experts on specific topics. Topics include the origin of life, evolution, the relationship between science and religion, the origin of the universe, the alleged fine-tuning of the universe, whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, intelligent design, information theory, the origin and nature of consciousness, and whether consciousness can survive the death of the brain. Particularly noteworthy is Strobel's silence when his experts make conflicting claims (e.g., Wells and Dembski on evolution).
November 7, 2005
Added Mark Twain's Private War with the Almighty by Gary Sloan to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
In his twilight years, unknown to his adoring public, the venerable Twain spewed relentless venom on his Maker.
November 4, 2005
Added A Changing of the Guard at Internet Infidels by Keith Augustine, Internet Infidels Executive Director & Scholarly Paper Editor, to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
Freethought activist and longtime Internet Infidels Publicity Director Clark Adams began his two-year term as President of Internet Infidels on November 1, 2005. Scott Wittman, a longtime moderator and administrator of the Internet Infidels Discussion Forum, also began a two-year term as Internet Infidels Vice President. Internet Infidels maintains the Secular Web, the most comprehensive and most frequently visited freethought resource on the Internet.
November 1, 2005
Current Feature: Ms. Brown Goes to Washington (2005), by Lori Lipman Brown
Lori Lipman Brown Brown goes to Washington as the first Director/Lobbyist of the Secular Coalition for America, of which Internet Infidels is a founding member. As the nation's very first 501(c)4 lobbying organization for freethinkers, the Coalition works to increase the visibility and respectability of nontheistic viewpoints within the larger culture, and to protect and strengthen secular government as the best guarantee of freedom for all.
Book-of-the-Month: Freethinkers : A History of American Secularism (2004), by Susan Jacoby
At a time when the separation of church and state is under attack as never before, Freethinkers offers a powerful defense of the secularist heritage that gave Americans the first government in the world founded not on the authority of religion but on the bedrock of human reason.
Special Feature: Outcry Against Boy Scout Exclusion of Gays Should Also Apply to Atheists (2000), by Edward Tabash
A constitutional and civil rights lawyer, Tabash asks that nonbelievers overcome any shyness and reticence that they may have and boldly chime in with their own "me too-ism." If the gays can lament loudly and nationwide about the outrageousness of the Boy Scouts exclusion of them, nonbelievers must identically learn how to publicly protest the discrimination of their lifestyle and worldview by the Boy Scouts of America.