What's New Archive ● 2007 ● September
What's New on the Secular Web?
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September 11, 2007
Added The Secular Web Online Store to the Internet Infidels Products and Services page.
After an extended hiatus, Internet Infidels has finally unveiled its Cafépress shop. Select from a wide array of products, including t-shirts, hats, totebags, bumper stickers, buttons, magnets, mousepads, mugs, and more. Choose from four branded designs--the Secular Web logo, IIDB logo, Internet Infidels liquid logo, and Internet Infidels 3-D logo--or our long-awaited "None of the Above" design.
Special thanks are due to Loren Petrich for graciously redesigning our logos for use in our Cafépress shop, and to Ray Johnson for setting up the shop.
September 1, 2007
Book-of-the-Month: C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion (2005) by John Beversluis
C. S. Lewis was one of the most influential Christian apologists of the 20th century. Convinced that Christianity was rationally defensible, Lewis did not appeal to blind faith but to reason. He boldly declared: "I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of the evidence is against it." But do Lewis's arguments survive critical scrutiny? In this revised and expanded edition of his 1985 book, philosopher John Beversluis takes Lewis at his word, sympathetically examines his "case for Christianity," and concludes that it fails.
Featured Article: The Argument from Mundanity (2006) by Dan Ferrisi
"Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens are among the most intellectually formidable, witty and persuasive atheists currently writing. Although Harris tends to attack theism from a philosophical standpoint, and Hitchens prefers consulting history and using religions' own texts against them, both have elegantly articulated a sound, unanswerable argument against Christianity (and every other religion currently vying for adherents among people who ought to know better). I shall call it The Argument from Mundanity."
The Great Debate: added Section Two: Evil and Evolution to God or Blind Nature? Philosophers Debate the Evidence (2007) edited by Paul Draper in the Modern Documents section of the Secular Web Library.
Does the universe provide evidence of design? What is the nature of the mind or soul, and what is its relation to the brain? Why is there so much seemingly needless evil or suffering in the world? What bearing does the evolution of life have on the existence of God? Why does God appear to be hidden from vast numbers of human beings, if he exists? These and other questions are debated by nine prominent philosophers in this ongoing series of four debates we are calling "The Great Debate."
The second debate, "Evil and Evolution," concerns whether certain facts of evolutionary biology are better explained on the hypothesis that naturalism is true, or on the hypothesis that theism is true. Again, readers are encouraged to submit questions to the two contributors participating in this debate, but the window in which to submit questions is about a month. (So all questions concerning "Evil and Evolution" should be submitted by early October at the latest.)
Note that we are also still seeking last-minute questions for Andrew Melnyk or Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferro regarding their opening "Mind and Will" debate, but please submit these questions to us as soon as you possibly can.