Godless (62 page)
Racism, and God
Rajabali, Hassanain
Randi, James
Randolph, David
Rationalism, definition
Reality, definition
Reason, definition
Receiver-transmitter argument
Reed, Tom
Reincarnation
Relativism
Religion, definition
Religious belief, origin
Religious experiences.
See
Personal religious experiences
See
Personal religious experiences
Remsburg, John E.
Resurrection.
See
Jesus, resurrection
See
Jesus, resurrection
Revelation
Richard Dawkins Foundation
Robertson, J. M.
Robertson, Pat
Russell, Bertrand
Russell, Charles
Rutherford, Joseph
Sabbath; and biblical contradictions
Sacks, Oliver
Sagan, Carl
St. Anselm
St. Augustine
Salisbury, Lee
“Salvation,”
Sanger, Margaret
Santa Claus theory
Sartre, Jean Paul
Satan
Saul’s conversion, and biblical contradictions
Schinhofen, Tammy
Schonfield, Hugh J.
Schweitzer, Albert
Second law of thermodynamics
Secular Student Alliance (SSA)
Sermon on the Mount
Servetus, Michael
Severus, Sulpicius
Sheehan, Thomas
Shelly, Rubel
Sherman, Marian
Siegel, Bob
Sin and sinners; accidental vs. deliberate; and biblical contradictions; original sin
Slavery; and bible; and biblical contradictions; and God; and Jesus
Smith, George
Smith, W. B.
Solomon’s stalls, and biblical contradictions
Speaking in tongues
Spencer, Hal
Spirit, definition
Stalin, Joseph
Standard Christian Center
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
Stealing, and biblical contradictions
Suetonius
Swaggart, Jimmy
Sweeney, Julia
Swinburne, Richard
Swindler, Adrian
Syncellus, George
Synoptic Gospels.
See also
Gospels
See also
Gospels
Tacitus
Taoism, “Golden Rule” version
Taylor, Kenneth
Ten Commandments; first; second; third; fourth; fifth; sixth; seventh; eight; ninth; tenth
Ten Precepts of Buddhism
Tertullian
Thallus
Theism, definition
Thermodynamics, laws of
Thing, definition
Thompson, Tommy
Till, Farrell
Tillich, Paul
Time, and God
Towey, Jim
Trees, and biblical contradictions
Trinity
Truth, definition
“Turn the other cheek” concept
Twain, Mark
Unbelief in God.
See also
Atheism
See also
Atheism
Unitarian-Universalist Church
United States Supreme Court
Universe, design of
Vernon, Thomas
Violence, and Jesus
Walker, Barbara
Wells, G. A.
Westar Institute
White, James
Wilson, Doug
Wilson, Ed
Winfrey, Oprah
Wisdom
Witches, and bible
Women, equality: and biblical contradictions; and Jesus
Woodmont Hills Church of Christ
Wright, Bob
Wright, Myrna
Youth Unlimited Gospel Outreach (YUGO)
Zoroastrianism, “Golden Rule” version
Other Books from Ulysses Press
Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person’s Answer to Christian Fundamentalism
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Foreword by Dorion Sagan
Clear, concise, and persuasive,
Atheist Universe
details exactly why God is unnecessary
to explain the universe and life’s diversity, organization, and beauty.
David Mills, $14.95
Foreword by Dorion Sagan
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details exactly why God is unnecessary
to explain the universe and life’s diversity, organization, and beauty.
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the World’s Greatest Cryptographers
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Brings to life the amazing stories and fascinating structures of the secret codes that
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ful decryption software.
Solomon’s Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D.C.
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Solomon’s Builders
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To order these books call 800-377-2542 or 510-601-8301, fax 510-601-8307, e-mail
[email protected], or write to Ulysses Press, P.O. Box 3440, Berkeley, CA
94703. All retail orders are shipped free of charge. California residents must include
sales tax. Allow two to three weeks for delivery.
[email protected], or write to Ulysses Press, P.O. Box 3440, Berkeley, CA
94703. All retail orders are shipped free of charge. California residents must include
sales tax. Allow two to three weeks for delivery.
About the Author
Dan Barker is a former evangelical minister and Christian songwriter who renounced all religion after 19 years misspent “serving god.” Today he fights for the separation of church and state as the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and as the host of Freethought Radio, a weekly atheist radio program on Air America. He plays jazz piano and lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He is married to Annie Laurie Gaylor, who is Foundation co-president and co-host of Freethought Radio.
1
The four laws of thermodynamics have precise mathematical expressions, but informally, Law Zero states that if each of two systems is in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are in thermal equilibrium with each other. Law One states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Law Two states that the entropy of a closed system tends to increase to its maximum value (entropy is the amount of energy not available for work, sometimes informally referred to as “disorder” or “chaos”). Law Three reduces to the conclusion that Absolute Zero can never be reached in a finite amount of time. There are also some tentative candidates for Law Four (the fifth law), so the number might change.
2
The Big Bang is not an “event.” An event takes place in time and space: it needs a context. Since time and space are a part of the universe itself, calling the Big Bang an “event” would place it in a context beyond itself, which amounts to a presumption of transcendence.
3
An empty set can be significant. It can be quite meaningful to say, “I have no friends.” But we know what defines a set of friends, and we can point to non-zero examples of this set in real life. A null set is significant only if it could possibly be non-null, and that can only happen if we know what constitutes an item in that set. In the case of NBE, we have no examples, so a null set would be equal to no set at all.
4
I’m not accusing theists of special pleading. It is not impossible to
conceive
of beginninglessness: Stephen Hawking’s recent 2D-time model is an intriguing example and some atheists have suggested that the universe is eternal. But these ideas come
after
the cosmological argument, and since they are normally rejected by theists, they can hardly be considered a basis for the original justification of NBE. Besides, the idea of the beginning of the universe
itself
deals with “all of reality,” not with any item.
conceive
of beginninglessness: Stephen Hawking’s recent 2D-time model is an intriguing example and some atheists have suggested that the universe is eternal. But these ideas come
after
the cosmological argument, and since they are normally rejected by theists, they can hardly be considered a basis for the original justification of NBE. Besides, the idea of the beginning of the universe
itself
deals with “all of reality,” not with any item.
5
W. L. Craig,
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth And Apologetics,
(Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1994) p. 117.
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth And Apologetics,
(Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1994) p. 117.
6
In the conceptual world, of course, there are things with no beginning, such as the set of negative numbers. But the thrust of Kalam is that infinities do not exist in the real world.
7
This might still amount to begging the question, because the existence of the supernatural is part of the package that theists want to prove.
8
How can an inference be drawn from observations within the natural universe that applies
outside
that universe?
outside
that universe?
9
This, by the way, is one way of refuting teleological arguments. If functional complexity requires a designer, then the designer also needs a designer because the designer must be at least as complex as the thing it designed. A creator God, if he existed, would possess a functionally complex, wonderful, organized, purposeful mind…but that is a different argument.
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