2007-05-04

Rationalist-atheist links

René Salm

www.nazarethmyth.info

Richard Carrier

The Secular Web

Secular Web Discussion Forums

And one of his pieces on The Secular Web:

Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False?

Carrier’s intro:

A common argument for the truth of the Christian religion is that its origins were too improbable for it to be false. This argument has appeared in many forms over the years, but most of the usual ideas are combined into a single popular effort by James Holding. The following article critiques that effort, by comparing Holding’s arguments and claims there with the actual facts of ancient history, and identifying fallacies in his reasoning. Holding offers seventeen factors “where Christianity ‘did the wrong thing’ in order to be a successful religion” and concludes from this that “the only way Christianity” could “succeed” under those seventeen hostile conditions is “because it was a truly revealed faith,” in particular “because it had the irrefutable witness of the resurrection.” Besides those seventeen factors, Holding offers one additional critical assumption about “luck,” making eighteen points altogether. Each of those points will be addressed in a separate chapter, in order, with his eighteenth underlying assumption counted last, followed by an evolving chapter responding to critics of the present work . . . .

Panda’s Thumb

. . . . is a weblog giving another voice for the defenders of the integrity of science, the patrons of “The Panda’s Thumb”.

Much as in any tavern serving a university community, you can expect to hear a variety of levels of discussion, ranging from the picayune to the pedantic. The authors are people associated with the virtual University of Ediacara (and thus the talk.origins newsgroup), and various web sites critical of the antievolution movement, such as the TalkOrigins Archive, TalkDesign, and Antievolution.org.

From the site’s “About” page

Marlene Winell:

Recovery from Religion

Australian Skeptics

Early Doherty:

The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus?
(fixed link)

Herman Detering:

Radikalkritik

Richard Dawkins:

Historical Resurrection of Jesus? — formal debate

Richard Dawkins Forum (blog)
Richard Dawkins dot net (official website)
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science (RDF)
Richard Dawkins on infidels.org
Richard Dawkins dot com

Radio broadcast lecture:
Heard a lecture by Richard Dawkins on God on one of my favourite radio programs — for anyone with an uncompromising rationalist and evolutionary bent like myself it’s a most enjoyable listen and well worth podding. But the pod bit disappears in a few weeks from the site, though the transcript will remain. Check it out here.

Robert M Price

Mindvendor

Steven Carr

http://www.bowness.demon.co.uk

Are the Gospels Eyewitness Accounts? 1 Matthew and Mark

Are the Gospels Eyewitness Accounts? 2 Luke and John

See also Formal debate on the “historical resurrection of Jesus” at the Richard Dawkins website — started by Steven Carr

Bio
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Neil Godfrey

Neil is the author of this post. To read more about Neil, see our About page.

Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 3: Prediction and History - 2024-11-24 09:10:07 GMT+0000
Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 2: Certainty and Uncertainty in History - 2024-11-18 01:15:24 GMT+0000
Jesus Mythicism and Historical Knowledge, Part 1: Historical Facts and Probability - 2024-11-16 01:05:37 GMT+0000

5 thoughts on “Rationalist-atheist links”

neilgodfrey says:

2008-05-14 07:36:28 GMT+0000 at 07:36

Fixed. Thanks for alerting me to it, Randy.

Reply
Randy says:

2008-05-14 00:15:52 GMT+0000 at 00:15

I followed a link to your response to ADL propaganda; you have done an excellent job. I am now exploring some of your discussions on atheism and religion (very interesting) but notice you have a dead link to the Early Doherty article on the historical Jesus…and I was looking forward to reading that! I hope you can fix that one.

I live in the U.S. but my mom was Australian and I spent many years traveling around Oz. I’m always interested in what is happening down there. Thanks for your efforts.

Reply
Pingback: ‘Fabricating Jesus’, ch1. Evans on Robert Price, and comments on “trained” historians « Vridar
Derek Murphy says:

2009-04-14 03:00:49 GMT+0000 at 03:00

Hi – Sorry but I couldn’t find a normal email link so I’m posting. I’ve been following your blog; I’m finishing a non-fiction book and am hoping to establish a bit of ‘community’ before I approach publisher’s. Would you be willing to review the book if I send you a copy? It’s mostly on the mythical/historical Jesus, but with fresh content and an angle that’s never been taken before.

I’d be willing to pay for your time.

Thanks,

Derek

Reply
1. neilgodfrey says:
  
  2009-04-14 07:14:32 GMT+0000 at 07:14
  
  Hi Derek. Have added an email address to my profile now. Will respond by email to your query shortly.
  
  Reply

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