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Randal Rauser

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Archives for March 2012

A blogging update

March 30, 2012 by Randal

I tend to treat blogging like Olympic sprinting. Lots of activity for short bursts followed by long periods of rest. Except that it is generally reversed: lots of activity for long bursts followed by short periods of rest. We’re presently in one of those short periods of rest and here’s why: Reason 1: On Wednesday […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: blog, heaven, Randal Rauser

Defending the Fall without a Historical Adam

March 29, 2012 by Randal

The dialogue on evolution and Genesis in which Ms. B laid out a way to ground a doctrine of the fall without a historical Adam prompted the following response from Mike: I get that interpretation changes for the different prose but don’t you walk a razors edge when you’re deciding which accounts are fictitious and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Adam, Bible, hermeneutics, the fall

Cases where blind faith is the best kind

March 29, 2012 by Randal

In a dialogue with Ray Ingles on the concept of faith davidstarlingm observed: “Can we just agree that “having faith” is bad when it discourages investigation of the evidence….” The “right” answer is “yes, of course!” Or so you might think. But sometimes the “right” answer isn’t right. Consider this: “Can we just agree that making […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, faith, reason

Accords, Elans, and Biblical Interpretation

March 28, 2012 by Randal

The long discussion of Mr. A and Ms. B may have laid out one way to appropriate the Genesis creation/fall narrative in light of current understandings of earth history, but it has not solved all our problems or answered all our questions. Beetle asks: Ms. B never circles adequately back to Mr. A’s concern over […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, Genesis, hermeneutics

From Adam to Zorg: A Dialogue on Creation and Evolution

March 27, 2012 by Randal

In response to my article on Young earth creationism and old things Walter asks: Now that we have established that YEC is a pile of baloney, could you point me to a prior post or article of yours that explains the biblical Fall as you understand it? Was there a single pair of humans that […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, Christianity, creation, evolution, fall, hermeneutics, original sin, science, theism

God Delusions? Some reflections on Dawkins vs. Lennox

March 26, 2012 by Randal

Yesterday I finished leading three weeks of adult Sunday school based on the film “The God Delusion Debate”, a dialogue/debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox. Overall it was an engaging dialogue and Lennox made some good points. He also had what was undoubtedly the best line of the event. After the moderator quoted Dawkins […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Big Bang, God Delusion, John Lennox, Richard Dawkins

How to be spiritual in five minutes (or less): A Lenten Reflection

March 25, 2012 by Randal

This is a repost of an article I published in 2010 at The Christian Post (with two tweaks). *** We live in a Dr. Phil world. It is a world in which deeply scarred, dysfunctional people can receive five minutes of counsel delivered with a Texas drawl, and supposedly be well on the road to […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: commodification, discipleship, Dr. Phil, Jack Handey, Lent, Saturday Night Live, spirituality

Young earth creationism and really old living things

March 24, 2012 by Randal

When I grew up in a conservative evangelical (Pentecostal) church young earth creationism was the only game in town. With a blush I remember arguing the view to incredulous friends in high school and handing off a copy of It’s a Young World After All to my polite science teacher. In the early 1990s I […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evolution, Rachel Sussman, Ted Talks, young earth creationism

On Bullies

March 24, 2012 by Randal

I wasn’t bullied growing up. I had too big a personality to become a victim. (I did get beat up a few times, one time by a pack of headbangers in a city park, but that doesn’t count as bullying.) Nor was I an active bully of others. I was, in the terminology of Barbara […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bully, documentary, justice

Rosie, don’t get in the elevator: A guide to moral intuition

March 23, 2012 by Randal

Stephen Matizen seems to think that we are only justified in attributing special status to human beings if we can identify qualities possessed by all and only human beings. This is how he put it most recently: Name a morally relevant quality possessed by all and only humans.  Rationality?  Not all humans have it (Terri […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, Gavin de Becker, moral intuition, moral perception, morality, Stephen Maitzen

A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. Really?

March 22, 2012 by Randal

This quote is from Ingrid Newkirk (sans the indignant “Really?” at the end). Most people will react to it with indignation bordering on revulsion bordering on outrage. However, it may not warrant such a strong response. As I have argued elsewhere (see You’re not as Crazy as I Think, chapter 9), Newkirk’s ecumenical message is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, ethics, Ingrid Newkirk, morality, naturalism, Stephen Maitzen, theism

Should assertions be supported with evidence?

March 22, 2012 by Randal

Hi everyone. I’ve got about ten minutes in between meetings. Sadly, that is not enough time to address all the comments in the blog that require addressing. And it certainly isn’t time to offer the full response to Stephen Maitzen. And it definitely isn’t time to fulfill my promise to Jerry Rivard. But it is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, evidentialism

Hellbound? A hot new documentary

March 21, 2012 by Randal

As far as theological topics go, hell is hot these days. (By the way, I have a history with hell puns. When I was in seminary I wrote a paper for Stanley Grenz on the topic of annihilationism which I titled “Who in hell lives forever?” On the day I handed the paper in Stanley […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist

Must existence be everlasting to be meaningful?

March 21, 2012 by Randal

I was happy to see Stephen Maitzen commenting on my previous post. You see, Stephen and I have a bit of a history as longtime readers of this blog will know (where longtime is defined roughly as more than a year). For example, see here and here and here and here. Now Stephen has challenged […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, existentialism, meaning, Queen, Stephen Maitzen, theism, William Lane Craig

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