Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

Archives for May 2013

The kalam cosmological argument and libertarian free will

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Jonathan Pearce made a comment in the discussion thread to “God or Godless and a Tippling Philosopher (Part 2)” which caught my attention. He said: “if you ascribe to the Kalam cosmological argument AND believe in free will, one refutes the other, since  free will implies ex nihilo creation (or a causal chain), so there […]

The outhouse, evil and eternity

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The problem of evil is predicated ultimately on the belief that God could not possibly redeem the moral and natural evils we regularly see in our midst. But can we really know this is true? Consider the following illustration… I cannot imagine a filthier more disgusting environment than the bottom of an outhouse. And yet, […]

33,000 denominations. And the problem is…?

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So there are 33,000 Christian denominations. Or 42,000. Or 51,000. What’s the problem? Let’s preface the discussion at the outset with the rather glaring observation that over a billion Christians are Catholic. And the rest can, for the most part, be subdivided into rather large groups: several hundred million orthodox, a hundred million Anglicans, Lutherans, […]

Randal speaks at Urban Bridge Church

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For the next three weeks I’ll be speaking at the 10 am service at the Urban Bridge Church in Edmonton, AB. This is not a conventional church (if there is such a thing) and these won’t be “sermons” but rather talks that encourage discussion and reflection. The schedule is as follows: May 19: Does Christian […]

Abortion to save the life of the mother

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I’ve been a supporter of Amnesty International for several years now. As a result, I receive on a regular basis emails regarding current matters. Yesterday I received the following appeal via email: Today El Salvador’s Supreme Court continues to debate a young mother’s request for a life-saving abortion. However, the President, Attorney General and other […]

A tippling-too-much philosopher? A response to Jonathan Pearce

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Jonathan Pearce offers a reply to my reply to his review (this is getting complicated) here. So let this current article be my reply to his reply to my reply to his review. Jonathan writes: “The rebuttal [of each debate] was too short. Although this sounds like a contradiction since I admire its brevity…” It’s […]

33,000 denominations, Oy vey!

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The 30,000 (or 33,000) Christian denominations often comes up in conversation with atheists as it did in the thread for “God or Godless and a Tippling Philosopher (Part 2)” when John Grove wrote: “The fact that Christendom is divided into some 33,000+ denominations and debate every doctrine and fundamental of the faith merely shows me that […]

God or Godless and a Tippling Philosopher (Part 2)

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Let’s carry on with Jonathan Pearce (aka a Tippling Philosopher) and his review of God or Godless. Jonathan writes: “The basis of Randal’s argument is the ontological argument. In other words, he has rational, epistemic right to believe that a maximal God exists.” First off, I don’t have a single basis of argument. Second, the […]

1. Denis Lamoureux on Evolution and Creation

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Welcome to the inaugural Tentative Apologist Podcast! Since this is the first episode I had some hiccups along the way. The production value of the audio is not what I had hoped for. But for those who don’t mind turning up the volume, the interview is well worth it (so I say anyway!). In this […]

God or Godless and a tippling philosopher (Part 1)

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Last week Jonathan Pearce, the “Tippling Philosopher” blogger, reviewed God or Godless here. I was unable to offer a response at the time since I was out of country. But better late than never. Jonathan appreciated the brevity and concision of the book as well as the eclectic range of topics. However, he thought the concluding statements, […]