The most recent episode of “Unbelievable” features a very fruitful exchange between Justin Schieber and Christian apologist Blake Giunta on the hiddenness of God. Schieber defends the hiddenness argument from J.L. Schellenberg. (See my review of Schellenberg’s recent book here and his reply here. And just for the heck of it see his endorsement of […]
Archives for February 2017
A Christian/Atheist Dialogue in Church
Check it out. On Saturday, March 11, Justin Schieber and I will be taking over the evening church service at Sherwood Park Alliance Church in Sherwood Park, just outside of Edmonton. If you’re in the area, be sure to join us for a memorable evening.
Today I finished the penultimate draft of my next book
Last summer I started working on a new book. Tentatively titled Do You Know Where You’d Go if You Died Tonight?, it is a sort of spiritual memoir that offers forty years of reflection on the nature of the Christian Gospel and the concept of salvation. Today I finished what is hopefully my penultimate draft of the […]
On Praying for Milo
We live in an age where extreme and hateful voices like that of Milo Yiannopoulos get way more attention than they deserve. I was disgusted when Bill Maher hosted Milo on Real Time last week (and I applaud Jeremy Scahill for withdrawing from the show in protest). By the time the video surfaced of Milo advocating for […]
Being the Right Kind of Fool for Christ Ain’t Easy
This morning I saw the following Atonin Scalia quote (with a few missing words) in my Twitter feed: Boom! pic.twitter.com/By4qSbD7o2 — Dr. Michael L. Brown (@DrMichaelLBrown) February 20, 2017 Before we get started, we need to confirm this quote. The practice of incorrectly attributing fanciful quotes to public figures — Mark Twain, Yogi Berra, Winston […]
Even if theism may be rationally justified, can the same be said of a specific religion?
A couple days ago Counter Apologist published a glowing review of An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar. Counter Apologist writes: In the last debate book review I did, I asked “So who won?” which is the kind of inevitable question you get with these kinds of books. I’m sure some theists will read […]
Gotcha! The Worst Part of Debates
A gentleman named Michael Nugent is planning to debate William Lane Craig next month. And so he’s reached out to Twitter for advice. Personally, I would not advise going to Twitter for debate advice. But there you have it. The tweets flooded in, including this one from Dan Barker: Ask him, "If God told you […]
Would God Necessarily Create Perfect Creatures? The Rauser/Schieber Debate
In January Justin Schieber and I engaged in a written debate featured at Strange Notions on the topic of whether we should expect God to create only perfect creatures. Schieber argued that we should, and thus the fact that something other than perfect creatures (e.g. us) exists provides evidence against God. I objected that we have […]
How Skeptical Theism Justifies Religious Doubt: A Response to Rauser
This article is a guest post by Dr. Jason Thibodeau in which he responds to my article “Skeptical Theism and Skepticism Simpliciter: A Response to Jason Thibodeau.” Jason teaches at Cypress College and blogs at The Secular OutPost. You can also visit him online at “Not Not a Philosopher.” * * * Randal has provided a […]
An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Book Tour (sort of)
A book tour? Well, maybe that’s stretching it. But Justin Schieber and I do have a few events scheduled for March. Edmonton, Alberta To begin with, Justin is flying up to Edmonton on March 9th courtesy of the Society of Edmonton Atheists. While he is in Edmonton, we’ve scheduled a couple events thus far. To begin […]
Contributing to a new political blog
Folks who like Trump or dislike politics will be happy to know I won’t be talking Trump in my blog anymore. Instead, I have become a contributor to Jeff Lowder’s new blog Opposing Trump and I just posted my first contribution today, “Revenge of the Haters: A Response to Kellyanne Conway’s Abysmal Defense.” So if you’re interested in […]
The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: A Review
Abby Hafer, The Not-So-Intelligent Designer: Why Evolution Explains the Human Body and Intelligent Design Does Not. (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015). If you love intelligent design, you’ll (probably) hate this book. If you hate intelligent design, you’ll (probably) love this book. If you’re somewhere in-between in your assessment of intelligent design, you’ll probably find yourself somewhere […]