Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan offer extensive critiques of my views in their book Did God Really Command Genocide? In turn, I devoted most of a chapter on what I called “The Just War Interpreters” to an extensive critique of their ‘kinder, gentler’ interpretation of the Canaanite genocide by demonstrating that it collapses into ethnic cleansing […]
Archives for July 2021
Interpreting Scripture in Light of Our Moral Intuitions
My interview on The Analytic Christian regarding Jesus Loves Canaanites. ?
Christian Terrorists and No True Scotsmen
My latest podcast takes on the Capitol riots. In this podcast, I respond to American Atheist’s statement that the Capitol insurrectionists were “Christian terrorists. Full stop.” Not so fast, American Atheist, it’s a bit more complicated than that. You can listen to it here.
How Professional Wrestling can Help Us Understand the Bible
In this video, I argue that in the same way that we can appreciate professional wrestling as performance even if it is not a conventional sport, so we can appreciate non-historical aspects of the biblical narrative even if they are not literally true. ?
Strawmanning Atheists: A Critique of Frank Turek
Frank Turek claims that atheists “steal from God.” In this video, I explain how Turek’s argument is based on a strawman of atheistic and a very uncharitable metaphorical framing of atheism conceptual reflection in terms of criminal theft. ?
William Lane Craig Says He Doesn’t Support Donald Trump. Don’t Believe It
William Lane Craig recently devoted an episode of his Reasonable Faith Podcast to one of my videos in which he offered a critical response to some of my comments on his book Reasonable Faith and his ministry more generally. One of the points I raise is the way that his close alignment with the Republican Party […]
Discussing Biblical Violence on Conservative Talk Radio
Yesterday, I was a guest on the Bob Dutko Show (WMUZ, Detroit) to discuss Jesus Loves Canaanites. I’ve been on Bob’s show several times over the years and I always enjoy it. Speaking with Bob is a challenge as he is a conservative talk radio host who has supported Donald Trump, calls BLM a “Marxist group” […]
William Lane Craig Responds to My Modest Critique of Reasonable Faith
One of my students pointed out that William Lane Craig recently responded to one of my videos. (It turns out someone does watch my YouTube channel! ) You can listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reasonable-faith-podcast/id252618197?i=1000526272746
Does Christianity Need a Historical Adam?
Today, I posted the following poll on Twitter: Christianity requires a historical Adam and Eve. — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) July 14, 2021 We can approach the question like this: imagine that it turns out that the following Christian doctrines are true: a triune God exists, he created all that exists, and the second person of […]
Biblical Violence is Still Violence … and is not Appropriate for All Ages
A parent once asked me whether The Passion of the Christ would be appropriate viewing for his ten-year-old child. I replied by asking if he thought the infamous ten-minute torture-ear amputation scene in Reservoir Dogs would be appropriate. The fact that you interpret some violent event as having religious significance doesn’t magically make it appropriate […]
An Open Letter to Lee Strobel and Sean McDowell
To Lee Strobel and Sean McDowell, I am writing to you concerning your endorsements of Alisa Childers’ book Another Gospel? Mr. McDowell, you referred to the book as “a timely must-read book.” And Mr. Strobel, you actually wrote the forward to the book and you claim that Childers “fearlessly confronts the distortions and outright falsehoods […]
According to Alisa Childers, People Like Me Are Going to Hell: A Review of Another Gospel?
I just finished reading Alisa Childers’ book Another Gospel?. It is a hugely popular book that came out a year ago and has almost two thousand Amazon.com reviews. As I will note briefly below, it does have some diamonds embedded in the coal. But there is a lot of coal. Indeed, this is one of […]
Counter Apologist Round 2: The Epistemology Discussion
Last week, I hosted Counter Apologist on my YouTube channel. This week, he returned the favor and we had a wide-ranging discussion about rationality, dialogue, and other matters. ?
On the Holy Piety of Getting Angry with God
Some Christians think that the life of Christian discipleship is a life of victorious Christian living in which we are content in all things. But what if Christian discipleship has room for the full range of human emotional responses to God including doubt, sadness, disappointment, and even anger?