Well I’m back (as if anybody cares). Wait a minute. I care, so I’ll keep talking to myself if nobody else. It was a good time at the annual ETS conference (with a day at SBL thrown in). Let me say the weather was fine. It has been seven or eight years since I was in […]
The Tentative Apologist
T-Rex dung as a problem for Christians
Pearson International Airport in Toronto has decent FREE wi-fi so here y’are. A mid-day post free of charge. This is prefatory to John Loftus’ essay in The Christian Delusion on natural evil. (I will present an actual review when I get back to Edmonton next week and have the book in front of me.) I […]
What does the form of the good look like?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a comic book superhero geek. I grew up reading Archie comics. But nonetheless it has always seemed to me that Captain Marvel never got his due. And so this is the second time today I’ve made reference to this poorly understood caped crusader. I’m just trying to give the […]
Georgia on my mind
On Wednesday November 17th I’ll be flying to Atlanta, Georgia for the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. I’ll also be sticking around for the beginning of the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting so that I can deliver a paper at a forum titled “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?” on Saturday night. I am going […]
Hector Avalos puts Yahweh in the dock (or tries to)
Hector Avalos, “Yahweh is a Moral Monster,” The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, ed. John Loftus (Amherst: Prometheus, 2010), 209-236. At long last we continue our ongoing, meandering, waxing and wandering review of The Christian Delusion with a quick review of Hector Avalos’ essay “Yahweh is a Moral Monster.” I don’t have too much to say about […]
Caption contest
James Tracy kindly drew a cartoon Randal Rauser. The glasses and schnoz are about right, and the hairline is pretty close (especially since my wife found her barber kit in the basement last week) though the chin is a little too wide and the forearms are rather beefy. But what am I complaining about? You get […]
Material consumption as the meaning of life (or not)
Peter Egan, a columnist for Road & Track, shares in one of his monthly articles about the obsession he developed with a 2008 Mustang at the local Ford dealership. Day after day he pined for this car, until he finally drove out to the dealership to buy it. In the column he provides the following […]
My readers are completely full of it
I’ve been blogging for just over a year and a half now, and I can say with some satisfaction that my readers are completely full of it. The “it” in question is moxie. And I don’t mean that fine New England soda. Rather, I’m talkin’ about vigor and verve, the kind of stuff that makes […]
Randal’s Saturday evening movie recommendation: Frailty
Looking for a good film to watch this weekend? You certainly could do worse than Bill Paxton’s highly underrated 2001 film “Frailty.” The film tells the story of Mr. Mieks (played by Bill Paxton) and his two sons. One day he receives a visit from an angel (or so he thinks anyway) who informs him that […]
Grandpa drowns. Humanity flourishes
James (of http://www.atheistspot.com/) has presented a secular morality which seems to look like this: Thou shalt commit acts which further human flourishing and not commit acts which inhibit human flourishing. I think this is just another form of utlitarianism where we seek to maximize pleasure or happiness and minimize displeasure or unhappiness. We could thus […]
Vomit flavored jelly beans and other offenses to the natural order
As I noted last time, people disagree radically on their conceptions of what it means to flourish. To some people, flourishing would mean growing old and full of years. But Roger Daltrey (lead singer of The Who) hoped he’d die before he gets old (see the lyrics for “My Generation” for further clarification). And as for Eric […]
I wanna kill myself … and you too
Conversational Atheist has listed at his website 9 facts that Sam Harris has provided to go from is to ought. Unfortunately, I found myself stumbling on his very first fact: FACT #1: There are behaviors, intentions, cultural practices, etc. which potentially lead to the worst possible misery for everyone. There are also behaviors, intentions, cultural […]
The Beatitudes and Banksy on Remembrance / Veterans Day
Matthew 5:3-10 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed […]
How do you critique infant sodomy to a moral skeptic?
Now things are spinning out of control. James retorts: “You have ‘argued’ that certain moral facts are objectively true because you happen to see them, or intuit them, or sense them, to be true. Some argument! Well, Gary the corpse raper happens to see quite clearly that rape is good. How are you going to […]
