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Randal Rauser

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

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The Tentative Apologist

When atheists grow up and become naturalists

October 25, 2010 by Randal

A number of my readers are atheists, but only one is anatheist.net, and that’s James Tracy. In “What John Loftus has is a failure to communicate” James and I continued with the old faith as a starting point of thinking theme (my theme, to be more specific). When James refused to come out and affirm any form […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: anatheist.net, atheism, epistemology, faith, James Tracy, naturalism, rationality, theism

The Denigration of Civil Discourse: More lessons from John Loftus

October 24, 2010 by Randal

I am grateful to John Loftus for highlighting through vivid illustration the denigration of civil discourse that I lament in my forthcoming book You’re Not as Crazy as I Think (see the books section of this site). In the book I point out that those who espouse indoctrinational modes of thinking commonly dismiss the views […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: civil discourse, John Loftus, rhetoric, You're not as crazy as I think

How to avoid the question: Lessons from Loftus

October 23, 2010 by Randal

Every so often people provide challenges to our positions that we cannot seem to answer. So what are we to do? Concede the difficulty and work to revise or reject our position? Well we could do that, but nobody likes to eat crow. And we have our reputations to protect, don’t we? So I am […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, John Loftus, problem of evil, revelation, skepticism, theodicy

Facing my mortality in the elevator

October 21, 2010 by Randal

I just had an existential moment in an elevator. And no, it was not after viewing Shyamalan’s (producer) new film “Devil” (featuring a few people trapped in an elevator with the devil). So here’s the scene. I’m speaking in a conference at Calgary and as I was riding the elevator up after my morning breakfast a […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Cover of the Rolling Stone, Dr. Hook

What John Loftus has is a failure to communicate

October 21, 2010 by Randal

Chapter 7 of Loftus’ edited volume The Christian Delusion is by Loftus himself and is titled “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” In the essay Loftus intends to provide the reader with “a brief romp through the Bible with an eye on the failure of a perfectly good omniscient God to communicate […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, Dalton Trumbo, John Loftus, Johnny Got his Gun, problem of divine hiddenness, problem of evil, Stephen Crane, The Christian Delusion, The Red Badge of Courage

Freud and “The Christian Delusion”

October 19, 2010 by Randal

Back finally to what I once started: a close reading, review and critique of John Loftus’s book The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails (Prometheus, 2010). I’ve been doing this for a few months now but I had taken a two month hiatus. For those interested in catching up on the review to this point I […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, God, John Loftus, The Christian Delusion, theism

How to hate your enemies: Lessons from the Psalms (Part 2)

October 13, 2010 by Randal

We all tend to look at life through rose-colored glasses, at least rose colored where our own assumptions are concerned. As I noted last time round, this is certainly evident in the way that Christians tend to read the psalms, meditating on the praises, thanksgiving and wisdom while screening out all the imprecations. And I […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, god-breathed, imprecatory psalms, inspiration, John Piper, psalms

The Gap changes its logo: Is nothing sacred?

October 10, 2010 by Randal

It was with great shock and dismay this week that many of us learned our favorite retailer of unnecessary clothing has changed its logo. It seems that we live in an age of such superficiality that a retailer like The Gap believes it is no big deal when it casts off the legacy of its […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: consumer culture, consumerism, The Gap

How to hate your enemies: Lessons from the Psalms (Part 1)

October 9, 2010 by Randal

I just got back from a conference I spoke at in Vancouver, my topics being genocide, doubt, and the imprecatory (cursing) psalms. I offer here some initial thoughts on the imprecatory psalms. A friend of mine says, “I know what you mean by what you do.” Evangelicals say that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelical, imprecatory psalms, inspiration, maledictory psalms, psalms, scripture

Scientists who praise the universe

October 5, 2010 by Randal

In his book Consilience E.O. Wilson, respected scientist, master of ants, and father of sociobiology, has written that “Preferring a search for objective reality over revelation is another way of satisfying religious hunger.” (7) At the core of Wilson’s quest is the unification of knowledge across disciplines, all the way from particle physics to poetry, into […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Chet Raymo, E.O. WIlson, Henry David Thoreau, nature worship, pantheism, universe

Carl Sagan’s old time religion

September 30, 2010 by Randal

I would like to say some more about Sagan’s Pale blue dot fallacy but before doing so let’s say something about Sagan’s (ir)religiosity. It is often assumed that Sagan was an atheist. (Here I am assuming the standard definition of atheist as one who believes there is no God where “God” is defined broadly as […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, Carl Sagan, deism, God, meaning, religion, SETI

You’re not special because the universe is really, really big

September 27, 2010 by Randal

Today we’ll start with one of my all time favorite youtube bits, one which offers a magisterial 2 minute journey through the comparative sizes of various celestial bodies. You must watch it before you continue: Star Size Comparison Clearly size is the issue here. We start off with the moon and end up with a star […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Aldebaran, Carl Sagan, God, image of God, Milky Way, stars

Everybody’s gotta god

September 23, 2010 by Randal

A new/old visitor to the Tentative Apologist, whatifitstrue, asks: “When does a belief system (including , perhaps atheism) become a religion…?” So what is religion? Perhaps belief in God, an authoritative revealed text, and a set of sacred rituals? In Bob’s garage is a cherry 70’ Chevelle 454. On the shelf beside the car is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bertrand Russell, Democritus, divine, God, religion, Roy Clouser, theism

Say, whatever became of ole’ whatshisname?

September 22, 2010 by Randal

In the last few days I’ve had a few people inquire as to the status of the Tentative Apologist. Yes, I’ve been remiss in keeping the blog crackling along, this is true. But I’ve hardly been resting on my laurels. On the contrary, it’s been a couple weeks of fever pitch activity. Here’s a quick […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, EPS, Paul Copan, SBL, Tentative Apologist

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