Randal Rauser

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

Search Results for: natural evil

A theologian muses on “Avatar”

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Note: this review was originally published at The Christian Post in December, 2009. I’ve seen some great films in the last few months (e.g. “The Road,” “Paranormal Activity”) but nothing I’ve seen on a big or small screen prepared me for “Avatar”. This is not a movie, it is an event. My only request: see […]

What is it like to be a bat bug? Two errors of anthropopathism

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This article takes up the discussion of natural evil from “Bat Bugs? Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” In 1974 philosopher Thomas Nagel published a paper in Philosophical Review titled “What is it like to be a bat?” which became a classic of modern philosophy of mind. In the paper Nagel argues that […]

Do we need apologists anymore?

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Note to reader: the conversation on insects and natural evil will continue next week. Last year I was invited to Princeton Theological Seminary in order to give a response to a paper by their court philosopher, Professor Gordon Graham, on the topic of the philosopher in the seminary. While Professor Graham gave an erudite discussion […]

Bat Bugs? Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn

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My discussion of tramautic insemination and the problem of natural evil elicited a range of responses. But I’d like to focus on the response from David Marshall. He writes: As for bugs and their sorrows, frankly, my dear, I couldn’t give a damn.  Sorry, but it’s not like they have feelings. Wow, that’s even stronger […]

From Adam to Zorg: A Dialogue on Creation and Evolution

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In response to my article on Young earth creationism and old things Walter asks: Now that we have established that YEC is a pile of baloney, could you point me to a prior post or article of yours that explains the biblical Fall as you understand it? Was there a single pair of humans that […]

Stephen Law vs. William Lane Craig: Round 2! (Law’s first rebuttal)

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Before Stephen Law delivered his first rebuttal Justin Brierley had to remind the audience (or a few in the audience) not to call out or applaud during the debate. There’s always at least one or two boneheads who seem unable to suppress the need to cheer or clap when “their guy” makes a point. Arrghh. Back […]

Stephen Law vs. William Lane Craig: Round 2! (Craig’s first rebuttal)

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In this post I’m going to focus on William Lane Craig’s first rebuttal to Stephen Law. Craig begins like this: “You remember in my opening speech I said that I would defend two basic contentions tonight. First, that there are good reasons to think that theism is true. We have yet to hear Stephen’s response to […]

The Apologetics Song

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A few months ago I wrote a song which encompasses an entire apologetics education in six verses. (Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch. But at least you get arguments for theism, Christianity, and defeaters of defeaters inside of five minutes.) Ever since, I have been intending to record it and upload the mp3 […]

T-Rex dung as a problem for Christians

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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 […]

Christianity Vindicated?: A Review of The Rational Faith Part 2

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Jason A. Crook. The Rational Faith: A Review of the Evidence for Christianity. 2020, 267 pp. If you have read the first installment of my review of Jason Crook’s new book The Rational Faith (for Part 1 see here) then you know that I got sidetracked by outlining my disagreement with the way Crook sets up […]

Atheism and Antitheism

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In this article, I continue my survey of concepts commonly associated with atheism by considering anti-theism. For the previous installment on atheism and secularism, click here. For the last fifteen years or so, the public face of atheism has been synonymous with the new atheism of people like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late […]