• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Randal Rauser

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

  • About
  • Books
  • Articles
    • Articles (single)
    • Articles (in series)
  • Audio/Video
    • Audio Interviews, Lectures, and Debates
    • Video Interviews and Lectures
    • Powerpoint Slides
  • Blog
    • Current Posts
    • Blog Archives
  • Podcasts
    • The Tentative Apologist Podcast
    • Archived Podcasts
    • Reviews

agnosticism

Here’s how atheism works? On the presumption of atheists who speak for other atheists

June 24, 2013 by Randal

Atheists typically don’t appreciate it when Christians tell them what atheists think or how atheists reason. I’ve even been chastised for daring to say that atheism is the belief that no God(s) exist. “No it isn’t!” somebody will protest. “I’m an atheist and I’m without belief in God.” Of course, being “without belief in God” […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism

In their heart of hearts, do atheists really believe in God?

April 27, 2013 by Randal

Salon.com has just published an overview of a new Finnish study which purports to provide some evidence for the conclusion that atheists believe in God. In the study a group of atheists and theists were hooked up to electrodes to measure emotional arousal. Then they were asked to utter several statements. Some were emotionally provocative […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, belief, psychology, theism

Facing Generation Agnostic

January 18, 2013 by Randal

A couple days ago Salon.com published an article on a new survey (you can read it here) which reveals that one-third of young Americans describe themselves as “not religious”, meaning that they are unaffiliated with any formal religion. As I read the article my sense of self-importance inflated just a bit as I realized many […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, secularism, secularization

Can a sane mind believe in a singularity?

October 8, 2012 by Randal

In the midst of our ongoing discussion of the origin of the universe and the role that agent causal explanations might play in accounting for it, Joseph Palazzo (in his amiable, diplomatic way) made the following comment: “BTW, do you understand what a singularity [is]? From the context of your post, it doesn’t look like […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agent cause, agnosticism, atheism, Big Bang, cosmological argument, theism, universe

Three bad ways to defend agnosticism

October 5, 2012 by Randal

So does the universe has a cause for its existence, and if so is the cause a personal one? It seems like a reasonable question, and one which would be open to the tools of philosophical and empirical investigation. For example, if the universe appears to be finite in existence (it does) and to be […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agent causation, agnosticism, atheism, cosmological argument, theism, universe

An Atheistic Riddle

October 1, 2012 by Randal

Question: How do you turn an atheist into an agnostic? Answer: Ask them to provide evidence of atheism! (I know this should really be tweeted rather than blog posted, but I stopped tweeting a few months ago. Anyway, a mere tweet would not permit me to thank Joseph and TAM for providing inspiration for this fine […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, riddle

Blaming those who doubt

September 12, 2012 by Randal

In my last post I critiqued the 5 Minute Apologist Rick Cornish for his claim that “Honest, objective investigation repays our efforts with more than adequate evidence to know him [that is, to know that God exists].” I don’t dispute for one minute that some doubt in God’s existence may be borne out of an intellectually dishonest appraisal […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, apologetics, atheism, belief, doubt, theism

Conversations with the Five Minute Apologist (Part 2)

September 12, 2012 by Randal

We now return to our spotty engagement with Rick Cornish’s book 5 Minute Apologist. Today’s quote comes from a chapter that discusses the existence of God as it builds toward the following climax: “When all the available evidence is considered, it overwhelmingly supports the existence of a personal, moral Spirit distinct from the world but […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, Christianity, doubt, faith, theism

The day Billy went undercover as a skeptic: The briefing

July 3, 2012 by Randal

“Okay Billy, first thing is to start calling yourself a skeptic. Tell people you doubt everything and that you only believe based on reason and evidence.” “Doubt everything? Dad, isn’t that a bit silly? Nobody doubts everything.” “Just do it son. And make sure you say you don’t believe in god or gods. (And be […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, humanism, naturalism, skepticism

Three reasons agnostics shouldn’t call themselves atheists

May 10, 2012 by Randal

Recently the issue of defining atheism came up in the blog. In response, I thought I’d repost a January 2010 article I wrote at Christian Post on the topic. The Problem The line between atheist and agnostic used to be clear. Atheists believed that no God or gods existed. Agnostics didn’t have any belief as […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism

Can you perceive God if you cannot demonstrate your perception to others?

March 10, 2012 by Randal

Let’s consider Beetle’s response to my essay “Perceiving the transcendent God through transcending entities“. While I don’t agree with most of what Beetle says, it is a concise, well written representation of many standard criticisms and thus it is worth our time to critique it carefully. Beetle begins with a conciliatory statement that conceals a […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, epistemology, God, mysterium tremendum, skepticism

An open minded challenge to the dogmatic doubter

December 2, 2011 by Randal

The leading candidate for ironic declaration of the year? The “open-minded” agnostic who says “Nobody can know that God exists.” Why? Well gosh, he sure sounds confident for someone who characterizes his position in the terms of tentative doubt. I thought of that as I read Jerry Rivard’s comment: “I consider it to be an obvious and undeniable truth that […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, atheism, free thinker

Does a really old universe show that human beings are not important?

July 4, 2011 by Randal

 Mark Twain thought so. In one of his finest rhetorical moments (in a career sparkling with them) he wrote: “Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno. If […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: age of the universe, agnosticism, anthropology, apologetics, atheism, Mark Twain, skepticism, teleology, theism

Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses religion, bacteria, and the meaning of life

June 30, 2011 by Randal

Neil deGrasse Tyson, writer, scientist and host of the PBS program Nova, is my favorite science-popularizer. However, that doesn’t mean I agree with him, certainly not when it comes to metaphysics or theology. Here is a great piece of rhetoric from Tyson on whether there is a meaning to life (or the universe on the whole). I […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agnosticism, astronomy, atheism, meaning of life, Neil deGrasse Tyson

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Against Malaria Foundation

Against Malaria Foundation

Support Kiva

Support Kiva

Search this website

Archives



Copyright © 2022 • Randal Rauser • A Steady Site