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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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creation

A Scientist’s Creation Story

May 21, 2018 by Randal

Physicist and theologian Willem Drees begins his book Creation: From Nothing Until Now (London: Routledge, 2002) with this poetic description of the creation of the world. (Note: while I have included the entire poem below, I have not reproduced the exact formatting.) Drees is a European Christian theologian and his poem is a creation narrative or cosmogony […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: cosmogony, creation, science

Can you hear the groaning of creation?

April 17, 2015 by Randal

In Romans 8:22 Paul famously describes our broken creation as groaning: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Have you ever wondered what the groaning of creation sounds like? Now you need wonder no more. In his TED Talk “The voice […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: creation, fallen, natural evil, problem of evil

God? Science? Evolution? Historical Adam? Explore the issues with Denis Lamoureux

April 8, 2014 by Randal

Great news for those of you interested in the discussion of Christianity and science generally, and evolution and Christianity in particular. My friend, Professor Denis Lamoureux (whom I interviewed on my podcast here), is going to be hosting a two hour online free webinar for those interested in the discussion on April 14th. Professor Lamoureux […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, creation, creationism, Denis Lamoureux, evolution, historical Adam, science, theology, webinar

10. A conversation with physicist Don Page (Part 2)

July 26, 2013 by Randal

In this episode of The Tentative Apologist Podcast we continue our conversation with Don Page, a physicist at the University of Alberta who specializes in gravitation and black holes. As our conversation continues, we return to the relationship between Genesis 1 and scientific accounts of the universe’s origin while also exploring the nature of time […]

Filed Under: Podcast, Podcast-The Tentative Apologist, The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: creation, Don Page, God, interview, physics, science, Tentative Apologist Podcast, theology

Schieber, God and Non-God Objects Yet Again

July 4, 2013 by Randal

Justin Schieber has now provided a response to my criticisms of the Problem of Non-God Objects. He calls it “A response to Randal Rauser’s criticisms of the Problem of Non-God Objects.” (What the title lacks in creativity it makes up in good old fashioned communicative efficacy.) Justin takes on my two points in turn. (If […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, creation, creator, God, Justin Schieber, theism

Why would a perfect God create? Justin Schieber’s argument revisited

July 3, 2013 by Randal

About six months ago I wrote a critique of an argument forwarded by Justin Schieber which aimed to show that a perfect God would never create a world like ours. I offered a two-pronged rebuttal to Schieber’s argument. (Read the article at the link provided to get the summary.) Justin replied in the comment thread: […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, creation, defeater, God, theism

Heaven and the Value in Achievement Thesis

May 31, 2013 by Randal

In answer to the question “Why were we created here and not just directly into heaven?” I argued: “that there is intrinsic value in undergoing the personal history that brings you to a particular place or makes you into a particular kind of person which is simply not retained by creating the end product without […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: creation, heaven, theodicy

Can a non-physical agent interact in a physical world?

April 29, 2013 by Randal

Let’s consider Jason Thibodeau’s objections to the claim that God created the world. Jason’s objections are found in the comment thread of my article “In their heart of hearts, do atheists really believe in God?” In one comment he writes: “How can a non-physical being interact with a physical world? Yes, an omnipotent being can do […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: actuality, creation, God, possibility

William Lane Craig, God and Evolution

January 26, 2013 by Randal

Earlier this week T’sinadree asked me to respond to William Lane Craig’s response to a question about evolution at “Reasonable Faith.” You can read the question and Craig’s response here. The question comes in the form of a challenge from Michel of Germany who argues that God would not have created through evolutionary processes. Michel’s […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: creation, Darwin, evil, evolution, Neo-Darwinism, providence, suffering, William Lane Craig

God and non-God objects. Like, what’s the problem? A response to Justin Schieber

December 28, 2012 by Randal

The other day I listened to Justin Schieber’s lecture “The Problem of Non-God Objects.” You can listen to it here. In his presentation Schieber argues that a perfect God could not create a universe. Since the universe exists, it follows that God doesn’t. The Argument Briefly Summarized What is the basis for this argument? It […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, creation, God, Justin Schieber, naturalism, possible world, theism

What place, then, for a creator? An important place, actually.

October 10, 2012 by Randal

“In what way,” John asked, “does your god hypothesis account for a universe without a beginning?” This is a good question, not least because there are many people who think that if the universe is eternal then God doesn’t account for much at all. In an eternal universe what place, then, for a creator? It is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abstract objects, cosmological argument, creation, God, modality, rational intuition, reason, universals, universe

From Adam to Zorg: A Dialogue on Creation and Evolution

March 27, 2012 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Bible, Christianity, creation, evolution, fall, hermeneutics, original sin, science, theism

God and other not so strange causes

February 23, 2012 by Randal

It is not uncommon in dialogues with atheists to hear the claim that invoking God as an explanation is something strange and totally foreign to experience. I call this the “foreign to experience objection” or F-TEO for short. The objection is that God is some kind of out of this world explanation (figuratively and literally I […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: agent causation, atheism, creation, event causation, plausibility, theism

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