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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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Dan Barker

Why It Matters Whether Christianity is Intellectually Respectable: Quick Reflections on the Debate

June 14, 2022 by Randal

My debate with Dan Barker was on the question “Is Christianity intellectually respectable?” I argued the affirmative. My method was simple: offer a definition of “intellectual respectability” and provide good evidence that Christianity has met the definition. To that end, I pointed out that “respectability” is a social concept referencing positive social status. The qualifier […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Dan Barker, debate, reflections

Is Christianity Intellectually Respectable? A Debate with Dan Barker

June 13, 2022 by Randal

My latest debate. This one is with atheist Dan Barker on the topic “Is Christianity intellectually respectable?” ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Dan Barker, debate

Is the Christian God Worthy of Worship? A Debate with Dan Barker

December 22, 2020 by Randal

Dan Barker is a former fundamentalist preacher-turned-atheist, author of many books including Godless and God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. In this informal from December 22 2020, we addressed the question “Is the Christian God Worthy of Worship?”

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, biblical violence, Dan Barker

Atheist Polemic for Pastor Dan: A Review of God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction

December 21, 2020 by Randal

Dan Barker. God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction. New York: Sterling, 2016. At the beginning of chapter 2 of his bestselling book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins infamously describes God as “jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblical violence, Dan Barker, new atheism, review

Is the Christian God Worthy of Worship?

December 10, 2020 by Randal

I will be debating Dan Barker right before Christmas on the topic “Is the Christian God Worthy of Worship?” Barker’s recent book God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction will undoubtedly be a big part of the discussion. 

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, biblical ethics, biblical hermeneutics, Dan Barker, debate, new atheism

The Scattershot Atheist: The Dan Barker/Trent Horn Debate: A Review (Part 2)

January 2, 2019 by Randal

Here’s part 1 of my review where I provide a summary and critique of Trent Horn’s opening statement. You can also click that link to watch the debate itself. I now turn to my review of Dan Barker’s opening statement. As I said, in part 1, I undertook a detailed summary of Horn’s opening statement followed […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, Dan Barker, debate, review, theism, Trent Horn

The Dan Barker/Trent Horn Debate: A Review (Part 1)

December 26, 2018 by Randal

A couple of months ago, Catholic apologist Trent Horn debated atheist Dan Barker on the question, “Does the Christian God exist?” I am going to post a two-part review of the debate which focuses on their opening statements. In this first installment of the review, I will summarize and critically engage with Horn’s 15-minute opening statement. A […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, Dan Barker, debate, theism, Trent Horn

Atheists who celebrate intellectual regression

July 15, 2017 by Randal

Intellectual development involves, among other things, the increased ability to analyze the views of others with critical nuance and charity. At its most sophisticated level, that trend includes the skill of rigorous devil’s advocacy, i.e. the ability to defend the views of others with as much sophistication and putative conviction as genuine advocates for the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Dan Barker, fundamentalism, indoctrination, rationality, reason

Gotcha! The Worst Part of Debates

February 14, 2017 by Randal

A gentleman named Michael Nugent is planning to debate William Lane Craig next month. And so he’s reached out to Twitter for advice. Personally, I would not advise going to Twitter for debate advice. But there you have it. The tweets flooded in, including this one from Dan Barker: Ask him, "If God told you […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Dan Barker, debate, ethics, gotcha

Godless of the Gaps

July 15, 2016 by Randal

In “God of the Gaps and Mind of the Gaps” I quoted Dan Barker writing the following in Godless: “Many of these [theistic] arguments are reduced to a ‘god of the gaps’ strategy. At most, the theists might prove the existence of a current gap in human knowledge, but this does not justify filling the gap […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Dan Barker, God of the gaps, theism

God of the Gaps and Mind of the Gaps

July 13, 2016 by Randal

Dan Barker says: “Many of these [theistic] arguments are reduced to a ‘god of the gaps’ strategy. At most, the theists might prove the existence of a current gap in human knowledge, but this does not justify filling the gap with their god. After all, what happens when the gap closes someday? The gaps are […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Dan Barker, God of the gaps, reductionism

Do theists need a proof for God to be rational? A response to Dan Barker

July 13, 2016 by Randal

Over the last few days I’ve been reading through Dan Barker’s book Godless. I thought it only fair to do so after writing a critique of a few sentences. I plan to write a review of the book in the next week or so. Not to give things away, but I can say both that the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Dan Barker, epistemology, evidence, faith, reason, theism

On reading a few sentences of Dan Barker’s Godless

July 9, 2016 by Randal

I’ve had Dan Barker’s book Godless sitting on my shelf for a couple years but I haven’t yet had a chance to read it. However, today I opened it up and read the following passage: “Exodus 22:18 says, ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.’ This one verse was responsible for the murder of thousands, perhaps […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, Dan Barker, Godless, polemics, skepticism

Overly Uptight Atheist Activists?

December 11, 2014 by Randal

This week Jon Stewart’s Daily Show featured a segment on Mary’s Gourmet Diner in North Carolina with the (hilarious) correspondent Jordan Klepper. The controversy arose because Mary’s offers a 15% discount to those who pray before their meal. This was enough to raise the ire of  Dan Barker, author of Godless, and co-president of the Freedom from Religion […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, comedy, Daily Show, Dan Barker, discrimination, parody

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