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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Why I Don’t Talk About the Sensus Divinitatis When I Talk About Belief in God

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Alvin Plantinga famously appeals to the existence of a sensus divinitatis, a “sense of the divine”, as the cognitive faculty by which one can form justified and rational belief in God apart from evidence. In this video, I explain why I prefer to argue for properly basic belief in God by way of the more […]

Are young earth creationists the most faithful Bible readers?

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This is the question I debated with David Johnson of the Skeptics and Seekers Podcast. Johnson, an atheist, argued that young-earth creationists are most faithful to the biblical text. I argued quite to the contrary. Which of us is correct? You can find out by reading our two articles and listening to the podcast. It […]

The Day Christopher Hitchens Battled Five Christian Apologists

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I started blogging at the Christian Post in March 2009. (My website and blog were born a couple of years later.) My first article was titled “Atheism in Dallas” (reprinted here) and in it, I recounted my reflections after seeing the late Christopher Hitchens pitted against five (five?!) Christian apologists. As I recounted in the […]

Talking hell, the Bible, biblical violence, and lots more with an atheist apologist

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Remember Pinecreek Doug? If you don’t, you can get up to speed at “A street apologist puts me in my place” and “My Response to the Pinecreek-Doug-Dilemma.” Today, Doug had me on his show. He seems like a very nice fellow, but it also seemed to me that he had an inordinate and ultimately unhelpful focus […]

On being friends with people who don’t believe Jesus is the messiah

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A few weeks ago, Christianity Today published an article by Michael Licona titled, “I Befriended Bart Ehrman by Debating Him.” In the article, Licona recalls how he initially debated Ehrman in 2008 and how a friendly acquaintance grew out of the exchange. Reading about their casual friendship, I am reminded of the rather more famous camaraderie that […]

Off the Rails: Debriefing my Misunderstanding with Paul Franks

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I had an interesting exchange with Paul Franks this morning, but alas it eventually ended up going off the rails. I’ve summarized the exchange below by reproducing the text of our tweets following my initial tweet. I’ll then conclude by offering my own diagnosis of how and why it went off the rails. The hope […]

Does God want everyone to join a single church?

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This is a link to my fourth and final dialogue/debate with Catholic Apologist Trent Horn. In this round, we debate the question of whether God wants every person to join the same church. Not surprisingly, Trent, good Catholic apologist that he is, argues that God wants everyone to join the Catholic church. Meanwhile, I argue […]

Don’t Be Meme! A Friendly Debate and Dialogue

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My latest (ninth) appearance on Unbelievable, the premier (pun-intended) apologetics radio show and podcast (hosted, as ever, by the ever-affable Justin Brierley) went live today. This time out, I have a friendly debate and dialogue with David Smalley. Smalley is the host of Dogma Debate, a radio and podcast show similar to Unbelievable except that Smalley […]

Debriefing the Trinity Debate: A Conversation with Dale Tuggy

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Recently, one of the foremost defenders of unitarianism today, the analytic philosopher Dale Tuggy, squared off in a public debate with popular speaker, radio host, and author Michael Brown to debate the topic “Is the God of the Bible the Father Alone?” Tuggy defended unitarianism and Brown defended trinitarianism. I very much enjoyed this rigorous […]

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

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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 […]

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

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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 […]

Addressing some Unbelievable Fallout

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“Fallout” may be too strong, but there definitely is some dissatisfaction being voiced from the atheist guests — David and Andrew — on our recent appearance on Unbelievable. While I heard complaints from David and Andrew after the show was recorded, a fuller picture is provided by a long comment that David posted just today […]

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