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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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divine action

God, Natural Disasters, and My Next Book

September 22, 2017 by Randal

A few weeks ago I published an article at Strange Notions titled “Does God Punish People Through Natural Weather Events?” For some time I’ve been thinking about writing a book on the topic of whether God punishes human populations by way of natural disasters. Well, this past week I finally got around to starting the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, natural disasters, natural evil

God, Serial Killers, and Natural Evil

December 10, 2016 by Randal

Most of my readers will know of Stephen Law, the respected atheist philosopher who has made some perspicuous contributions to philosophy of religion, perhaps most notably in his evil God argument. (In the past I reviewed Law’s book Believing Bullshit and I’ve offered several critiques of his evil God argument, including here and here.) Today Law offered […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, God, natural disaster, prayer, problem of evil, Stephen Law

On calling God a murderer (Part 2)

August 29, 2014 by Randal

I ended part 1 of this discussion with two questions, the first of which I will begin to address here: “when does the death of an individual constitute God’s killing that individual?” Note that by addressing this question we are not yet discussing God’s murdering anybody since killing and murdering are not the same thing. To […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, divine action, God, murder, theodicy

Divine action, answered prayer, and a zero/sum game

July 10, 2014 by Randal

The other day I was visiting a non-denominational charismatic church with my twelve year old daughter. At one point the pastor asked, “How many of you have witnessed the power of God?” A few hands went up. Then the pastor asked, “Did you ever have a child who was sick and then got better?” Heads around […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, God, prayer, providence, theology

Did God really harden Pharaoh’s heart?

June 14, 2014 by Randal

I raised the issue in “Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? On the failure of a popular apologetic response“. As I said there; “if God is perfectly good, why would he act upon the will of a human being to lead that human being to engage in an act of evil?” That is, why would […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, Exodus, God, hardening heart, Pharaoh, problem of evil, providence, theology

Why a perfect God might have hardened Pharaoh’s heart

June 11, 2014 by Randal

In “Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? On the failure of a popular apologetic response” I noted the theological and ethical problems that arise with God acting upon Pharaoh (i.e. “hardening his heart”) so that he will act in an evil and unwise manner. The question, as I noted, is simple: “if God is perfectly good, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Bible, divine action, Pharaoh, problem of evil, providece, theology

Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart? On the failure of a popular apologetic response

June 10, 2014 by Randal

It is a well known problem. The book of Exodus describes God hardening Pharaoh’s heart on several occasions. For example, “But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses.” (Exodus 9:12) The problem is obvious: if God is perfectly good, why […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, divine action, free will, God, hardening heart, Pharaoh, problem of evil, providence

Should miracles be defined as events that persuade skeptics?

May 14, 2013 by Randal

The conversation on miracles continues with a question from David: “I recognize the weakness you [that is, Randal] pointed out in that God does not have to operate outside of the natural laws he created to cause a miracle. On the other hand, I’m thinking it may be difficult to convince people that God acted if […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, miracle, Pentecost, providence

Responding to comments from “Are self-described skeptics reliable to evaluate miracle claims?”

May 14, 2013 by Randal

I wrote the article “Are self-described skeptics reliable to evaluate miracle claims?” just as I was leaving for a conference. Consequently I wasn’t able to engage with the comments. And so I will be doing so in this aptly titled follow-up. The first comment comes from Erroll Treslan who writes: “I would like to object […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, miracle, providence

Common misunderstandings of the concept of a miracle

May 8, 2013 by Randal

Miracles. The topic came up in the discussion thread to “The signs of ideologically driven atheism” when David observed: “I suppose the challenge with miracle accounts is that most of us now have defeaters like “miracles do not occur” or “miracles are uncommon” or “people lie about miracles because they have an agenda.”” One does […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, God, James Randi, miracle, skepticism

Everything you ever wanted to know about divine action (except how it really works)

December 29, 2012 by Randal

Yesterday I was asked about some good material to read on the topic of divine action and science. Right away I thought of Nicholas Saunders’ book Divine Action and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Saunders did a really interesting overview of the topic of divine action and the problems with current theories of it […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, Nicholas Saunders, philosophical theology, philosophy, science

God, miracles, and amazing Kentucky Blue

September 23, 2012 by Randal

It is an oft heard complaint against theism: belief in God undermines your ability to say anything else is improbable. Why? This is the way Adam Hazzard put it in response to my essay “The Resurrection of Jesus, 52 Pickup, and Prior Probabilities“: you assume the existence of an omnipotent, invisible, immaterial being who can […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, God, miracle, science

Is Hurricane Isaac God’s judgment on the GOP?

August 27, 2012 by Randal

Today (Monday, August 27th) the GOP (aka Grand Old Party, aka Republican Party) begins its nomination convention in Tampa. But things haven’t gone quite as planned. With Hurricane Isaac roaring past, travel plans have been upset, schedules have been reworked, and the convention has effectively been delayed for a day. To make matters worse, once the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: divine action, meticulous providence, problem of evil

What would count as evidence for naturalism?

July 12, 2012 by Randal

One of the problems with those who describe themselves as naturalists (by which I mean as adherents to naturalism, not to be confused with outdoorsy types) is found in a persistent confusion as to what constitutes evidence for naturalism. In “See No Supernaturalism…” I made the following comment on the issue: When people stop explaining direct divine action […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, divine action, naturalism, providence, science, theism

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