An American Caucasian woman may want to be Korean because of her love of K-pop and Korean culture. And so, she wears Korean clothing, learns K0rean language, colors her hair black, and even has double eyelid surgery and a nose job. But it doesn’t follow that she is Korean. Rather, she remains an American Caucasian […]
ethics
A simple illustration of the craven nature of the Republican party today
I just watched the MSNBC program Kasie DC in which the host, Kasie Hunt, interviewed Republican politician Rob Woodall. After Woodall defended Trump and dismissed the Mueller Report, Hunt asked him whether he had read the report. He replied that he had not. He had not even read a report that identified ten instances of potential attempts […]
An argument for beheading or against lethal injection
This article is based on my 2013 article on state-beheading. Read the background here. Beheading is intolerably cruel. Beheading is less cruel than lethal injection. Therefore, lethal injection is intolerably cruel. If a mode of capital punishment is intolerably cruel then it ought to be illegal. Therefore, lethal injection ought to be illegal.
Debating Moral Dilemmas with Trent Horn
Here is a link to my second dialogue/debate with Catholic apologist Trent Horn on his podcast The Counsel of Trent. And here is the description: In this episode, Trent and Randal have a spirited discussion about whether they would want their children to be martyrs, whether we should be Christians if Christ did not rise […]
Pete Buttigieg and the Christian Defense of Same-Sex Marriage through Experience
In his book The Bible Made Impossible, Christian Smith identifies a problem with the use of the Bible as a source of doctrine. He calls that problem pervasive interpretive pluralism, and as you can guess, the term refers to the fact that Christians hold many contradictory positions which they believe are consistent with Scripture. As […]
Dabney’s Disturbing Defense of the Elation of the Elect in the Destiny of the Damned
In 1878, the Anglican priest and theologian, Frederic Farrar published a monograph defending hopeful universalism titled Eternal Hope. In the following year, Presbyterian theologian Robert Dabney published a review article critiquing two works including Farrar’s book. Dabney was a defender of the view that hell consists of eternal conscious torment: hence, the title of his […]
Would you support a divorce in this terrible case?
Imagine that you’re a pastor in a church when you hear the terrible news that a young mother from your congregation drowned her newborn while suffering a psychotic episode brought on by intense postpartum depression. All agree that the child’s death is a tragedy and, given the circumstances, the mother is not criminally responsible for […]
Seeking Justice from a Humanist Framework: An Interview with Sincere Kirabo
What does social justice look like from the perspective of a secular humanist? In this interview, I consider this question with writer and humanist activist Sincere Kirabo. Mr. Kirabo is the former social justice coordinator at the American Humanist Association and the lead organizer for the 2018 Secular Social Justice Conference. He continues to work […]
Notes on My “Trick Question”
Two days ago I posted a short video summarizing a thought experiment that I present in my book You’re Not as Crazy as I Think, pp. 137-140. The video elicited an online rebuttal from Steve Hays of Triablogue. He begins in his first sentence by poisoning the well as he describes the thought experiment as […]
Some Christians say the world is getting worse. Are they right?
Many conservative Christians believe the world is progressively getting worse. Are they right? In this video, I challenge that assumption by way of a thought experiment which provides evidence that North America, at least, is becoming a more just society.
A Word on Behalf of the Idiots
Note: the analysis of this article is based on outdated and incomplete information. For a fuller picture, please see my follow-up article here. Like the rest of the world, I was enraged as I watched footage of the students from Covington Catholic High School mocking and threatening Vietnam Vet and Omaha Elder Nathan Phillips. One […]
If evangelicals are pro-family, then why don’t they care about Trump’s child separation policy?
A couple of days ago, Ed Krassenstein posted the following tweet decrying the widespread support among American (evangelical) Christians for Donald Trump’s divisive and xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants and refugees: “Jesus Christ would tear down a wall, and give immigrants the shirt off of his back. I’m Jewish and I know this. What the hell has […]
Is it categorically wrong to eat other human beings?
First off, my apologies for choosing such an, ahem, distasteful topic to discuss on the day before the day before Christmas. But here goes. In the discussion thread to my article, “Could God command something morally heinous?“, one of my readers, a fellow named “Angry Grasshopper,” (henceforth, AG) took issue with my statement that cannibalism is always wrong. He wrote: “cannibalism […]
Could God command something morally heinous?
This article is excerpted from my 2016 book An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar (Prometheus), coauthored with Justin Schieber. Support the authors and consider buying a copy! You won’t be disappointed. Well, okay, you might be disappointed — life gives no guarantees — but I’m betting you won’t be. Anyway, without further ado, let’s […]
