This article is based on a chapter in my 2013 book God or Godless, a collection of twenty short debates coauthored with atheist John Loftus. What would it take to persuade you that your brother is the long-expected messiah? Quite a lot, I suspect. You grew up with the guy. You saw him scrape his […]
God or Godless
Is the biblical God ignorant about science?
In “Did the biblical concept of God evolve from polytheism?” I reprinted one of the opening statements from my 2013 debate book God or Godless authored with John Loftus. That was so much fun that I decided to add a second instalment. In chapter 14 Loftus’ debate resolution is “The biblical God is ignorant about science”. I’ve […]
Did the biblical concept of God evolve from polytheism to monotheism?
My 2013 book God or Godless (co-authored with atheist John Loftus) is a collection of twenty short debates. In ten debates I argue for a debate resolution and John argues against it. And in ten debates John argues for his own resolution and I argue against it. That’s the way it was supposed to work, anyway. But […]
God or Godless has arrived in Korean translation
My 2013 book God or Godless (co-authored with John Loftus) was just released this month in Korean translation. According to my Korean wife, there are already several reviews available. (I can read the Korean alphabet, but sadly I don’t know what I’m reading so that isn’t much help.) The cover is quite interesting with cartoon depictions of Loftus […]
Science is no substitute for religion: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 7)
In chapter 5 of God or Godless I take the lead with the following debate resolution: “Science is no substitute for religion.” Of course, it’s also true that religion is no substitute for science. Each area of enquiry has its respective domain. Just as physics, geology or meteorology will not answer the question “How shall […]
The Biblical God Required Child Sacrifices for His Pleasure: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 6)
In this, the sixth installment of my readers’ guide to my book God or Godless, we turn to Loftus’ thesis where he argues that: “The biblical God required child sacrifices for his pleasure.” In his opening statement Loftus argues that “despite some biblical exhortations that child sacrifice was alien to the worship of Yahweh, a closer […]
If There Is No God, Then Everything Is Permitted: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 5)
In the third debate in God or Godless Loftus and I talk about moral value and moral accountability. The title is borrowed from Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov so that what it lacks in precision it makes up for in literary and historical significance. My opening statement recounts a serial killer entering retirement after a successful “career” […]
The Biblical Concept of God Evolved from Polytheism to Monotheism: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 4)
It’s a good thing I wrote “A Primer to my Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless” because otherwise it would be tough to make sense of John Loftus’ first choice of debate topic which appears in chapter 2: “the Hebrew concept of God evolved from polytheism to monotheism.” What does this have to do with […]
A Primer to my Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless
In retrospect, this primer should have come before I started my series on God or Godless. But better late than never, right? So why write the primer now? I realized I needed it after writing the third installment in the series which is based on the first chapter and was itself titled: “If there is […]
Too short for its own good? A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 2)
Next up, we turn to the introduction where I lay out the structure of the book. (I wrote the introduction.) As I note in the introduction, our aim in this book was to offer twenty pithy (i.e. brief and forceful) debate exchanges on a range of diverse topics. In short, the intent of the book was […]
A Reader’s Journey through God or Godless this May
Two weeks from today, on May 4th, I will be starting a new series in which I blog through the twenty chapters of God or Godless, my 2013 book with John Loftus. I’d invite readers who haven’t yet read the book to pick up a copy. (The Amazon widget link is right there on the right […]
How to become a Christian when you’re not sure you believe
This is a follow-up to my article “Start with Christianity. Because it works.” Some of the readers responded to that article with a degree of incredulity, believing that while I might have provided a basis to begin an investigation of Christianity, I did not provide a basis to become a Christian. For example, Luke Breuer wrote: […]
Russell Blackford, the Vacuous Atheist Critic
Today John Loftus published a Facebook comment on God or Godless by Russell Blackford. (I promptly looked Russell Blackford up on Amazon. He co-wrote 50 Great Myths About Atheism and co-edited 50 Voices of Disbelief.) Here’s what he wrote as quoted by Loftus: “I’m currently reading God or Godless?by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser. From my perspective, […]
God or Godless-The Other Cover
In celebration of the fact that it has been 257 days since God or Godless was published, I have decided to celebrate by releasing to the world the alternate cover that was suggested by Baker Books. I have no regrets about our choice. Although the “Creation of Adam” detail has been done to death on book […]
