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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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God or Godless

A Family Defense of the Resurrection of Jesus

March 2, 2018 by Randal Rauser

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, God or Godless, historical Jesus, James, resurrection

Is the biblical God ignorant about science?

February 5, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, biblical revelation, debate, God or Godless, John Loftus, science

Did the biblical concept of God evolve from polytheism to monotheism?

February 1, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: accommodation, Bible, debate, God or Godless, John Loftus, progressive revelation

God or Godless has arrived in Korean translation

April 12, 2016 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: God or Godless, Korean, translation

Science is no substitute for religion: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 7)

May 30, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Christianity, God or Godless, John Loftus, review, science, scientism

The Biblical God Required Child Sacrifices for His Pleasure: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 6)

May 24, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblical violence, child sacrifice, God or Godless, John Loftus, revelation

If There Is No God, Then Everything Is Permitted: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 5)

May 20, 2015 by Randal

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” […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, ethics, God or Godless, John Loftus, metaethics, morality, virtue

The Biblical Concept of God Evolved from Polytheism to Monotheism: A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 4)

May 13, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, Bible, Christianity, debate, God or Godless, John Loftus, monotheism, polytheism, revelation, theism

A Primer to my Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless

May 12, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, Christianity, debate, dialogue, God or Godless, John Loftus, meaning, naturalism, theism, worldview

Too short for its own good? A Reader’s Journey Through God or Godless (Part 2)

May 5, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, God or Godless

A Reader’s Journey through God or Godless this May

April 20, 2015 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, debate, God or Godless, John Loftus, theism

How to become a Christian when you’re not sure you believe

February 8, 2015 by Randal

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: […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Christianity, conversion, evangelism, God or Godless

Russell Blackford, the Vacuous Atheist Critic

January 5, 2014 by Randal

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, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, fundamentalism, God or Godless, John Loftus, naturalism

God or Godless-The Other Cover

December 13, 2013 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: cover, God or Godless

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