Yesterday, I tweeted the following observation: Many Christian conservatives profess to defend the inerrancy of Scripture when, in fact, they are defending the inerrancy of their interpretation of Scripture. In order to appreciate the reasoning of the conservative Christian, we should begin by unpacking the assumption that there is a commonsense way to interpret a […]
hermeneutics
The Imprecatory Pretzel: Why it doesn’t work to use the Psalms to curse your enemies
Many Christians think that the imprecatory psalms provide models for how to curse one’s enemies. The hermeneutical assumption seems to be that the imprecatory psalmist’s declarations of hatred for his enemies and his desire that they be destroyed are sanctified and wholly correct statements and wishes. However, ask a person who takes that view when […]
What’s Wrong with Young Earth Creationism?
A few weeks I appeared on the Skeptics and Seekers Podcast to debate young earth creationism. In preparation for the debate, I was asked to provide a written statement in response to a statement by co-host David Johnson. I have decided to repost my statement here. I thank David for the invitation to discuss young […]
Are young earth creationists the most faithful Bible readers?
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 […]
A street apologist puts me in my place
Here is a video by a self-described street apologist who critiques my critique of William Lane Craig on biblical atrocities. It was just uploaded in the last couple of days. I have viewed the first ten or so minutes to this point, and hope to listen to the rest later. Let me know what you […]
Four (or more) Steps to Making Sense of Biblical Violence
I was recently asked on Twitter how I deal with the problem of biblical violence, that is, the problem of God appearing to command and commend violent actions that appear to be evil. I responded with four points and while regular readers of this blog will likely recognize all four in my past writing, I […]
Taking the Bible Seriously (But not Literally) Word for Word
The Bible should be taken seriously word for word. That does not mean it should be taken literally word for word. In fact, not only are these two claims different from one another. They are fundamentally inconsistent with one another. In the Bible, we are dealing with a library of ancient texts written in three foreign […]
Why belief in divine inspiration commits the reader to wrestling with Scripture
We begin with a tweet from Brian Zahnd: “Biblical inerrancy” is an empty signifier. Why? Because an inerrant text still has to be interpreted. Then you run into the problem of pervasive interpretive pluralism (to borrow a phrase from Christian Smith). Plenty of people agree on inerrancy and disagree on everything else!” Next, we have a […]
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 […]
Does inerrancy apply to the human authors of the Bible?
This morning I posted a tweet on inerrancy which prompted a reply from the philosopher Paul Franks. I thought it was an interesting Twitter exchange and worth repeating here. After compiling our tweets, I’m a bit surprised at how long it is too. I have not bothered to flag or correct the typos that appear in […]
If you reject evolution, should you accept a flat earth?
Yesterday, I posted the following tweet: “I’ll agree that ‘evolution is only a theory’ if you’ll agree that it is the only theory which offers a viable account of biological diversity.” The tweet received the following response from (what I assume was) a young earth creationist: “Whether the earth is flat or not makes no […]
Would Jesus want you to stay married to a psychopath?
This morning, I tweeted the following survey: Clinical psychopaths are manipulative anti-social narcissists who are incapable of experiencing love or empathy. The condition is untreatable. If you came to believe your friend was married to a non-violent psychopath, would you support your friend divorcing that individual? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) July 27, 2018 As of […]
If the Bible is a map for how to get to heaven, it isn’t a very good one
We’re all familiar with the fire evacuation maps on the inside of a hotel room door. In a brief, succinct, and luminously clear manner, the map provides directions for evacuating the building in case of fire. Growing up, I was taught to think of the Bible as like God’s hotel fire evacuation map for the […]
Jesus, the God of Genocide, and William Barclay
William Barclay (d. 1978) is a lot like C.S. Lewis in one key respect: he was a British scholar widely read and trusted by North American evangelicals who nonetheless frequently expressed some relatively radical opinions that sailed under the radar of those same evangelicals. I was reminded of this again the other day when in […]
