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Randal Rauser

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moral epistemology

How Biblical Divinely Commanded Genocide Undermines Moral Knowledge

October 14, 2021 by Randal

Is it intrinsically evil to slaughter infants or does it depend on the context? Our moral knowledge says one thing, biblical passages like 1 Samuel 15:3 seem to say something else. ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblical violence, Jesus Loves Canaanites, moral epistemology, moral knowledge, skepticism

Prolife Christians Who Support Child Killing

October 12, 2021 by Randal

Defending the morality of the Canaanite genocide has disastrous consequences for a consistent Christian ethic as I explain in this video. ?

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, biblical violence, genocide, infanticide, Jesus Loves Canaanites, moral epistemology, moral knowledge

Four Pitfalls for Apologists Defending Biblical Violence

August 12, 2019 by Randal

Over the last decade or so, Christian apologists have directed significant effort in defending morally problematic biblical violence including texts which attribute prima facie evil actions to God as well as prima facie evil actions which are commanded or commended by God. For example, Christian apologists offer various justifications of the texts that appear to […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, biblical violence, moral epistemology, moral skepticism

Could God command something morally heinous?

December 21, 2018 by Randal

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 […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar, atheism, divine command ethics, divine command theory, ethics, Justin Schieber, moral epistemology, Randal Rauser, skepticism

Emotions as a way to moral reflection and theological truth

June 9, 2016 by Randal

A few days ago I received an email from a reader that posed a question and invited my response. With permission I’m reproducing a portion of the email. I’ll then offer a response below: If I had to say what I have found most helpful about your work, it would be your insistence on the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: evangelicalism, moral epistemology, moral intuition, parable, Prodigal Son, revelation

Merely squeamish?

November 5, 2012 by Randal

My discussion these last few days has been concerned with the ethical obligations of those who would refuse, on moral grounds, to kill animals simply for the culinary pleasure of eating them. But the argument depends on people being able to read their own intuitions about killing. Could it be that they’re misreading those intuitions? […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: ethics, moral epistemology

Christians who are skeptics about moral perception

August 18, 2012 by Randal

In “Is rape worse than sacrifice?” I critiqued Crude’s claim that moral atrocity is essentially linked to the infliction of physical and/or psychological suffering on a victim. I did so with the following scenario: “Three year old Billy is watching Sesame Street and eating Pop Tarts when his father kills him with a gunshot from […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: moral epistemology, morality, skepticism

The Problem of the Faulty Moral Perception Faculty

August 17, 2012 by Randal

Many Christians apparently believe that an act like killing and mutilating a child as a devotional act toward a deity can be morally virtuous (i.e. if God commands it, and God can command it because he has commanded it) but raping a child as a devotional act to a deity cannot (because God never would […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: ethics, genocide, metaethics, moral atrocity, moral epistemology, morality, problem of evil

Rape, moral perception, and biblicism

August 14, 2012 by Randal

Jerry Shepherd offered an extended rebuttal to my article “Christian moral schizophrenia and psychopathy.” Reading through his comments I recognized that a single question could help us focus the issue of debate significantly and so I focused on the moral status of acts of rape:  “It seems quite clear that on your view it is […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: biblicism, Jerry Shepherd, moral epistemology, rape

Three theses on devotional child killing

November 25, 2010 by Randal

The article I presented at the Atlanta SBL meeting, titled “‘I want to give the baby to God’: Three theses on devotional child killing” is now available! This is the biggest release since Gran Turismo 5! So to read and/or download the paper you can click here or go find it in the “Academic Papers” […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Dena Schlosser, divine command, ethics, genocide, herem, moral epistemology, natural law

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