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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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Ockham's razor

On Spurious Attempts to Favor Naturalism over Theism

September 14, 2018 by Randal

In this article, I want to consider a spurious attempt to favor naturalism over theism. To be clear, I don’t take issue with the general maxim in the meme posted below. What I do dispute is the facile attempt to favor naturalism over theism based on the maxim: In my rebuttal, I point out that if […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, epistemology, naturalism, Ockham's razor, solipsism

How to tell if somebody is demon possessed: points 3-5

December 17, 2015 by Randal

It’s time for me to wrap up this strange little series in which I discuss the criteria Father Thomas outlines for diagnosing an instance of demon possession. In this final article I’m going to summarize and evaluate points 3, 4, and 5. 3. New Language We begin with the third point which involves the demoniac suddenly speaking […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: demon possession, exorcism, naturalism, Ockham's razor

How to tell if somebody is demon possessed: 1. Do they have an aversion to holy things?

December 11, 2015 by Randal

As I pointed out in “Demon-possessed or mentally ill?” Father Thomas lists several criteria which Catholic exorcists look for as a basis to warrant a diagnosis of demonic possession (or attachment). The operative principle here is Ockham’s Razor: the simplest explanation is to be preferred. In other words, if behavior can plausibly be explained by way of […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: demonic possession, demons, Ockham's razor, psychosomatic, Voodoo death

Demon-possessed or mentally ill?

December 9, 2015 by Randal

Last week Catholic apologist Matt Fradd kindly sent me the following Catholic Answers interview, “What You Need to Know About Exorcism: The Devil, Evil Spirits, and Spiritual Warfare” in which Patrick Coffin interviews well known exorcist Father Gary Thomas. You can read the transcript of the interview here. Demonic Possession and Veridical Evidence for Supernaturalism and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: demons, exorcism, mental illness, Ockham's razor, Patrick Coffin, psychiatry, supernaturalism

Ockham again?

January 5, 2011 by Randal

Certain issues keep arising (or being raised, or bubbling to the surface) in the blog, and no matter how many times I deal with them the answers somehow don’t seem to take root. But hope springs eternal, so here goes again… S1lverbullet raises a criticism against my critique of Maitzen’s argument: “you sound an awful […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, idealism, naturalism, Ockham's razor, Stephen Maitzen, theism

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