Two days ago, Donald Trump mocked 16-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg. Yesterday, I offered this tweeted reply: Randal: Is anybody surprised that the pig decided to mock a 16-year-old climate activist? What really disgusts me is the 154,000 + likes. Trump’s a psychopath, but what’s their excuse? (Source) Predictably, my tweet received the criticism […]
politics
A simple illustration of the craven nature of the Republican party today
I just watched the MSNBC program Kasie DC in which the host, Kasie Hunt, interviewed Republican politician Rob Woodall. After Woodall defended Trump and dismissed the Mueller Report, Hunt asked him whether he had read the report. He replied that he had not. He had not even read a report that identified ten instances of potential attempts […]
If evangelicals are pro-family, then why don’t they care about Trump’s child separation policy?
A couple of days ago, Ed Krassenstein posted the following tweet decrying the widespread support among American (evangelical) Christians for Donald Trump’s divisive and xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants and refugees: “Jesus Christ would tear down a wall, and give immigrants the shirt off of his back. I’m Jewish and I know this. What the hell has […]
Conservative Christians Who Pine for Christendom
This morning Michael Brown posted an article endorsing Roy Moore for the Senate seat in Alabama. In turn I asked Michael about Moore’s views on Muslims in government: Thanks, I appreciate your thoughtful tone in that article. Do you agree with Moore that Muslims shouldn't be allowed to serve in government? — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) […]
Can you be prolife and vote for a prochoice politician?
Yesterday I received the following question from a reader which was prompted by my critique of Roy Moore: I am pretty sure you support politicians who are pro-abortion. Now, maybe you are not pro-life. Fair enough. But if you are, how can one get angry at politicians who exhibit sexual predatory behaviour and not be […]
This is how strange a free market approach to healthcare looks to a Canadian like me
Imagine a world in which all citizens were not extended protection by the police. Instead, the government aimed to offer people various tax credits and incentives to buy police protection from private security firms. And as a result, some people were protected by powerful armed militias, others had spotty protection from ill-equipped security guards, and […]
Do ID theorists have an agenda? And does it matter if they do?
The discussion thread for my article “Intelligent Design Explanations are not Science Stoppers” includes a spirited exchange with RonH. One point of disagreement that quickly emerged in our interaction concerned the relevance of the background beliefs and intentions of intelligent design advocates in assessing the arguments for intelligent design. RonH was keen to link intelligent design to the […]
Conservative evangelicals think Donald Trump is the next Constantine
The fourth century did not begin well for Christians. In 303 a series of edicts from Emperor Diocletian initiated an empire-wide persecution of Christians, a persecution that only ended years later when Constantine became emperor (312 in the Western Empire; 324 in the East). From that point Constantine began to adopt the Christian church as […]
This is Not Normal: The Importance of Satire in the Age of Donald Trump
One month ago Donald Trump tweeted a series of bizarre accusations that Barack Obama wire tapped Trump Tower during the election. The charge was complete nonsense. And yet, in the weeks that followed Trump’s surrogates have engaged in a jaw-dropping exercise in confabulation, attempting to find something — anything — which can provide some sort of corroboration […]
Contributing to a new political blog
Folks who like Trump or dislike politics will be happy to know I won’t be talking Trump in my blog anymore. Instead, I have become a contributor to Jeff Lowder’s new blog Opposing Trump and I just posted my first contribution today, “Revenge of the Haters: A Response to Kellyanne Conway’s Abysmal Defense.” So if you’re interested in […]
You can’t make America great again because it is now better than it ever was
This morning on Twitter Michael Brown posted the following image with this description: “This is something we can all agree on”: Except I couldn’t agree on it. To be sure, I do agree with the importance of repentance. But I don’t agree with the Trumpian sentiment about making America great again. And this is because, for […]
The Fight over the Fetus: Abortion, Ethics, and Politics
Today Norman Geisler apparently defended his continued support for Donald Trump by claiming that Hillary Clinton is worse than Adolf Hitler. The reason? Her support for abortion. I first learned about this from Hemant Mehta’s blog and so I’m going to quote the relevant passage from his article “Christian Theologian: I Still Support Donald Trump Because […]
Ted Cruz Behaving Badly? Ms. Manners vs. Moral Obligations
Ted Cruz has been lambasted for refusing to nominate Donald Trump at the GOP Convention yesterday. The most persistent criticism I heard is that Cruz violated a rule of etiquette. As one pundit on MSNBC put it, “Ms. Manners would not be happy.” But what is the problem, exactly? In short, Donald Trump extended hospitality […]
Ted Cruz’s Five Most Beautiful and Powerful (but very UnChristian) Words
So I’m watching Ted Cruz’s speech at the GOP Convention tonight when he says the following: “Our nation is exceptional because it was built on the five most beautiful and powerful words in the English language, ‘I want to be free.’” Really? Those are the five most beautiful and powerful words? Wait, I thought Ted […]
