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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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proper basicality

God, Morality, and Knowledge: A Conversation with Eric Murphy

May 23, 2020 by Randal

This evening, I appeared on the personal YouTube channel for Eric Murphy of “Talk Heathen.” Though the original intent was to talk about moral arguments for God’s existence, we spent the bulk of our time talking about epistemology generally and moderate foundationalism in particular. But hey, that’s fine with me! It was a very enjoyable […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, Eric Murphy, foundationalism, interview, moral argument, proper basicality

Should we be (most) certain that God exists?

April 5, 2018 by Randal

Today this tweet from Douglas Axe (director of Biologic Institute who tweets here) caught my attention: Since we humans always have to settle for something short of absolute proof, I'm not sure we have to qualify our certainty of God's existence in this way. We can be as confident of his existence as we can […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: certainty, doubt, Doug Axe, epistemology, proper basicality, theism

Justin Schieber’s objections to the proper basicality of theism considered

April 24, 2015 by Randal

In my March 8th debate with Justin Schieber I offered three arguments, the first of which was concerned with defending the claim that belief in God can be properly basic. In his rebuttal Justin offered a couple arguments. I’m going to respond briefly to these two arguments here. Universal Sanction Objection Justin’s main rebuttal to my argument […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Christianity, epistemology, foundationalism, Justin Schieber, proper basicality, religious experience, theism

67. Justin Schieber on rationality and religious disagreement

April 7, 2015 by Randal

On March 7th and 8th of 2015, I had the privilege of taking the stage with atheist debater and broadcaster Justin Schieber for two events, a debate at the University of Alberta and a dialogue at Taylor Seminary. The following morning, March 9th, I drove Justin to the airport in Calgary. The three hour drive provided the rich opportunity for us […]

Filed Under: Podcast-The Tentative Apologist, The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: defeater, epistemology, evidence, foundationalism, proper basicality, rationality

Voodoo and beyond: A response to Tyler Wunder

September 3, 2013 by Randal

In this article I offer a response to Tyler Wunder in “A Quick Response to Randal Rauser’s Critique of Universal Sanction (by Tyler Wunder)“. In his quick response Tyler offers two points. In my response I’ll focus on Wunder’s first point since it is, as I see it, the more substantive one. In my original […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, foundationalism, proper basicality, Tyler Wunder

A Second Quick Response to Randal Rauser’s Critique of Universal Sanction (by Tyler Wunder)

September 2, 2013 by Randal

Dr. Wunder added some further comments to “Must properly basic beliefs have universal sanction? A reply to James F. Sennett (Part 2)”. Given their length, clarity and quality, I have taken the liberty of adding them here to complement his guest post. It may be a couple days before I respond given the start of the semester tomorrow, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, foundationalism, proper basicality, reason, Tyler Wunder

A Quick Response to Randal Rauser’s Critique of Universal Sanction (by Tyler Wunder)

September 2, 2013 by Randal

In this guest post philosopher Tyler Wunder offers a response to my article “Must properly basic beliefs have universal sanction? A reply to James F. Sennett Part 2“. Dr. Wunder graduated with a PhD in philosophy from Boston University in 2007 with a dissertation on “Warrant and Religious Epistemology: A Critique of Alvin Plantinga’s Warrant […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Alvin Plantinga, epistemology, foundationalism, proper basicality, rationality, Tyler Wunder

Must properly basic beliefs have universal sanction? A reply to James F. Sennett (Part 2)

August 26, 2013 by Randal

In “Must properly basic beliefs have universal sanction? A Reply to James F. Sennett (Part 1)” I introduced James F. Sennett’s paper “Direct Justification and Universal Sanction” and stated my intention to offer a critique of it. This is that (long overdue) critique. Let me state at the outset that I share a lot of […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Alvin Plantinga, epistemology, foundationalism, James Sennett, proper basicality, reason

Must properly basic beliefs have universal sanction? A Reply to James F. Sennett (Part 1)

August 13, 2013 by Randal

James F. Sennett, “Direct Justification and Universal Sanction,” Journal of Philosophical Research, XXIII (1998), 257-87. A little while ago one of my readers, Silver Bullet, gave me a copy of this paper by James Sennett and asked me my opinion on Sennett’s argument. I promised to write an article in reply and so here it is. […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, James Sennett, justification, knowledge, proper basicality, rationality, reason

Like two ships passing in the night … Jonathan Pearce’s abortive rebuttal

June 20, 2013 by Randal

A couple weeks ago Jonathan MS Pearce asked me to provide a short statement of belief for a new series he was initiating called “Why I am a Christian” which was inspired by my “Why they don’t believe” series. So I obliged and Jonathan posted it here. Take a look, read my statement and Jonathan’s […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Christianity, epistemology, Jonathan Pearce, justification, proper basicality, theism

Testimony as properly basic

May 3, 2013 by Randal

In my last post I provided a simple way that a person could come to believe “Jesus rose from the dead” in a way that is properly basic. I did so by appealing to a very familiar source of knowledge and rational belief: the testimony of others. Those who are familiar with Alvin Plantinga’s work on this […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, foundationalism, justification, proper basicality, reason, testimony

Knowledge, scientific and otherwise

May 2, 2013 by Randal

Robert presents a scenario which he seems to believe presents a problem for an account of religious beliefs as being properly basic. It goes like this: “imagine a biologist is confronted with new evidence that common descent is wrong, and replies, ‘That can’t be right.  I have an inner witness that confirms common descent!’” Now […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: defeater, epistemology, Holy Spirit, IIHS, justiication, knowledge, proper basicality, science

Encountering the Other: An exercise in moral perception finely-tuned

January 19, 2013 by Randal

Yesterday I explained to FroKid my view that moral perception yields certain properly basic beliefs such that when we perceive certain actions we can perceive immediately in a properly basic way the action as right or wrong, good or evil. As I said,  “I believe a human being with properly functioning moral perception will perceive […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, moral perception, proper basicality

Tasting wine and sensing God

December 13, 2011 by Randal

When Bill watches a beautiful sunset he automatically forms the belief that God is providentially active in the world. Bill cannot articulate his belief with the sophistication of a theologian, but he senses in a basic way that a very powerful and very good agent is operative in the sunset. There are many skeptics of […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, faith, God, knowledge, proper basicality

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