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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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rationality

Is There a Link Between Atheism and Skepticism?

November 25, 2020 by Randal

There is a popular notion that doubt and skepticism are specially linked to atheism. But is that borne out by the evidence or is it just a bit of branding based on a limited selection of doubt? It is also very common to find atheism being linked to skepticism. There is a popular narrative that […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, rationality, skepticism

Are there sufficient reasons to believe in God? My Opening Statement

November 2, 2020 by Randal

In May, 2020, I participated in a debate on this question: Are there sufficient reasons to believe in God? My debate partner Sam and I divvied up the labor as follows: I argued that there are sufficient ‘reasons’ (i.e. properly basic grounds) to believe in God. Meanwhile, Sam argued that there are sufficient non-basic reasons […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, foundationalism, properly basic, rationality, theism

The Fact that You Were Once a Christian Does not Make Your Atheism More Rational

October 7, 2020 by Randal

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, rationality

Who is Irrational? Some Quick Observations on the Rauser-Smalley Debate

August 18, 2020 by Randal

I’m not going to comment on the entire debate. Instead, I will limit my comments to the historical resurrection of Jesus and related issues. In my debate on the rationality of Christian belief, David C. Smalley asked for historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. I provided evidence. I noted that there is no […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, David C. Smalley, debate, epistemology, rationality

My Debate with David Smalley on the Rationality of Christianity

August 18, 2020 by Randal

Today, I appeared on Modern Day Debate to debate David Smalley on whether a person can be rational to accept Christian belief:

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christianity, David Smalley, debate, epistemology, Modern Day Debate, rationality

Debating David Smalley on the Rationality of Christianity

August 3, 2020 by Randal

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Christianity, David Smalley, epistemology, rationality

Is Rationality Over-Rated?

July 19, 2020 by Randal

The other day, I watched the 2019 Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell about the security guard who discovered a bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was subsequently accused of being the bomber. Jewell’s mother (played in the film by the always-excellent Kathy Bates) stood by her son, never doubting him for a minute. It […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, justification, rationality, Richard Jewell, virtue epistemology

Are there sufficient reasons to believe in God? A Debate

June 6, 2020 by Randal

Today, I appeared in a debate on the rationality of theism on the popular YouTube channel Modern Day Debate paired up with Sam Nes against Matt Dillahunty and Tom Jump. Check it out:

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: debate, epistemology, Matt Dillahunty, Modern Day Debate, rationality, theism, Tom Jump

Does Being a Christian Mean Giving Up on Evidence?

May 30, 2020 by Randal

This is a sermon I recorded for a local church in our time of coronavirus home-church. In the sermon, I argue that Jesus was centrally concerned with evidence to support his claims and this bequeathed to the church a strong emphasis on faith that is grounded on evidence as exemplified in the Apostle Paul and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, epistemology, evidence, faith, rationality, sermon

Are Christians Inconsistent for Rejecting Non-Christian Miracle Claims?

April 7, 2020 by Randal

In my article, “Responding to a Stale Atheist Talking Point on Miracle Claims,” I … respond to a stale atheist talking point on miracle claims. But since the article is a relatively brief amalgam of some tweets, it lacks in clarity what it makes up in brevity. However, I thought a second article that surrendered […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: miracles, plausibility structure, rationality, skepticism, worldview

The extraordinary claim that Christianity is irrational

March 12, 2020 by Randal

This happens a lot: atheists online tell me that my beliefs are “absurd” or (only slightly more charitably) that I’m “irrational”. Here is an example of an exchange with a gentleman named Steven Tiger. He begins by taking the view that Christianity is ridiculous. Then he modifies it to the view that it is irrational […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Christianity, epistemology, irrationality, rationality, Steven Tiger

Would you get on the plane?

January 10, 2020 by Randal

Yesterday, I posed the following question on Twitter: You wake up the morning of a scheduled flight from a vivid nightmare that the flight on which you’re booked crashes. You’ve never had a dream that vivid and it is terrifying, but you put it aside and drive to the airport. Once you arrive, you’re walking […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: decision theory, rationality, worldview

Reasonable Belief, Reasonable Doubt, and the Resurrection of Jesus

July 7, 2019 by Randal

Two days ago, I posted two Twitter surveys directed at two different groups and asking a similar question about an event which is purported to have occurred two thousand years ago. One would think it is possible for people reasonably to disagree about a topic this far removed in time and based on documentary evidence […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: historiography, history, rationality, resurrection

Is Christianity falsifiable? Does it matter if it isn’t?

July 6, 2019 by Randal

There is this all-too-common assumption among skeptics of religion that Christianity must somehow be “falsifiable” in order to be a legitimate interpretive framework for reality. The quick (and tempting) response is to say that Christianity is falsifiable: if there is no resurrected Jesus then there is no Christianity. However, many nominal Christians have continued in the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, falsification, rationality, worldview

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