• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Randal Rauser

Home of progressively evangelical, generously orthodox, rigorously analytic, revolutionary Christian thinking (that's what I'm aiming for anyway)

  • About
  • Books
  • Articles
    • Articles (single)
    • Articles (in series)
  • Audio/Video
    • Audio Interviews, Lectures, and Debates
    • Video Interviews and Lectures
    • Powerpoint Slides
  • Blog
    • Current Posts
    • Blog Archives
  • Podcasts
    • The Tentative Apologist Podcast
    • Archived Podcasts
    • Reviews

rhetoric

Alarmist evangelical apologetics and the so-called post-truth world

December 13, 2017 by Randal

If you listen to evangelical Christian apologists for any length of time, you will soon hear reference to an ominous “post-truth culture” or a “post-truth world”. As Lee Strobel observed in a 2017 interview: “we see a trend toward a postmodern mindset and ‘post-truth’ culture.” (source) And as John C. Richards, Jr. opines in Christianity Today: “culture […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, culture war, evangelicalism, post-truth, postmodern, rhetoric

On Fundamentalism: The Best Thing Alvin Plantinga Ever Wrote

October 5, 2017 by Randal

I was called a “liberal” this week on Twitter. I don’t have any problem per se with being called a liberal. But in this case it clearly wasn’t intended as a compliment. So I asked my interlocutor about his basis for making the charge. He replied by pointing out that I support public healthcare for all. Guilty […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Alvin Plantinga, dialogue, fundamentalism, rhetoric

A Case Where I Spend WAY TOO MUCH Time Analyzing a Snide Atheist Meme

August 18, 2017 by Randal

Here is a tweet from the folks at “Atheist Republic”. Call it a meme if you want. (Might as well since the word “meme” seems to apply to most anything that gets retweeted.) So here’s the meme: pic.twitter.com/AduwjnloUq — Atheist Republic (@AtheistRepublic) August 16, 2017 I’m not sure what definition of “bullshit” the folks at […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, bullshit, evil, falsification, problem of evil, providence, rhetoric

Genuine Inquiry vs. Partisan Advocacy: A Couple Comments

August 9, 2017 by Randal

Jeff Lowder just wrote a helpful article in which he contrasts “genuine inquiry” vs. “partisan advocacy”. Jeff describes genuine inquiry as “reading opposing viewpoints, not with the goal of preparing pithy one-liners for debates, but with the goal of actually trying to learn something or consider new ways of looking at old topics.” He adds […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, indoctrination, Jeff Lowder, rhetoric, truth

How the atheist rhetoric of “reason” undermines reason

March 29, 2017 by Randal

I opened my 2011 book You’re not as Crazy as I Think by chronicling some of the myriad ways that evangelical Christians invoke the rhetoric of truth as a way of reinforcing binary in-group out-group oppositions. In our age of marketing identities, I noted that evangelicals have attempted to brand themselves and their communities with “truth”. And […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, freethought, indoctrination, reason, rhetoric, secularism

Who are the Hollywood Elites?

January 10, 2017 by Randal

Yesterday Meryl Streep delivered a powerful and eloquent speech at the Golden Globe Awards. It was a speech that expressed great concern for justice and compassion, for defending the wayfarer and the marginalized, for promoting civility and kindness, for encouraging empathy and understanding. In short, it was a speech that one would expect any Christian to […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: dialogue, Hollywood elites, rhetoric

The rhetorical indulgences of some Christian testimonies

October 26, 2016 by Randal

The other day I was listening to a recording of a gentleman giving a personal testimony of his Christian conversion. Just prior to the conversion he observed, “According to the world I had it all: money, fame, drugs, and sex.” I’ve heard a thousand testimonies over the years that used similar language. But this time this […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: rhetoric, testimony

Goddidit and Golden Hammers

September 14, 2016 by Randal

It’s been awhile since I commented on that favorite atheist quip intended to shut down any explanatory appeal to God: “Goddidit”. Want to argue that God is the best explanation of cosmic fine-tuning? The origin of the universe? Moral obligation? Truth-directed cognitive faculties? You can shut ’em all down with one three syllable word-phrase: Goddidit!  […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Goddidit, Golden Hammer, rhetoric, skepticism

Fetus as Parasite? A disturbing trend in pro-choice rhetoric

June 28, 2016 by Randal

Throughout history attempts to justify killing members of outgroups has been carried out by invoking labels for members of the outgroups. David Livingstone Smith chronicles this lamentable aspect of human history in his book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012). And so, for example, the Nazis called Jews and […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: abortion, bioethics, ethics, pro-choice, pro-life, rhetoric

A Slap of Persuasion? A Review of Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion

August 26, 2015 by Randal

Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015). Os Guinness’s latest book, Fool’s Talk, is devoted to a very important topic: apologetic persuasion. And the time couldn’t be better for such a book: While contemporary Christian apologetic arguments have attained an impressive level of sophistication, all too often the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, dialogue, Os Guinness, persuasion, review, rhetoric

74. The Problem with Jebus

June 11, 2015 by Randal

One of the oft-noted traits of the New Atheism is a new hostility and contempt toward those of differing opinion. In this episode of The Tentative Apologist Podcast I address this troubling trait with respect to the specific convention of referring to Jesus Christ as “Jebus”. I begin by tracing the origins of this convention. […]

Filed Under: Podcast-The Tentative Apologist, The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: dialogue, Jebus, rhetoric

One simple way to tell that a particular atheist lacks intellectual credibility

May 31, 2015 by Randal

The title of this article begins with an ambitious promise: one simple way to tell that a particular atheist lacks intellectual credibility. But as with many ambitious promises, this one comes with a couple caveats. First, the lacking of intellectual credibility is pertaining only to one sphere: the debate between atheism and contrary perspectives. Thus, […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, dialogue, faith, rhetoric

What we can learn from “Loftus Logic” (or why John Loftus isn’t the Fonz)

January 26, 2015 by Randal

The last thing I want to do is get pulled back into an unedifying back-and-forth exchange with John Loftus. However, I can’t help but point out that he is now doubling down on his attack on my character with an exercise in Loftus logic. In his latest blog post he writes the following: “I’ve decided […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: David Marshall, John Loftus, logic, rhetoric

“Putting down wolves” and other chilling rhetoric

January 24, 2015 by Randal

A few days ago film director and provocateur Michael Moore foolishly jammed a stick in the wasp’s nest by saying that all snipers are cowards (take that Chris Kyle). The comment is equal parts false and incendiary. But what most intrigues me are the responses that Moore’s comment elicited. Consider, for example, Don Mann’s response […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Chris Kyle, Don Mann, police, rhetoric, violence, war

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

Against Malaria Foundation

Against Malaria Foundation

Support Kiva

Support Kiva

Search this website

Archives



Copyright © 2022 • Randal Rauser • A Steady Site