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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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The End of Christianity

Which is more wildly improbable: Christianity being true or Loftus coming up with a good argument?

September 15, 2012 by Randal

Last year I wrote a critique of John Loftus’ essay “Christianity is Wildly Improbable” from the book The End of Christianity. In the essay John focuses on “ten creedal affirmations” that many (evangelical) Christians accept. He purports to show that it is exceedingly unlikely that all these claims would be true from which it presumably follows that Christianity […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, atheism, faith, John Loftus, The End of Christianity, theism

John Loftus admits he uses exaggerated, slanted and/or misleading language

September 3, 2012 by Randal

Last year I wrote a series of essays critiquing the book The End of Christianity edited by John Loftus. The series was called “The End of Christianity: A Skeptical Review” and it included more than fifteen installments (including sidebar essays). Sadly, John Loftus was largely absent in terms of providing a response, though he did […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: John W. Loftus, rhetoric, The End of Christianity

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 12)

September 13, 2011 by Randal

I was not very kind to David Eller’s first contribution to The End of Christianity. I shall continue my curmudgeonly ways as I review his second contribution, an essay titled “Is Religion Compatible with Science?” I shall begin my complaints with the topic. Why “religion”? Why not focus on Christianity and argue for the incompatibility […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: David Eller, religion, science, The End of Christianity

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 11)

September 9, 2011 by Randal

Hell. It had to come up sooner or later. And it takes center stage in Keith Parson’s contribution to The End of Christianity, chapter 10, “Hell: Christianity’s Most Damnable Doctrine”. I took away one important lesson from this chapter: Keith Parsons doesn’t like Dick Cheney or Sarah Palin. In fact, I thought these were the […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: eternal conscious torment, hell, Keith Parsons, The End of Christianity

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 10)

September 9, 2011 by Randal

Chapter 9 of The End of Christianity brings us to Robert M. Price’s essay “Explaining the Resurrection without Recourse to Miracle”. In this chapter Price argues that “recourse to miracle is completely superfluous…” (219) as a means to explain the “resurrection data”. To prove his point, Price dusts off three long forgotten theories that seem […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, history, Jesus Christ, resurrection, Robert M. Price, The End of Christianity

My conversation with Matt McCormick: A Disappointing Conclusion

September 8, 2011 by Randal

Matt McCormick has yet to reply to my third post on his essay in which I directly critiqued his Salem argument in response to his repeated requests that I do just that. But he did post a comment today which suggests to me a shift of tactic away from engaging my arguments and toward marginalizing […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: confirmation bias, indoctrination, Matt McCormick, The End of Christianity, You're not as crazy as I think

On putting Matt McCormick’s argument to rest

September 7, 2011 by Randal

Let me summarize my arguments against Matt McCormick’s argument to this point. I will then quote his most recent full response and offer a final comment that engages his Salem argument. So first off, where we’ve come so far. As I noted, the central issue was the issue of rational belief. In particular, is it possible […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: history, inference to the best explanation, Jesus Christ, Matt McCormick, resurrection, The End of Christianity

From Jerusalem to Salem: A Conversation with Matt McCormick

September 6, 2011 by Randal

After being ignored by all the essayists of The End of Christianity for so long it’s nice finally to get a little attention. And now Matt McCormick has responded to my critique … promptly … on a holiday (Labor Day) … courteously … with arguments. Looks like I hit the jackpot. Thanks for joining us Matt! […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: epistemology, justification, knowledge, Matt McCormick, proper basicality, rationality, Salem witch trials, The End of Christianity

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 9)

September 5, 2011 by Randal

After a couple weeks hiatus I find myself picking up my review of The End of Christianity once again. Although I have published about fifteen posts in critique of The End of Christianity over the last couple months, I have not received a single response from the essayists. Well okay, there was one response: John W. […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: apologetics, Jesus, Matt McCormick, N.T. Wright, resurrection, The End of Christianity

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 8)

August 18, 2011 by Randal

In chapter 7 of The End of Christianity Ken Pulliam argues for “The Absurdity of the Atonement”. In fact, his essay is focused not on the atonement per se but rather on a penal substitutionary theory of atonement (henceforth PST). This is a crucial distinction to which I shall return. However, before continuing let me […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atonement, imputation, Ken Pulliam, penal substitution, The End of Christianity

The Edsel of Christianity?

August 17, 2011 by Randal

I have now completed Part II of The End of Christianity, a section which aimed through the essays of Hector Avalos, Jaco Gericke and Valerie Tarico, to establish on biblical grounds why Christianity needs to end. At this point I’d like to take a look back at the section by identifying a set of assumptions […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, Bible, biblical studies, Christianity, Hector Avalos, inspiration, Jaco Gericke, John W. Loftus, justification, revelation, The End of Christianity, theism, Valerie Tarico

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 7)

August 17, 2011 by Randal

Chapter 6 of The End of Christianity brings us to Valerie Tarico’s  essay “God’s Emotions: Why the Biblical God Is Hopelessly Human”. While the argument of the essay is not altogether clear, it would appear that Tarico hopes to extend Jaco Gericke’s assault on the biblical portrayal of God by arguing that the presence of “human” […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, God, impassibility, The End of Christianity, theism, Valerie Tarico

Yahweh and Yahweh: A second and final footnote to my Jaco Gericke review

August 16, 2011 by Randal

I cannot help but make one more point in response to Gericke’s argument. I apologize because this should have been included in my first footnote. Unfortunately it comes from that wing of philosophy which Gericke refers to as “fundamentalist and analytic”. (152) (Incidentally, Gericke seems to have a thing about labeling people. He even calls Walter […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: Jaco Gericke, names, Saul Kripke, The End of Christianity, Yahweh

The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 6)

August 15, 2011 by Randal

“Can God exist if Yahweh doesn’t?” This is the question at the center of The End of Christianity chapter five written by Jaco Gericke. Some of the other chapters in The End of Christianity have bad arguments, and at least one chapter seems to lack an argument altogether. But the argument of this chapter is strange. Let me […]

Filed Under: The Tentative Apologist Tagged With: atheism, biblical studies, Jaco Gericke, The End of Christianity, Yahweh

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