Randal Rauser

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

theism

Being a former Christian doesn’t ensure you’re an informed and fair critic of Christianity

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Yesterday I posted the following tweet: A note to my atheist friends: the fact that you grew up attending a Baptist church in rural Kentucky or a Catholic parish in Toronto does not automatically give you an informed perspective on the intellectual breadth and strength of the Christian tradition. — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) August 9, […]

101. Atheism vs. Christianity with Adam Lee and Andrew Murtagh

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This time on The Tentative Apologist Podcast I’m delighted to introduce two guests, Andrew Murtagh and Adam Lee. Andrew is a Christian apologist who blogs at Soapbox Redemption on the Patheos platform. He is also the author of the 2013 book Proof of Divine. Adam Lee is an atheist and writer living in New York. […]

Bad Arguments for Atheism. Bad Arguments Against Atheism.

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I recently had the pleasure of appearing as a guest on Catholic apologist Trent Horn’s new podcast “Counsel of Trent.” (Yeah, I know: great name!) Trent is an outstanding young apologist. And I’m not just saying that by the way: Read my debrief of Trent’s debate with Raphael Lataster, for example. Trent also kindly provided an endorsement […]

Should we be (most) certain that God exists?

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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 […]

Does atheism require more faith than Christian theism?

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On Christmas Eve Lee Strobel tweeted that he didn’t have enough faith to be an atheist: To continue in atheism, I would need to believe that nothing produces everything, non-life produces life, randomness produces fine-tuning, chaos produces information, unconsciousness produces consciousness, and non-reason produces reason. I simply didn't have that much faith. — Lee Strobel […]

Rauser v. Schieber-The 2017 Debate

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On Friday, March 10th I met Justin Bieber Schieber for our second public debate. (The first one unfolded exactly two years ago on the campus of the University of Alberta. You can watch that match-up here.) This second debate occurred at Stencel Hall on the campus of Taylor Seminary in Edmonton. It also differed from […]

Doing right because … it feels good?

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Today I came across this tweet in my Twitter feed (please forgive the language): https://twitter.com/PAtheism/status/838192431560593409 I agree that one ought not behave ethically because one expects to be rewarded for doing so. But then, I know of no Christian view of ethics that is predicated simply on reward/punishment. Interestingly, the individual seeks to counter the reward […]

Would God Necessarily Create Perfect Creatures? The Rauser/Schieber Debate

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In January Justin Schieber and I engaged in a written debate featured at Strange Notions on the topic of whether we should expect God to create only perfect creatures. Schieber argued that we should, and thus the fact that something other than perfect creatures (e.g. us) exists provides evidence against God. I objected that we have […]

Naturalism or Theism? A Review of The Lowder-Turek Debate

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I recently had the pleasure of viewing Jeff Lowder’s autumn debate with Frank Turek on the question: naturalism or theism? You can view the debate here. I’ve offered my own reactions below in the form of eight impressions. However, be sure to watch the debate for yourself rather than just skimming my impressions. As you […]

On not having enough faith to be an atheist

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Apparently this week Twitter is my muse. The latest tweet addresses another one of those irritating memes (though it does so critically). I speak here of the meme that says faith is something like belief without adequate evidence. When it comes to public figures propagating this meme, the most egregious offender in recent years is arguably Peter Boghossian. […]

Big news on An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar

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First, I’m happy to report that at Amazon.com An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar is now no. 1 in new releases for religion and philosophy. Let’s keep it there! Second, today An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar was listed as one of the top ten December new releases in non-fiction at Bustle.com. Finally, […]

Fairyology vs. Goo: Atheists and Christians in Conversation

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In the second edition of The God Delusion biologist Richard Dawkins defends himself against the charge that he is out of his depth as he opines magisterially on matters of theology and philosophy of religion. Alas, Dawkins’ response merely illustrates the problem. His reply is to insist that one need not study the canons of fairyology before dismissing fairies. […]