POST PUBLISHED INSeptember, 2009
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  • It's just like Nazi Germany...

    September 30th, 200908:56 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Last week a youtube video gained widespread notoriety for depicting elementary school students singing a cute, pro-Obama ditty. One parent frantically complained to the media that it was just like Nazi Germany indoctrinating the children. Funny, I remember Naomi Wolf arguing a couple years ago (in the bestseller The End of America: Letter of Warni...

  • On Nailing Jelly to Walls

    September 29th, 200901:42 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Anatheist.net provides an account of our recent exchanges at http://www.anatheist.net/2009/09/the-theological-debate-continues/ and then concludes: "I swear debating with this theologian is like trying to nail jelly to a wall." The charge piqued my interest because I have heard it a number of times before (directed at me no less!). This leads me t...

  • Matter: The Astonishing Hypothesis

    September 28th, 200911:02 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In a number of recent posts I have been gradually building a case to explain how one could have rational beliefs about God apart from argument or evidence. Moreover, I have argued that if God in fact exists, then one could have properly basic knowledge of God. We are now getting to the point where we are picking up speed: at last the argument ...

  • "Can Christians call God 'Mother'?"

    September 24th, 200903:15 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Much of the controversy that has been stirred up by William Paul Young's bestselling novel The Shack relates to the depiction of God the Father as an African American woman and the Spirit as an Asian woman. With this daring innovation, Young introduced the evangelical church to a debate that has been going on for several decades in the mainline Chr...

  • Two ways to try to know what can be known

    September 23rd, 200903:18 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Of late we have made significant progress with Anatheist.net's concession that "you could conceivably know that 'God loves me' through some inner intuition..." though unfortunately the rest of the Peanut Gallery is not yet willing to concede that much. So let's take a step back to a crucial question burbling (or simmering) at the back of the stove...

  • I could be wrong. Therefore, I can't be right?

    September 22nd, 200911:04 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    As the crowd applauded thunderously Randal walked out on stage smiling. "Great performance by our atheists tonight. We've definitely had some lively discussion. And rest assured there is more to come. But for the mid-week intermission I have invited beetle496 to come on stage and deliver his final parting jab from the last thread as some food ...

  • "God loves me" and other things I know

    September 20th, 200910:30 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Albert believes "God loves me". Can this be properly basic for Albert? That is, can Albert know it is true apart from some additional evidence for it? Atheists find the claim ridiculous. Albert, they tend to believe, cannot rationally believe that God loves him apart from evidence, and certainly he cannot know it. Why not? What if there is a God? ...

  • How to show that "God loves me" is false

    September 19th, 200911:08 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In the ongoing discussion on the rationality, justification and knowledge status of Christian belief, one of my readers (gaga) claimed that Christian belief is subpar when compared to sense perception beliefs because the latter are falsifiable while the former are not. If you believe God loves you, there's no way to prove that wrong. Gaga then rep...

  • Can the Church beat Starbucks?

    September 18th, 200912:12 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    It used to be an easy decision. You go to church on Sunday mornings and save the coffee shop for Tuesday night small group. But things are not so clear anymore. Indeed, over the last several years the church and Starbucks have increasingly moved into each other's territory. And this leads to the question: will the church go the way of the UK's Coff...

  • Interpreting the Story of Life

    September 17th, 200901:21 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is a classic of American literature; that much is agreed upon. But is it a profound deconstruction of the ideology of war and hero-creation, or is it an inspiring depiction of the way that war forges cowardly boys into courageous men? Alas, on that question there is no agreement. Rather, there are literary c...

  • How to crack a nut: arguments against rationality in religion

    September 16th, 200904:52 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In my last epistemology post, "What does it mean to say religious beliefs are properly basic?", I proposed that religions beliefs could be properly basic in a way parallel to sense perception beliefs. (Not all religious beliefs would be of this kind mind you, but at least some could be.) This issue is a pivotal one since it is widely assumed by cr...

  • Health Care Reform, Intelligent Design, and Public Debate

    September 13th, 200901:16 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    What I find most interesting, and disturbing, about the current health care debate is the way that advocates of a public option in health care are marginalized with the accusation that they harbor a "socialist" or even "communist" agenda. Rhetorically it is very effective to call somebody a socialist, or to accuse them of having a "socialist ...

  • What does it mean to say religious beliefs are properly basic?

    September 11th, 200909:48 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In "Why 'Religious people are just nuts' is easier said than defended" I recounted a conversation with my good friend AnAtheist.Net who can be found online at, uh, AnAtheist.Net. On his website, in the "About" section, he writes "Faith is not a virtue but a failure in applying critical thinking." Sigh. I dealt with this old canard awhile ago by dem...

  • What the world needs now is … another NIV revision?

    September 10th, 200909:45 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    On September 1 Biblica and Zondervan announced that a revision of the NIV would be released in 2011, at which time the controversial TNIV (controversial at least to some religious conservatives) would no longer be sold. I for one was conflicted about this announcement and this for two reasons. First, I was one of those many (if less vocal) Christi...

  • When is a miracle a miracle?

    September 09th, 200902:49 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Here's how things went down. I said to my buddy beetle496: "are you saying there is an account of how non-directed processes produced the vast store of biological information in the DNA molecule? If so, can you provide a reference in the literature for that account?: beetle496 directed me to this website which was admirably brief: http://www....

  • Why "Religious people are just nuts" is easier said than defended

    September 07th, 200901:08 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Repeatedly in this blog I have stated my position that religious belief is properly basic, meaning that it is rational, justified and (if true) can constitute knowledge absent any defeaters. While I have thought I was getting through to my atheist readers, I have discovered recently that a number of them remain as perplexed by this supposition as e...

  • Design: The debate continues

    September 07th, 200912:49 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    The Facts: The human genome is a vast store of biological information encoded in a four letter alphabet. Like staggeringly complex assembly instructions for an incredibly sophisticated machine, DNA provides the blueprint of life, the assembly instructions for you and I. The Design Theorist's Question: We know what put you and I together. (It ...

  • Yes, even Nobel laureates can be irrational

    September 04th, 200911:19 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In my last post I pointed out that Susan_vD's charge that belief in God is irrational (simpliciter) sweeps up many highly intelligent people in its irrationality net, including theistic Nobel laureates. Hence the incredulity of my title, "Irrational Nobel Laureates? Really?" But actually there is nothing that shocking about Nobel laureates being i...

  • Irrational Nobel Laureates? Really?

    September 03rd, 200902:06 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    The Banff Springs Hotel (in Banff, Canada) has a great buffett overlooking Mt. Rundle. Every time I go there, I have that same giddy experience of a child surveying the pile of gifts on Christmas morn. Where to begin? Everything looks so tempting, and it all demands my immediate attention! So it is with this blog. Comments, questions, accusations ...

  • Why is it so hard to deconvert a "faith-head"?

    September 02nd, 200912:26 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Richard Dawkins has been accused of being a fundamentalist. He takes issue with the charge: "No, please, it is all too easy to mistake passion that can change its mind for fundamentalism, which never will." So Dawkins is not a fundamentalist because he remains open minded. Pardon me for being skeptical, but does anybody really believe that it is a...

  • DNA and Design

    September 01st, 200912:05 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    So now on to the second criterion that the peanut gallery has proposed to shoot down the conclusion that DNA was designed: it doesn't show any sign of fabrication. This depends on the "recognizable fabrication criterion" which I defined last time around as follows: (2) RFC: evidence in the object of fabrication (e.g. tool marks) So goes the reaso...
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About this blog
An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).