John Loftus :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with John Loftus

Properly read, the Bible should make you … an atheist?

August 23rd, 201001:13 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

So our review of The Christian Delusion continues in fits and starts (though mostly in fits). This time I set out to review John Loftus’s essay “What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to Communicate” (a phrase I first encountered not in “Cool Hand Luke” but in Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Civil War”) but I only got as far as the second sentenc...
The Christian Delusion, Paul Tobin, reasoned faith and inspiration

August 15th, 201009:52 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

It's been awhile since I blogged with any regularity and even longer since I last reviewed an essay from John Loftus' edited volume The Christian Delusion. But I'm going to finish what I started here, although I'm going to take the pace up a notch from earlier reviews. From now on each essay gets only one blog post. Sorry folks, but that's the way ...
A summer reading challenge to my readers

July 06th, 201007:21 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

I'm presently on vacation and will be so for a month. Vacation is the time to write furiously (I am trying to complete the mauscript for The Post-Apocalyptic Apologist by the end of the month), blog furiously (or at least moderately) and read furiously (or thereabouts). I was in a used bookshop today and I picked up a mint copy of Robert Wright's ...
Why the Outsider Test had better go big or go home

June 19th, 201009:58 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

I have been arguing that John Loftus's outsider test for faith (the claim that people who adhere to a religion are obliged to take a critical test in which they view their faith as an outsider, and if they do they will *see* that it is false) has some pretty serious weaknesses. Here is a recap as well as a note on why John's continued attempt ...
The Outsider Test for Politics Comes Alive! (just like Peter Frampton)

June 18th, 201011:40 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Yesterday I presented my Outsider Test for Politics and I am not surprised to have met resistance. To start things off, John Loftus treated it like a big joke! He says "You are just way too funny, I like it." Yeah, they laughed at Columbus too buddy. Next, Loftus says "The anarchist is making a political affirmative claim. He's claiming the best p...
The Outsider Test for Politics

June 17th, 201009:57 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

As y'all know, I have been having the ole' back and forth with John Loftus over his "Outsider Test for Faith". According to this test, people of faith need to approach their faith as an outsider,that is, as if they were not an adherent of it. If they do so, John Loftus confidently asserts, then they will necessarily come to agree with him that all ...
Outsider test for faith or truth seeker for life

June 16th, 201009:33 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

I've been having a go around, or a brouhaha, or maybe a hubbub, with atheist John Loftus concerning his "outsider test of faith" in his book The Christian Delusion. This is a challenge he poses to people who are committed to a religion and it seems to function a bit like a hazing ritual to get admitted to the frat house. It has bothered ...
Faith or skepticism? On "The Christian Delusion" (Part 8)

June 15th, 201012:29 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

John Loftus, "The Outsider Test of Faith Revisited," 81-106. John Loftus is well known for his "outsider test for faith" which is featured in his book Why I Became an Atheist. It is a challenge to people who hold to religious faith of whatever sort to approach their beliefs with the objective, critical distance of an outsider. Loftus wants be...
Christian flip-flopping? On "The Christian Delusion" (Part 4)

June 06th, 201011:03 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Reading John Loftus's introduction to The Christian Delusion I felt a bit like a democrat hiding out at the Republican National Convention. There I sit, wedged in between a Texas cowboy and a suburban soccer mom. But while the crowd around me is whooping it up in a frenzy, I find myself taking issue with the speakers: "That's just rhetoric." I grum...
Chameleon Christianity? On "The Christian Delusion" (Part 3)

June 02nd, 201011:42 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Back in 84' George Michael and "Culture Club" were a guilty pleasure. If nobody was around, you could crank their number 1 hit "Karma Chameleon". But if you saw your friends coming you only had seconds to swap the cassette with Van Halen or face the ignominy of being caught listening to the androgynous ambassador of British New Wave. Fast-for...

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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).