Post tagged with knowledge

  • How should we interpret the religious skepticism of elite scientists?

    September 19th, 201105:43 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    There have been many surveys of the religious belief (or lack thereof) of scientists. While certain factors vary, the overall pattern is strikingly consistent: scientists on the whole are less likely to be religious than the general population. And elite scientists (e.g. members of the NAS or Royal Society; nobel laureates, etc.) are less likely to...

  • From Jerusalem to Salem: A Conversation with Matt McCormick

    September 06th, 201111:05 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    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! Now down to business. Matt has not ...

  • Dawkins’ infinite regress and why it really matters

    May 23rd, 201110:13 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Over the last several days I have launched several important charges against Richard Dawkins' letter to his daughter . These critiques have been, for the most part, simply ignored by the many enthusiasic Dawkins apologists who have lept to his defense this week. So I am going to slow right down and lay out a fundamental critique more fully. I will...

  • I have an interstellar spacecraft in my basement. Come take a look!

    September 06th, 201012:44 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Let’s talk about testimony some more in dialogue with Silver Bullet. In a recent comment SB quotes little ole’ me as I observe: “So it is testimony that wears the trousers (to be politically incorrect) and it is through testimony that we can gain all sorts of properly basic beliefs ... Absent defeaters we are justified in holding those belie...

  • The Tentative Apologist Reader on Faith and Reason

    June 28th, 201005:21 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
     Sorceror: "Rauser, please link to specific articles where you make the case for "the Bible is the Word of God" being 'properly basic' or the equivalent." Glad to oblige. Here are most of the relevant posts where I provide a particular moderate foundationalist theory of epistemology and then apply it to religious beliefs. I would r...

  • The burden of the critic

    June 28th, 201003:16 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    I feel as overwhelmed at the moment as Justin Bieber staring at his in-box. If I try to respond to every critic then this whole dialogue is going to grind to a halt because there just ain't enough hours in the day. So instead of engaging with any specific critic at this point I'll simply provide a concise summary and partial restatement of my epis...

  • Van Gogh and God, or How to redeem Babinski

    June 23rd, 201007:38 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    In this post we're going to focus on a comment from Silver Bullet in which SB attempts to redeem Ed Babinski's argument. So without further adieu, here's Silver Bullet: If I produced a series of paintings and was able to trace them with certainty to Paris from the 1880's, and I wanted to sell them to you as original Van Goghs though they were all ...

  • Everyone’s irrational; therefore Christians are irrational (On “The Christian Delusion” Part 6)

    June 11th, 201011:47 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    We now turn to the second chapter of The Christian Delusion, Valerie Tarico's "Christian Belief through the lens of cognitive science," 47-64. The first thing to note is that Tarico is not addressing the question of whether Christianity is true. Rather, what she intends to address is whether it is rational or justified to believe: "Why is Christi...

  • The atheist that left me at a loss for words

    February 12th, 201011:44 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Time and again in this blog we have circled back to the questions of rationality, belief and knowledge. Over that time I have been honored to have a number of atheists visiting my parlor (a noun which has a warmer resonance than "my blog") to debate these issues. A number of them, locked in a certain set of categories about belief, rationality, and...

  • Can Jesus make a better Caesar salad than my wife?

    January 12th, 201002:02 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Yesterday I was at the dinner table with my wife and daughter Jamie eating a tasty meal. As I crunched the crispy romaine lettuce dressed with croutons, parmesan cheese, lemon juice and the rest, I exclaimed to Jamie, "Nobody can make a better Caesar salad than your mom!" to which she replied: "Jesus can!" Well I admit, according to Christian...
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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).