prayer :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with prayer

Does God answer prayers for parking spaces at the Pottery Barn?

September 16th, 201104:24 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Right now a prayer is being offered up by a desperate mother somewhere at a camp in Somalia. Her severely malnourished child is suffering from severe diarrhea and vomiting. She has been told by one of the men that these are signs of cholera. Her child is dying in her arms and she can do nothing. Her prayer is desperate and anguished. If God hears ...
Divine Action and St. Tom's Starving Orphanage

July 04th, 201005:35 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Sadly, I don't find the responses to the last post on miraculous synchronous events really addressing the question at issue, that is, the question of whether (or rather, when) it is warranted to infer divine action based on the experience of synchronous events. So let me simplify matters with a case which will help us fine-tune the ground for...
Does God speak today? A Case Study

December 02nd, 200908:39 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Over the years I have spent much time studying the epistemic status of religious belief. Certain religious beliefs are wholly subjective (i.e. bereft of immediately veridical elements). Such is the case with a belief like "God loves me". From a philosophical perspective, cases that are at least modestly veridical, (e.g. which involve the commu...
Are answered prayers evidence for a providential God?

November 20th, 200909:25 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Skeptics frequently complain at the lack of evidence for miraculous divine intervention in the world today. Philosophers of religion call this the problem of divine hiddenness: if there is a God then why is there not better evidence for him? Why does he so often seem to be hidden? Petitionary prayer is one example. Christians believe in a God ...
An atheist, a scientist, and a God who answers prayer

August 13th, 200908:05 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Is there a God who answers prayer? A number of my vocal critics find this an implausible, absurd and perhaps even offensive supposition. The reasons why are more than one blog post can cover, but we can at least make a start here. One problem is that the claim "there is a God who answers prayer" seems to be falsified by the data. How so? Beca...
The Peril of Praying to the Trinity

June 14th, 200912:03 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

This Sunday well meaning pastors and congregants across North America will make unintended blunders into heresy by praying things like this: "Heavenly Father, we thank you for dying for us"; "Lord Jesus, we thank you for being such a loving Father." Prayers like this, while no doubt prayed with good intention, evince a deep confusion about the God ...
Faith, doubt, and the day I should have died

April 25th, 200911:20 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

I don't like asking difficult questions of my faith. It is painful, exhausting, and often disorienting. And yet that is what I often find myself doing. I am often drawn (or driven?) to ask the questions that others would rather gloss over. One example of this is found in my last post concerning divinely mandated genocide. Too many Christians would ...

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An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).