religion :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with religion

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 ...
“The Unanimous Consensus of Rational People”: On “The Christian Delusion” (Part 7)

June 13th, 201008:58 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Jason Long, "The Malleability of the Human Mind," 65-80. All right my clear thinking little skeptics, gather close now. Today we are going to hear about those crazy religious people who are indoctrinated. You need to be careful of them my darling little skeptics! "Tell us more teacher!" Oh yes little Johnny, I will. As our trusted authority...
Those Cunning Christians: On "The Christian Delusion" (Part 5)

June 10th, 201009:49 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

The first section of The Christian Delusion is ominously titled "Why Faith Fails." One might expect then to find in the first essay of this section an argument illustrating to the reader why faith fails. But alas, the argument in David Eller's essay "The Cultures of Christianity" seems to have gone missing.Let's begin with the first couple sentence...
Atheists are smart and theists are stoopid, right?

February 15th, 201011:31 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

In my last post I made the point that atheists can evince indoctrinational elements in their thinking as surely as anybody else. Indeed, the myth of the "free thinking" atheist can sometimes make them more liable to this danger. The primary evidence of indoctrination is found in dependence upon untenable binary oppositions between good and bad, rig...
Does religion lead to bad parenting?

October 30th, 200904:07 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

The Case A ten year old girl from Perth Australia named Tamar is diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. According to the hospital, she has a 50-60% chance of survival if she submits to a seven week course of chemotherapy and no chance of survival without it. The parents refuse the treatment for their daughter, opting instead for "natural" cures. As...
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 ...
Bill Maher's Alan Smithee Film

August 25th, 200910:09 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

An Alan Smithee film is one in which the director adopts the pseudonym "Alan Smithee" because he/she is so dissatisfied with the final product. There is one thing worse than coming to recognize that you have made an Alan Smithee worthy film, and that is failing to recognize that you did. I thought of that as I recently watched director Larry Charl...
What are those wackos teaching their kids?

August 17th, 200901:07 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Many skeptics today assume that the religious believer who teaches his religion to his children is guilty of a form of cognitive child abuse. For a great example of this reasoning consider the opening of the essay "Viruses of the Mind" where Richard Dawkins describes how he managed to preempt the mental abuse of his own daughter: "I have just disco...

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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).