revelation :: The Tentative Apologist

Post tagged with revelation

What was in Jesus’ hand? Lessons on why you can’t take the Bible literally word for word

October 04th, 201112:55 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

According to a 2007 Gallup survey "About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word." Now let's think about this. Would you please open your Bibles to Revelation 1:14-16: *ahem* "His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like...
The Edsel of Christianity?

August 17th, 201107:25 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

I have now completed Part II of The End of Christianity, a section which aimed through the essays of Hector Avalos, Jaco Gericke and Valerie Tarico, to establish on biblical grounds why Christianity needs to end. At this point I'd like to take a look back at the section by identifying a set of assumptions that appear to lie behind the three essays ...
The Tentative Apologist's Christmas-in-August Variety Show

August 25th, 201011:21 AM ET

By Randal Rauser

Andy Williams has just finished singing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” “And now,” The Tentative Apologist grins, “the most wonderful time of the show.” As he reclines in front of the fireplace wearing a bright red sweater with reindeer TA pulls out the ever present full-to-overflowing mailbag: First up TA pulls out a mi...
The Tentative Apologist digs into his fan mail ... and comes up with Dostoyevsky

August 18th, 201002:59 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Okay, I guess I’ll have to scrap my short-lived one-article, one-post policy. Once again I’ll wade into the mail bag and answer some of the missives from my legions of adoring fans on the topic of Tobin’s abject failure to present anything like a case against biblical inspiration. Ken Pulliam, ever the model of cool scholarly engagement (in ...
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...
On Babinski's Evidential Burden: Lessons from the Tentative Atheist

June 26th, 201010:48 PM ET

By Randal Rauser

Hey, I'm on my way out for the evening but before I go I thought I would do a Thomas the Tank Engine and get some of you troublesome trucks back on the right track. Here's the problem. Now I'm being asked: "Gimme gimme gimme some evidence to believe the bible is divine revelation!" That's a nice request for another day, but alas it diverts us fro...
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 ...

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