Post tagged with science

  • Worldviews: A Conversation with Barry

    October 10th, 201111:13 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    I have enjoyed having a convesation with Barry Bowen about the concept of worldview. Unfortunately extended comments in the threads at the Christian Post are very hard to follow since paragraph breaks are not allowed and thus everything gets mashed together. So I have reproduced my response to Barry here:  Barry: "if Christian convi...

  • Should you marry your theology to the latest science?

    September 30th, 201112:49 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    I've been slowly reading through Michael Shermer's How We Believe in my spare time. It is a pleasant enough read, but has many noticeable weaknesses. Perhaps the biggest weakness is that Shermer is an advocate of the separation or two worlds model of theology and science (what Stephen Jay Gould called the "NOMA" or non-overlapping magisteria approa...

  • 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...

  • The End of Christianity? A Skeptical Review (Part 12)

    September 13th, 201101:20 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    I was not very kind to David Eller's first contribution to The End of Christianity. I shall continue my curmudgeonly ways as I review his second contribution, an essay titled "Is Religion Compatible with Science?" I shall begin my complaints with the topic. Why "religion"? Why not focus on Christianity and argue for the incompatibility of Christia...

  • The tortured attempts to avoid intelligent design continue

    July 21st, 201112:07 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Back to intelligent design for a bit. In my article "Intelligent Design, Unknown Intelligence, and a Ouija Board" I critiqued several of Joseph H. Axell's claims culminating in his assertion that you cannot invoke intelligence as an explanation unless you have an account of the intelligence. Axell posted a long response on July 10. Other commitment...

  • Why denying intelligent design borders on insanity

    July 02nd, 201111:41 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Earlier this week I challenged The Atheist Missionary's rejection of intelligent design and thus his position that it is illegitimate to make intelligent design inferences. I did so by posing the following scenario: The Atheist Missionary returns home on his birthday to see several dozen balloons taped to the side of his house forming a huge welcom...

  • Apologetic Pigs, Answered Prayers, and other Miscellanies

    July 10th, 201012:11 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Before I got sidetracked on my summer reading challenge I was discussing synchronicity and specifically the question "Does meticulously-tuned evil count as a defeater for meticulously-tuned good?" (That itself was a side track off of the review of The Christian Delusion.) While I need to get back to CD, it ain't gonna happen in the next week. You s...

  • How (not) to shave with Ockham's razor

    May 10th, 201012:10 AM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    It all started when one of my readers, EssEff, made the astounding statement: "You don't need a reason not to believe in something, you only need a reason to believe...." I pointed out the absurdity of this statement by giving the example of an individual who doesn't believe in the existence of London, and that started a tortured process of princip...

  • Mysteries for Poets and Skeptics

    April 15th, 201002:20 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    A partial response to the thread of "Do you go to hell for having the wrong theory of atonement?" AnAtheist.Net enjoys watching theologians continue to dispute a theology of atonement after two millennia: "This seems like something that God could have clarified from day one. I wonder if He gets a certain amount of pleasure (as much as I do) ...

  • Why Ms. B doesn’t think we need a historical Adam (Part 1)

    March 08th, 201001:48 PM ET
    By Randal Rauser
    Here, dear reader, continues the conversation of Mr. A and Ms. B from "Why Mr. A believes we need a historical Adam" Ms. B: Here's your rooibos tea Mr. A. Mr. A: Thank you, Ms. B. You're very kind. Now, you were going to explain why you think the Christian doesn't need a historical Adam. Ms. B: Yes, down to business. Are you familiar with the co...
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An exploration of faith, knowledge, reason and doubt (with the occasional trite pop culture reference thrown in for good measure).