I'm Co-Writing a Book With Dr. Randal Rauser

Nine months ago at Randal's initiation we finished a book proposal tentatively titled: God or Godless: One Atheist, One Christian, and Twenty Irreverent, Interesting, and Somewhat Informative Debates. In it we each propose ten topics for debate. This has been a slow process but we finally got a contract from Baker Book House, a major Christian publisher.

You can find Rauser's website and blog link right here. He describes his views as "progressively evangelical." What's that? ;-)

Here are my proposed topics that revolve around the problem of evil (taking aim at god's omnibenevolence, omniscience and omnipotence):

Who is this god and what did he command?

1) The biblical concept of god evolved from polytheism to monotheism.
2) The biblical god required human sacrifices for his pleasure.
3) The biblical god commanded genocide.

God does not care:

4) God does not care much about slaves.
5) God does not care much about women.
6) God does not care much about animals.

God is ignorant:

7) God is ignorant about science.
8) God is ignorant about the future

God is incompetent:

9) God is an incompetent creator.
10) God is an incompetent redeemer.

Randal's proposed ten topics (i.e., canards) are:

1) If there is no God then life has no meaning
2) If there is no God then everything is permitted.
3) Science is no substitute for religion
4) God is the best explanation of the whole shebang
5) If there is no God then we don’t know anything (the argument from reason)
6) Atheism spoils Valentine’s Day (Argument against naturalistic views of love)
7) Everybody has faith, so why not make yours a reasonable one?
8) The Hallelujah Chorus. Period. (Argument from beauty)
9) God best explains the miracles in people’s lives
10) Jesus was resurrected, so who else do you think raised him?

This is going to be a unique book, a very good one, and yes, I think I'm trashing him. ;-)

[Updated from a 12/23/10 post]

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