The Case Against Universalism | Responding to @Randal_Rauser

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Is universalism a sound philosophical position or just comforting wishful thinking? In this video, I respond to Randal Rauser’s philosophical argument for Christian universalism, breaking it down premise by premise. I explore whether God's nature truly requires the salvation of all souls and what that means for concepts like hell, annihilation, and divine justice. If you're questioning universal salvation, the problem of evil, or the logic behind the “greatest possible being,” this is a must-watch critique.

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Chapters:
0:00 Randal Rauser
2:02 The Argument
4:58 Premis 1
7:50 Premise 2
14:37 Premise 3
20:17 Conclusion
23:45 Final Thoughts
24:38 Patron Thanks

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#randalrauser #universalism #universalreconciliation #atheist #mindshift #atheism #exchristian #christiandeconstruction #deconstructionhelp #counterapologetics

[MindShift-Brandon]

Many believers seem to treat Universalism as a kind of get-out-of-Hell-free card...an escape from the otherwise troubling doctrines of Hell and/or Annihilation. In this video, I explain why, to me, it comes across more as wishful thinking than solid philosophy. I also just noticed that Randal posted a second video on the topic yesterday. I haven’t seen that one yet. This is a response to his original video from two days ago.

Lastly, I should have laid out a working definition for Universalism at the start. Simply put, Universalism is the belief that all people will ultimately be saved or reconciled to God, regardless of their beliefs or actions in this life.

This is not at all related to the Unitarian Universalist Church

[karenlankford]

The best thing about universalists is that they do not believe that they have to convince others of their beliefs in order to save them from hell. They must leave us nonbelievers alone.

[leotheberserker]

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not one to comment a lot as I see most youtube videos on the tv, but I just had to say that this is one hell of a good community!

Every time I open the comments there's people wishing others a great day and always talking with respect to the subject at hand...

You should be proud of this, Brandon. Awesome people attract other awesome people!

[niddy-.]

Even though it is a hard sell for Randal to pitch orthodoxy, I do highly respect him for ABSOLUTELY ROASTING Turek and that ilk on Christian Nationalism. We do need him to keep up that great work.

[AndrewChristiansen-rxmx]

I hope that you are able to sit down and talk with Randal Rauser one-on-one.

[louisbarrow]

There was a preacher named Bishop Carlton Pearson. He grew up in the same denomination I did, the Church of God in Christ, but when he started his church, he started it as an independent church.

At first, he preached fire and brimstone and that one goes to hell if you don't believe in Jesus as he would have been taught in the Church of God in Christ.

Then, one day, he says that the Holy Ghost spoke to him and told him that no one is going to hell and everyone is saved.

Needless to say, when he started preaching this, lots of his church members left and his church closed down. He had one of the largest churches in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And he was ex communicated by many of his fellow bishops and pastors as a heretic.

There's actually a movie on Netflix about Carlton Pearson that came out in 2017 or 2018 called Come Sunday.

[michaelsbeverly]

I interviewed him, he's a charming person and smart.
I still struggle with whether the "good" and "nice" Christians are helpful or actually worse for the world because they prop up the evil ones.
I'm leaning towards the latter...

[johnalexir]

Randal Rauser is a major cut above most apologists; I've seen enough of his videos to recognize that he has a heart, progressive ideas, is a careful researcher, and as you mention, he openly (but fairly) criticizes other apologists like Turek. It would be great if more of them were in this mold. (I've been trying for years to find the maximally great existing pizza 🙂)

[AdamKlownzinger]

Tuesdays are always made better by your videos and all the regulars I always see here

[JamesRichardWiley]

I find it comforting to my atheism that Christians that don't agree over the true meaning God's Holy Word are guided by the Holy Spirit.

[ZenWithKen]

As my eight grade math teacher once said, I don't care if you know the right answer, you must demonstrate to me that it is the correct answer.

[hatsoptional]

Another great discussion. Because you probably don’t look at comments of old videos I just want to let you that I came across your ‘We Are All We Have’ video yesterday. It was absolutely fantastic. I’ve watched a ton of your content and I could say we are very like-minded. This was just so very well articulated. I was blown away.

I just I just watched it for about the fourth time. You even did a good job with the graphics. Where do you get those from?

Thanks so much for all your content. I’ve gone through the whole secular Bible playlist and much of your other content since discovering your channel.

[BluStarGalaxy]

What a choice. Either an individual is eternally separated from their abuser and is tortured 24/7 or they are reconciled with their abuser regardless of their own wishes and forced to worship that person for all eternity.

[mvpd]

This has become my favorite atheist channel. Your voice is so calming and reassuring so even if I end up burning in hell at least youll be there to calm me down. All jokes aside, I enjoy your views and the thought process used to logic yourself to your conclusions.

[Hexsmasher]

Happy Tuesday Brandon!

Good luck on the content to inspire people to think critically

[blasphemeewe]

I have a great love for Universalists, I can't think of anyone that I've met that I did not absolutely love as a person. I don't have to agree with you on religion to love you as a person. I think on a practical level we value happiness, and share a belief that the best way to be happy is to share happiness. Their Christianity is at least from my perspective, more Charles Dickens and less Apostle Paul, and I love that about them.

[ziploc]

As you illustrate, premise 1 is flawed, the idea that humans can't conceive of non-existent things.
The presence in fantasy of werewolves, vampires, zombies, unicorns etc. demonstrates that we have a powerful creative imagination.
I just imagined a mountain of hot buttered scones, with jam and clotted cream, but I'm not silly enough to believe it must therefore exist.

[AdamKlownzinger]

The problem with universalists for me is the same problem I have with any flavor of liberal Christian, which is that at the end of the day they still hold the Bible as to some extent and whatever form it takes, the inspired word of God, which if that is the case, it always leaves the door open (and in my opinion will always lead back) to fundamentalists, who if they’re in a contest with the liberal Christians on who loves Jesus and Yahweh more and best embodies what they want, are going to win out.

Why not just ditch the religion so broken that it requires liberalization to begin with? Isn’t your need to liberalize Christianity indicative of how far your morality has progressed past theirs?

[rodysuazo]

So glad to see this. I've been watching a few videos from Randall lately. YouTube randomly suggested me one of his videos and I am hook since then, he's the most honest apologist I can think of; that right there puts him in a completely different category. It seems to me that he's on his way to become an atheist but I will never tell him that cuz I will scare him away, back to the dark side.

[JesseMeijer]

You had me at 'Maximally Great Pizza'!