Apologetics is Easy!

 Apologetics is a defence of the faith. It is Christians reassuring themselves that their beliefs are true.

How do they do that? Simple:

  • Christianity is true (as all Christians agree)
  • Therefore Christianity is true

Hmm, looking... well a little circular. So dress it up!

  • Christianity is true (as all Christians agree)
  • Therefore the verses in the Bible are true
  • The Bible says this, this and this
  • Therefore some claim or another is true
  • Therefore Christianity is true

Hmm, still looks a little circular. Okay, we all agree Christianity is true (well, all Christians do) so skip the first two lines.

  • The Bible says this, this and this
  • Therefore some claim or another is true
  • Therefore Christianity is true

And that is all there is to it.

Of course, it is still circulate, but to a Christians it does not appear circular because they just "know" the unspoken assumptions are true. And if you dare to point out that their arguments are circular, they will just tell you it is up to you to disprove Christianity.

Some recent examples here and here (see also the comments in the second).


I recently came across some excerpts of an apologetics book by Gary Habermas. From it:

I have come to these issues from an intensely personal perspective. I questioned my own faith for ten straight years, then off and on for perhaps another five years. It got to the point where these matters were the predominant thoughts in my mind. They were the last thing I contemplated when I crawled, exhausted, into bed. They were the first items to greet me when I rose in the morning: ‘Where did I leave off the night before?’ I hated (This may still not be a strong enough term!) my doubts with every fiber of my being. I wondered if I would ever overcome them, or if it was even possible to do so.

There we have it. Christians hate doubt. This is why they do not look behind the facade. This is why they build the facade. Apologetics is not about finding the truth, it is about banishing those hateful doubts. The way to do that is to look at the facade, to glorify the facade, to re-inforce the facade.

And never look behind it; the truth might not be what you so desperately hope it to be.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Southern Baptist Convention Position on Abortion

Evangelical Christians in the US are very strongly anti-abortion. However, it was not always so. As recently as 1970 the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) - the largest Protestant denomination in the US - advocated for legalising abortion. A Complete Reversal The landmark law case in the US was Roe v. Wade, in 1973, and abortion has been legal since that time. Jane Roe was the pseudonym of the woman wanting the abortion; Henry Wade the district attorney who stood for the state, prohibiting it. Roe was represented by two attorneys; one was Linda Coffee, a member of the SBC. The Baptist Press interviewed her after the successful conclusion of the trial. The decision of Roe v Wade was generally regarded as a good one by the SBC. To evangelicals of that time abortion was seen as a Catholic issue. You can find a list of abortion-related resolutions made by the SBC from 1971 onwards  here . It is clear that in 1971 they saw abortion - quite reasonably - as undesirable, but it ...
Read more

Hinman's "Argument From Transcendental Signifier"

ETA (23/Jun/20): I have just heard Joe is in hospital. I wish him a speedy recovery. All the best, Joe. This is an argument for God that Joe Hinman has presented several times on various of his sites: http://www.doxa.ws/Ontological/TS2.html https://christiancadre.blogspot.com/2020/05/transcendental-signifier-argument.html http://religiousapriori.blogspot.com/2011/06/transcendental-signifier-argument.html http://metacrock.blogspot.com/2018/01/premises-4-7-ts-argumet.html The argument is a seven step syllogism: 1. Any rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe must of necessity presuppose organizing principles (Ops) 2. OP's summed up in TS 3. Modern Thought rejects TS outright or takes out all aspects of mind. 4. Therefore, Modern thought fails to provide a rational, coherent, and meaningful view of the universe. 5. minds organize and communicate meaning 6. Therefore universal mind, offers the best understanding of TS 7. Concept of God unites TS with universal m...
Read more

Kent Hovind: Third wife in three years?

Kent Hovind is, perhaps the very worst of the creationists, so it is with some interest I note that he is now on this third wife in three years. For many years he was married to Jo Hovind, who ended up going to prison for a year due to her involvement in tax fraud. Once Kent got released from his rather longer prison sentence, it was not long before Jo filed for divorce (early 2016) - possibly to distance himself from any further gaol sentences. A few months later, 24th Sptember 2016, and he married Mary Tocco - not a full marriage, but a covenant before God. It looks like she got various assurances that Kent's new business was entirely honest before she got married. However, she later cam to realise that that was not really the case, and, again to avoid ending up in prison , she left him in November 2017. http://kehvrlb.com/mary-tocco-on-leaving-kent-hovind Less than a year later and he has a new wife, Cindi Lincoln, a former friend of Mary's. It is not clear if they ...
Read more