In part 1, I talked about how skeptics and atheists often complain when I (or another apologist) make the comment that such-and-so Christian is wrong. The skeptic usually says it means I have found “True Christianity™” and every other Christian who disagrees is going to go to hell. In part 2, I discussed degrees of wrong, using a traffic light as a guide. Green light is 99% … [Read more...]
Does truth exist and is it knowable? – Pt.3
Part 1 Part 2 (pt.3 of 4) Does Truth exist? Even if it does, can we know it? Are we in the dark epistemologically like Immanuel Kant said that we are? Should we be intellectual skeptics as David Hume told us we should be? To address these and many other questions, here is Lesson #3 of our "Reason To Believe" Video Apologetics Class. Here we will begin to discuss the all … [Read more...]
How to Share the Gospel with Buddhists
This approach can be used for sharing the Gospel with anyone, making necessary alterations to match their worldview. One of the simplest ways to share the gospel with Buddhists is to first ask them to share what they believe about God, sin, salvation, etc., i.e their worldview, and then employ active listening, questioning etc to engage them and finally share the gospel with … [Read more...]
Evaluating Buddhism – 1. Introduction to Buddhism
Buddhism is a major world religion practiced in it’s various forms mainly in the orient . It is a non-theistic, humanistic religion. According to the buddhanet website, the global population of Buddhists numbers around 350 million. Buddhism originated in India, but spread to other countries where it became dominant, while becoming almost extinct in India. With Richard Gere, … [Read more...]
Life of Pi: Believing in Everything
"Why not believe in whatever?" - Yann Martel Life of Pi recounts the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, mercifully known as Pi. As a boy, Pi’s mother raises him as a Hindu. When he is fourteen, he begins to follow the teachings of Christianity and then of Islam, believing them all capable of teaching him something important about God. So, Hindu/Christian/Muslim. His father, a … [Read more...]
Important Words for Postmodern Apologetics
We are living in a decidedly postmodern age. This does not mean the fundamentals of our faith must change to please culture, but it does mean that unless Christians change the way we communicate the unchanging Gospel, our mission to reach the lost will fail. D. Rodriguez makes this same point in his recent critique of Brian McLaren’s book, "A New Kind of Christian" To … [Read more...]
…But I Know Something You Don't Know
As an apologist, I often dialogue with non-believers on the evidence for the philosophical, historical, and scientific veracity of the Christian faith. While I have the utmost confidence in the various lines of evidence that beautifully converge to support the case, the most important and persuasive evidence is, by its very nature, inaccessible to the non-believer. It is … [Read more...]
The Euthyphro Dilemma
The Euthyphro Dilemma is designed to explore the relationship between God and morality. The dilemma is found in Plato’s Euthyphro dialogue. It consists of an exchange between Socrates and a young man called Euthyphro, from whom the dilemma gets its name. When applied to an Abrahamic conception of God it asks “Is something good because God commands it? Or does God command … [Read more...]
"A New Kind of Christian" Critique – Final
Part 1 - Part 2 Although the Bible is not a philosophy book, it does presuppose some ideas about truth which fit foundationalism better than postmodern epistemology. Passage after passage are clear that truth is what corresponds to reality, rather than making truth relative to a linguistic community. Here is a minor sampling: … [Read more...]
Postmodernism, Relativism, and Truth
[This post is a work in progress as part of the CAA Catechism.] [Add the title only in the title field, not in the body of the post.] Summary in 400 words or less: With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the former Soviet Republics fragmenting from the former Soviet Union, and to some degree, science not being able to answer every question in life, in the late 1980’s and early … [Read more...]