Introduction Over the years I have spoken to several people from a variety of backgrounds about the Christian faith. When we started a Ratio Christi apologetics chapter on The Ohio State University in the Fall of 2009, I had been talking to college students about spiritual beliefs for several years. It was during this experience that I began to see the need for a stronger … [Read more...]
Positive and Negative Arguments
I briefly touched this topic in my post "Is Consistency Important?". Today, I want to expand it a bit more. A Positive Argument is an argument for your particular position. A Negative Argument is an argument against an opposing position. It seems like everywhere I go, people want to point out what's wrong with the opposition's arguments. It does not matter if we are talking … [Read more...]
What Nehemiah can tell us about apologetics in the church
I have heard that there are those in the church who do not feel that apologetics should be part of the discipleship process for believers. While I find it hard to believe that anyone would articulate such a position, I must admit that for a large part of my Christian experience, there was very little content that taught me how to answer the questions that arise from those who … [Read more...]
The Search For Truth — Agnosticism
To build an Incarnational Apologetic capable of reaching the post-modern person, it is important to understand four basic approaches in the search for truth. Rationalism Agnosticism Experientialism Pragmatism In my previous post, I outlined Rationalism. In this video post, I want to focus on Agnosticism which is defined as follows: … [Read more...]
Yes, You Do Have Time to do Apologetics
Whenever I was in graduate school studying for my M.A. in Science and Religion, I was often the recipient of wide-eyed stares and exclamations of, "How on earth do you have enough hours in the day?!" After all, I was running a household, homeschooling two elementary-age boys, teaching intermittently at church, and nurturing my marriage all while working on a graduate degree. … [Read more...]
My Advice to Apologists: Part 2
My first piece of advice to apologists concerned the idea of being an unwavering disciple of Jesus Christ. This article will focus on the conduit for attaining and maintaining this status. That conduit is a local church. Now, I do not mean that every local church does everything correctly, or that somehow merely being a member of one will make things easier. Rather, I am … [Read more...]
My Advice to Apologists, Part 1
My advice to apologists is not meant to be all-inclusive, and it is not meant to be authoritative (on the level of William Lane Craig or Alvin Plantinga). Rather, it will simply be a collection of my observations and beliefs about some issues facing young, Christian apologists. Too often, we rush headlong into the project of apologetics without thinking some things … [Read more...]
Omnipotent God and The Paradox of the Stone
The concept of an omnipotent being, namely a being with maximal perfection with respect to power, is sometimes believed to involve a contradiction. The most popular reductio ad absurdum case against the existence of omnipotent being is known as “the paradox of the stone.” The paradox unfolds as follows: 1. If God exists, then He is omnipotent 2. If God is omnipotent then God … [Read more...]
Could atheism be a properly basic belief?
Could people have a properly basic belief that God does not exist so that they do not need any other arguments or evidence for that belief in order to be justified in holding it? A recent conversation reminded me of what is now a rather old argument in relation to the question of belief in God (old in terms of twentieth century arguments anyway). Essentially, the issue was … [Read more...]
Dualistic Versus Holistic Logic?
While on Facebook recently, I came across a picture that claimed to be outlining the differences between "Linear Thinking" (also known as "dualistic logic") and "Systems Thinking (aka "holistic logic"). It was presented from the perspective of approaches to teaching. The overall message of this particular Facebook page was that our educational systems should take a holistic … [Read more...]