Apologetics - The Poached Egg

Midweek Apologetics Hit and Misc: Not an Option!

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Ten Reasons Good Christians Go Bad | Parchment and Pen

Why won’t God show Himself to the world? | The Christian Apologetics Alliance

Alister McGrath Interview Transcript - Apologetics 315

Training young people to develop a Christian mind is not optional | Think Christianly

Lee Strobel Exposes The God Delusion

Tom and Sara Gilson » Ratio Christi, and How God Has Led Us Here

In Man of Steel, Superman Is Pursued by Darwinian Bad Guys - Evolution News & Views

Greg Koukl debates Michael Shermer on God, atheism, meaning and morality

How to respond to postmodernism, relativism, subjectivism, pluralism and skepticism

Grayling’s New Book Is Hampered by an Embarrassment of Errors | The Christian Apologetics Alliance

Does God Change His Mind? by R.C. Sproul | Ligonier Ministries Blog

bethinking.org - What is Apologetics? - Chesterton the Apologist

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MIDWEEK RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES ROUNDUP:

Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul

The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind

The Gospel According to Isaiah 53: Encountering the Suffering Servant in Jewish and Christian Theology

The Case for Christ Study Bible: Investigating the Evidence for Belief

Christian Confidence: An Introduction to Defending the Faith

A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists

A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test

 

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No God, No Good or Evil

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No God, No Good or Evil

by Robin Schumacher

One of the logical arguments that William Lane Craig uses in debates with unbelievers is the following:

If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

Objective moral values and duties exist.

Therefore, God exists.

Skeptics generally counter the argument in one of two ways. First, some try and deny that objective moral values and duties exist. However, unless one doesn’t object to babies being tortured for fun or with children being sexually abused, this assertion dies a mercifully short death.

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Next, they will try and say you don’t need God to be good. In making this claim, they demonstrate a misunderstanding with the source and knowledge of moral values and duties. The moral argument for God has never claimed that atheists can’t be moral people or that they don’t know what’s right or wrong. Instead, the argument is that, without God, there is no grounding source for objective moral values and duties…

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No God, No Good or Evil | The Confident Christian

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test

God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible

 

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Why God is Necessary for Morality

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Why God is Necessary for Morality

by Al Serrato

“No,” my friend insisted, “Morality is just a social construct. It’s a product of ‘group-think,’ a way for the herd to govern itself. It’s just part of the way the mind works, and like the mind, it evolves with the passage of time.”

We had been discussing (here) whether the existence of morality was evidence tending to show the existence of a supreme law-giver, God. I argued that morality is a message, a set of instructions influencing us in how we should act, and that messages only come from intelligent sources. Since moral messages are coming to us from outside of our cultural or temporal setting, there must exist, somewhere, a source for these messages. He disagreed, arguing that such “messages,” if they exist at all, come ultimately from us.

“Slow down a second,” I said. “Let me grant part of what you say. I agree that some rules, some instructions as to how we should act, come from us. We develop social conventions that help us navigate situations in ways that are mutually productive, and each culture may view these customs differently. Looking someone in the eye when discussing a contentious issue might be a sign of respect in one culture but a grave insult in another. We obviously have to know these things if we want to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.”

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“Exactly,” he said, beginning to gloat that he had made his point.

“But,” I continued, “the issue here isn’t whether some rules are man-made. No, the question is whether there are any rules that don’t stem from us. Because, if there are, we’re back where we started, in need of an adequate explanation. So, even if I can identify only a handful, or perhaps even one, ‘message’ from an external source, my argument would retain its validity.”

“But you can’t,” my friend insisted. “It’s all just man-made.”

“I don’t think so,” I began. “What you’re not considering is the whole process by which we make moral decisions. It’s not simply learning rules of the road, or rules of behavior. Part of the ‘message’ that we’re receiving is that we really ought to act a certain way. We may disagree on what that way is, but we intuitively try to align ourselves with that ‘right way,’ all the while condemning others who view things differently, or who act differently. We want to not only do what we think is ‘right,’ but convince others of that as well. Why should that be so?”

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Why God is Necessary for Morality  | Please Convince Me

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith

On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

 

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Questioning the abortion worldview

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Questioning the abortion worldview

By Dave Sterrett

House Republicans, led by Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.) promoted legislation last week known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  HR 1797, as the legislation is formally known, would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion is not a comfortable subject for either the religious or nonreligious among us and two respected people, looking at identical information, often reach opposite opinions on the matter.  But with the debate over abortion rights again getting national attention after the trial and conviction of Dr. Kermit Gosnell for the killing of three babies who had already been born in his clinic, it is worth asking: Why is it that some people of faith are in favor of abortion rights, while other people of faith are against them? Similarly, why can two scientists who both agree about the same genetic information concerning a fetus come to two completely different conclusions regarding the ethics of abortion?

During the hearing of HR1797, Dr. Anthony Levatino, who claims to have completed 1,200 abortions before leaving the industry, testified in support of the legislation. Levatino, who has served on the faculty at the Albany Medical College, described performing a second trimester D&E abortion. He testified:

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“… The toughest part of a D&E abortion is extracting the baby’s head. The head of a baby that age is about the size of a large plum and is now free floating inside the uterine cavity. You can be pretty sure you have hold of it if the Sopher clamp is spread about as far as your fingers will allow. You will know you have it right when you crush down on the clamp and see white gelatinous material coming through the cervix. That was the baby’s brains. You can then extract the skull pieces. Many times a little face will come out and stare back at you.”

Dr. Curtis Boyd, a leading advocate for reproductive rights for women, claims to have provided thousands of abortions before the practice was legalized. He is credited with being the first physician to open a legal abortion clinic in Texas after the Supreme Court ruling on  Roe v. Wade and was involved in establishing the National Abortion Federation.

But Boyd sees not only a moral, but perhaps a spiritual mission to his work. Texas station KVUE interviewed Boyd  in 2009. Boyd said to the interviewer: “Am I killing? Yes, I am. I know that….I’m an ordained Baptist minister… And then I’ll ask that the spirit of this pregnancy be returned to God with love and with understanding.”

Another former abortion doctor now agrees with Levatino on the morality of abortion. Dr. Haywood Robinson, who serves on the admissions board of Texas A&M College of Medicine, claims that an experience at a Christian concert convinced him to eventually get out of the abortion industry…

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Questioning the abortion worldview

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

The Case for Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture

Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture

 

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Of Mermaids and God

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Of Mermaids and God

by Sarah Abbey

Awhile back I amused to see that the BBC had a news story entitled, No evidence of mermaids, say US government. According to the article, a broadcast on mermaids, which was a work of fiction, was mistaken as a documentary. This led to people questioning if mermaids actually existed, and the National Ocean Service stating, “No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” While mermaids have been a part of mythology across the centuries and in various cultures, they are nothing more than characters in ancient stories.

Of Mermaids and God

It hardly seems newsworthy to point out that there is no evidence of “aquatic humanoids.” Obviously they’re a work of fiction, a myth! Yet the more I thought about it the more I realized that this is the same way many people approach God’s existence – it’s outrageous. I can almost see an article saying, “No evidence of a Supernatural Being has ever been found.” He’s a myth that’s been passed down through the centuries. He’s just a character in an ancient story.

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But is this the case? Is there “no evidence of God?” Is the belief in God similar to the belief in a mythical aquatic humanoid?

Is There Evidence for God? Looking for the Clues

This question of God’s existence is critical for the Christian faith. If God does not exist, than Jesus was not God. And if Jesus was not God, then everything Christians believe about him, humanity, and the world is a lie. In the words of Tim Keller, How can we believe in Christianity if we don’t even know whether God exists?[1] Unlike the question about Mermaids, this is no laughing matter.

For all the assertions today that God does not exist, there is good evidence that says otherwise. There are strong clues, or “divine fingerprints,” which lead on to his existence[2] There are reasons to believe. Alister McGrath has said, “It can be affirmed with complete sincerity that belief in God is eminently reasonable and makes more sense of what we see in the world, discern in history, and experience in our lives than its alternatives.”[3] What are these clues? McGrath helpfully summarizes eight of those clues for us…

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Of Mermaids and God | Penny of a Thought

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

 

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Getting the Moral Argument Wrong - Again

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Getting the Moral Argument Wrong — Again

by Tom Gilson

Atheists are forever getting the moral argument wrong. A.C. Grayling, in The God Argument, says,

The argument that there can be no morality unless policed by a deity is refuted by the existence of good atheists. Arguably, non-theists count themselves among the most careful moral thinkers, because in the absence of an externally imposed morality they recognize the duty to examine their views, choices, and actions, and how they should behave towards others.

Begging a Question

There are multiple problems here. I'll note briefly that Grayling begs an important question. Atheists can indeed be very moral among other human beings, and I'm sure examples of this could be multiplied. But if there is a God, whom to love is the highest good, then there is no morally good atheist. This is the teaching of Scripture: see Romans 3, which also emphasizes that Christian theists' goodness is granted only by the grace of God.

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“We're Right: Just Ask Us”

Second, there's something odd about appealing to the way atheists think about themselves in support of the idea that their thinking is right. It sounds oddly like, “we're right: just ask us!” And the reasoning he offers for it fails to rescue it from that silliness. His “because” clause fails completely, for theists (a) do not believe in an externally imposed morality (that's a straw man), (b) theists also recognize their duty to examine their views, choices, actions, and behavior toward others, and (c) theists do so in view of a standard that is pure love, holiness, justice, and goodness.

I recognize that Grayling tempered that statement with “arguably,” so I'll grant that he didn't stake everything on it. That's the counter-argument, or at least a brief beginning to it. It seems to me it undermines his “arguably” quite severely.

Getting the Whole Point Of It Wrong

But where I really want to focus is on his misunderstanding of the moral argument: “there can be no morality unless policed by a deity.” I wonder where he got that from. Theists (many of us) actually believe that without God there can be no objective morality — not because morality requires a police function…

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Getting the Moral Argument Wrong — Again - Thinking Christian

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

The Magic Man in the Sky: Effectively Defending the Christian Faith

A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists

 

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The Death of Words

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The Death of Words

by Josh Fults

Have you ever paused to consider the importance of words? We take them for granted, don’t we? Thousands of words pour out of our mouths on a daily basis. Sometimes they are well crafted and seasoned, while other times they are impulsive and frivolous. The use of language plays an immensely important role in our daily lives.

Language flows out from God. The world was brought into existence by divine fiat through the spoken word of God.  The Genesis account repeatedly says, “Then God said.” Whatever God spoke came springing into existence. John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Later, the Word, the second member of the Trinity, would become flesh and walk among us. The Good News itself is communicated to us through language. Words are the vehicle for understanding and communicating truth.

Yet, in our postmodern times, the deconstruction of language is one of the greatest ways that truth, good, and morality have come under attack. In fact, the dismantling of language is the hallmark of the postmodern worldview. We are told truth can’t be known and words carry no meaning. Mankind has used language in attempt to eradicate God, personal moral culpability, and attain autonomy and sovereignty over his own life.

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Think about the ways language is twisted, distorted, and mutilated in attempt to redefine morality. Think about the ways people use language as a means to mask their agenda and motives. Hitler was a very skilled lingual craftsman. Government has used language as a tool for manipulating people throughout history.  For example, taxes are redefined as “sacrifice” and health care a “universal crisis.” Hitler redefined murder as “ethnic cleansing” and it was justified as being a “health issue” for the rest of mankind. Words are powerful and they help define the way we think about ideas.

What about morality? The twisting of words is commonplace here. Suicide has become “death with dignity.” Murder is simply “a woman’s right to autonomy” or “terminating a pregnancy.” Prostitutes are “sex care providers”. Homosexuality is “an alternative lifestyle” or “being true to who one is.” Pornography is labeled as “adult entertainment” or is said to be “provocative.” Sex outside of marriage is always called “an act of love.” My, how language can be sanitized to mask mankind’s moral transgressions. We have become good at twisted words…

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Walk Good » Apologetic Wednesday: The Death of Words

 

RECOMMENDED APOLOGETICS RESOURCES FOR FURTHER READING:

Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning

 

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