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Apologetics
1. Questions about 'Thinking in the 21st
Century'
(Introductory
Thoughts)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
the nature
and purpose of this page
1.
What are Apologetics?
•
making a
defence for your faith.
2.
Why do some people prefer Experience over Reason?
•
the 'post-modern
effect'
3.
What has been the Outworking of this?
•
beliefs and
biases from thoughtlessness
4.
How has Thoughtlessness been a further fruit?
•
people who
don't think it through
5.
How is Atheistic Bad Thinking Seen?
•
bad ways
of thinking
6.
What does it take to be a Genuine Thinker?
• people
who don't think it through
7.
What Credibility has the author of these pages?
• the
author's experience
8.
What Books are there to help us?
• two
'must-have' books
Questions
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On
these pages we will use note-form and bullet points to make
for easier
reading and note taking. We will
also write in 'blocks' for visual ease. Ensure you understand
all that is being said in each block before you move down the
page.
These
pages are for Christians who wish to under-gird their faith
by knowledge, or non-Christian seekers who may wish to know
if the Christian faith has foundations that are credible.
This
particular page is purely introductory, seeking to nudge us
to become those who will think about their Faith or the possibility
of faith.
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Apologetics
doesn't mean 'to apologise'. It means to give a defence  of
what one believes to be true.
The
apostle Peter wrote: “Always
be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give
the reason for the hope that you have.”
(1 Pet 3:15). Apologetics
is all about giving answers – and we have plenty to give!
The
apostle Paul spoke about, “defending
and confirming the gospel,” (Phil 1:7). We defend
what we believe against all accusations and assertions that
come from unbelievers, and in so doing we confirm the validity
or integrity of what we believe.
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| 2.
Why do some people prefer Experience over Reason? |
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We
live in an age that philosophers and others call ‘post-modern'.
Post-modernism
is cynical about the ‘modern age' that thought it had all the
answers.
Subsequent
wars, famines etc. of the 20th century showed that mankind hasn't
all the answers it thought it had.
Part
of this cynicism rejects past ways of thinking that relied upon
facts, logic etc.
Post-modernism
tends to rely more upon experience than objective facts, on
emotions rather than reason.
Quote
Example (from Blue like Jazz by Donald Miller)
"We
were sitting around in my friend's living room and talking
about it and she was in a huff and at one point raised her
fist and said, 'Down with Bush!' After that I didn't have
a crush on her anymore. It wasn't because she didn't like
George W. Bush, it was because she had no idea why she didn't
like George W. Bush. She only went to a rally and heard a
good band and saw a lot of cool people with cool clothes and
hippie haircuts. She decided what to believe based on whether
other people who believed it were of a particular fashion
that appealed to her."
Post-modernism
is weak on 'knowing'!
Post-modernism
also denies meta-narratives - stories purporting to give big
overall answers, such a that supplied by the Christian Faith.
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| 3.
What has been the Outworking of This? |
Answer 1 - Mysticism
The
first result of this has been that post-modern non-believers
have taken on board lots of weird and wonderful ideas, some
of which are harmless and some of which are harmful in the
realm of mysticism.
It
was G.K.Chesterton who is credited with
having written,
“A man who
won't believe in God will believe in anything",
or
"When
a Man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in
nothing, he believes anything."
Answer 2 - Uncertainty
from Atheism
The
second result of this has been that post-modern believers
have been poor at putting content to their faith and have
become vulnerable to the poorly founded assertions of atheists.
The
early years of the twenty-first century have seen a number
of agnostic or atheistic writers who have shaken some
in the Christian world. 
Dan
Brown's “The Da Vinci Code” was a classic example
of this. Many Christians
found themselves worried about whether their faith was credible
in the light of the assertions made in that book (which
we'll consider in later pages).
What
that revealed was that many Christians had little or no
understanding of the origins of the Christian faith. If
they had, they would know that the assertions within the
book were simply old heresies trotted out in a modern context,
heresies long ago shown to be foolish.
The
works of atheistic scientist, Richard Dawkins,
have similarly been causing waves. While Dawkins may be
a great scientist in some realms, he is not even a good
armchair theologian, as writers such as Alister McGrath
have shown, (see book recommendations at the end of this
page.) yet many Christians have been disturbed by what he
says.
Again
this simply reveals that there are a lot of Christians who
need to be reading these pages!
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| 4.
How has Thoughtlessness been a Further Fruit? |
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Answer
1 - Thoughtless Trite Questions
Thoughtlessness,
we describe here as the absence
of careful thinking, investigation and research.
Thoughtlessness
is seen in the person who trots out what they think as a reasonable
argument: “Well, I saw this dog that had been partly run over
by a car. If there is a loving God, how can he possibly allow
that sort of thing to happen?”
That
is a classic of thoughtlessness. It is a person who has heard
someone else make a trite excuse for not believing and so says
the same thing without giving it any thought. The answer to
that superficial comment is easy – and you'll find it in later
pages.
Answer 2 - A Refusal
to Think
Sadly,
the assertions and comments of the writers mentioned above,
come into this category for the reasons we have already given.
I was once browsing a book by the highly accredited philosopher,
Bertrand Russell, and in the middle of it came
across an assertion made about something in the Bible and the
thought that ran through my head as a young Christian was, “My
goodness! How can he possibly make this assertion? It shows
he has either never read the texts or has never thought about
them?" Even the great are prone to thoughtlessness
when they have narrowed their thinking.
Back
in 1969 when some of these battles were raging, a Catholic
by the name of Sir Arthur Lunn wrote the
following in a book called Christian Counter-Attack
with co-author, Garth Lean:
The
main difficulty with most secularists is to persuade them
to examine the case for the supernatural. Cannon J.B.Phillips
recalls in the Ring of Truth 'hundreds of conversations
with people, many of them of higher intellectual calibre than
myself, who quite obviously had no idea what Christianity
is about.' He concluded that 'they knew virtually nothing'
about the New Testament. The Resurrection 'the most important
even event in human history is politely and quietly by-passed.
For it is not as though the evidence had been examined and
found unconvincing; it had simply never been examined.'
Answer 3 - Thoughtless
Preaching
Under
the heading of ‘Thoughtless Thought' I would also include
preaching that uses Biblical language and fails to translate
it and what it means into the language of the ordinary, unchurched,
non-spiritual person living in the twenty-first century. Many
Christians just use the language but have little understanding
of what it really means and are incapable of communicating
it to ordinary people around them.
Answer 4 - A Move in the
Right Direction
The
advent of Nicky Gumbel's ‘Alpha Course' has
done much to restore content for faith, a
basis for belief
for many Christians, in the U.K.
at least.
However
the material of that course is simply an introduction and we
would hope that new or young Christians, or Christians who have
been around for a long time with a somewhat content-less faith,
would be spurred on to read for themselves and go deeper in
exploring the origins of the Christian faith, as well as finding
answers to the questions that their non-Christian friends and
neighbours regularly come up with.
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5.
How is Atheistic Bad Thinking seen? |
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Answer 1 - Attacking what is not
Bad
thinking is not
quite the same as ‘Thoughtless Thought'. I once had a book called
Straight and Crooked Thinking which revealed a variety
of bad ways that people argue.
An
example of one of these has recently been observed in the works
of Richard Dawkins who loves to portray a form
of Christianity which is full of holes. Unfortunately what he
portrays is not what the rest of us believe and experience.
Arguing against a supposed faith full of holes is easy; to argue
against what actually is Christian truth, is not so easy!
The
well-know Bible Teacher, David Pawson, used
to tell of when he was a Padre in the forces. He basically
had the ‘leftovers', those with no faith or only nominal faith.
His starting point with them was, “Tell me what sort of God
you don't believe in.” When they told him, he agreed with
them and then started talking about the real God!
•
Conclusion:
Don't get stressed over arguments about something that doesn't
exist!
Answer 2 - Attacking Extremes, Ignoring Truth
Dawkins
also uses arguing against extremes. His notorious TV programme,
“The Root of all Evil?” used extremes to condemn the mainstream
faith. I have never known a programme before that invoked
even the ire of non-Christians who denounced it for its staggering
bias and attempts at distortion, by use of extremes that most
of us would reject anyway.
•
Conclusion:
Don't get stressed over arguments using extremes! Analyse the
middle ground!
Answer 3 - Maintaining a Closed Mind
Dawkins,
and other atheistic scientists like him, also interpret their
observations from their closed mind perspective. You'll find
more detail on this on Page 5 about science.
•
Conclusion:
Don't get stressed over an atheist's interpretation –
it is only their view! 
The
‘closed-mind' syndrome is particularly important and we'll
cover it in more detail in the page on science. It is particularly
strange to find it in the realm of science where one would
suppose that a scientist would be open to whatever possibilities
the observed facts show.
Yet,
as we'll see, atheistic scientists start from a position of
atheism and therefore see everything in that framework and
refuse possibilities in any realm that might challenge their
initial belief. (Understand that atheism is a belief system!).
In
the area of evolutionary theory, many scientists have been
honest enough to say that there have been large gaps that
raise serious questions. As more and more detail is revealed
in the mechanics of how things work, open scientists have
been honest enough to say that the ‘mechanics' raise more
and more questions, and question the likelihood of pure-chance
evolution.
In
science generally, new discoveries frequently raise new possibilities.
Now this seems perfectly acceptable to atheistic scientists
until it is in respect of something to do with the possibility
of ‘design' then suddenly there appears a closed-ness to the
possibilities!
•
Conclusion:
Don't get stressed by an atheist's closed mind. Materialistic
atheism is their starting and finishing point and they will
rarely concede any possible alternative.
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| 6.
What does it take to be a Genuine Thinker? |
From
what we have noted so far there are some obvious requirements
if you are going to get any value from this part of this site:
- Be
a thinker – be willing to think through the issues and don't
accept ‘blind faith'.
- Be
open – be willing to learn and see things you've never seen
before – this includes seeing things from other people's perspectives.
- Be
a seeker – be willing to research, to read history, to read
technical books, to listen to those who have gone before in
these areas.
None
of these guarantee you will be a good thinker, but they may
start you on the way.
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| 7.
What credibility has the author of these pages? |
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I
have been a Christian for almost 40 years (as at the time of
writing at the beginning of 2007). As other parts of the site
will testify, I have studied the Bible avidly throughout that
time.
I
have also, throughout that time, been an avid investigator.
I have read and read, both Christian and non-Christian books.
I want to ‘know'. I have wanted to know so that I can help others
know.
I
have wanted to know:
•
how the Bible came into being.
•
can we believe what it records
as history •
can we believe what it teaches
•
how humanity works, how humanity
thinks •
what answers the Bible gives to
what we observe of humanity •
how religions work •
what answers the Bible gives to
those religions •
how science works •
what answers the Bible gives to
science.
These
and many more such areas have challenged my mind for forty
years. At the end of that time, at the end of my reading,
I am more convinced than ever, that those of us who hold a
Biblical Christian Faith are on the right path, and we have
nothing to fear from the challenges of humanistic, atheistic
unbelievers.
What
you will find in these pages, is not just my bright ideas,
but the wisdom and experience of many experts in the fields
in question.
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| 8.
What books are there to help us? |
It
is possible to list dozens of books that might help you. Whatever
I list will be unsatisfactory for someone, because they probably
know books that helped them which I have not mentioned.
I
simply want to mention two specific books that I think are major
resources in this sphere:
•
“The
New Evidence that Demands a Verdict” – by Josh
McDowell
•
In my view THE best book of
easy-to-read resource material ever written for Christians.
•
“Does
God believe in Atheists?” – by John
Blanchard
•
Again, in my view,
THE Best book of detailed and argued resource material ever
written for Christians, absolutely full of quotes and research;
a serious read!
If
you are really serious about apologetics you will get both these
books.
Having
said this, the writings of Michael Green are
good in this area, as are the writings of Alister McGrath
(especially countering the assertions of Richard Dawkins). I
hope these will help you.
In
addition to these writers, I would be remiss if I didn't mention
Norman L. Geisler and Ravi Zacharias
who are also first rate and key writers of books on apologetics.
I
will from time to time use a variety of quotes from other books
- there are plenty out there if you are willing to look!
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The
purpose of these questions is to help you go back over the
material and take it in. We suggest you highlight, copy and
paste these questions and put them into your own word processing
package and then alternate between them and the text and put
your answers in your word processed page under each question.
QUESTIONS:
1.
What are Apologetics?
1.1
What is the double work of ‘apologetics'?
2.
Experience Over Reason
2.1
Name at least two characteristics of ‘post-modernism'
2.2
Why are these contrary to the Christian Faith?
3.
Outworking
3.1
What happens when modern man stops believing in God
according to
Chesterton?
3.2
Why, is it suggested, that many modern believers have
been shaken by
assertions from Dan Brown?
4.
Thoughtlessness
4.1
Of what are trite questions or trite criticisms a sign?
4.2
What was J.B.Phillips' assertion from much of his experience?
4.3
How is this area to cover preaching?
5.
Bad Thinking
5.1
What two ways of bad arguing used by Richard Dawkins
are given as
examples of what
to watch out for?
5.2
How did David Pawson approach people negative about
God?
6.
Genuine Thinker
6.1
What are the three marks of a ‘Genuine Thinker' suggested?
7.
The Author
7.1
If you want to work at becoming a ‘defender of the
faith', what things
can you see from the
testimony of the author that would help you
become that?
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