Hot answers tagged apologetics
28
The simplest place to start is that Muslims view Jesus as a man with a special role as prophet. Christians view him as God himself in the flesh (incarnate). To Muslims, the idea that God had a son is blasphemy. Even though Christians view him as one in the same being (as a person in the Trinity) and thus still hold the idea of God being one, that concept ...
25
This is called the problem of theodicy. The assumptions usually made in the problem statement are, with a little variance:
God is almighty and all-knowing
God does not want evil in the world
God is good
The problem goes on to state the fact that there is evil in the world, and claims a contradiction between the assumptions and this observation.
I see ...
23
There are several classical arguments for believing in God, including:
The cosmological argument, which says that (logically) everything exists because it is caused by something else or because it has always existed. It says that everything that has been caused by something else must be caused by something else and so on until you get to something that is ...
20
Here are the differences:
Christianity
Jesus is God.
Jesus died and rose again to save the world from all their sins.
Jesus is the way to eternity in heaven.
Islam
Jesus is not God, he was just a good prophet.
Jesus did not rise again.
a. He was never crucified, nor would God ever let one of his prophets die in such a fashion.
Jesus does not save us. ...
17
From the perspective of a non-Christian, the explanation you put forth makes no sense. It relies on a number of assumptions that a non-Christian doesn't necessarily hold. Regardless of whether it makes sense in the context of your belief system, it does not make sense to a non-Christian.
For example:
If evil is the result of the actions of Adam and Eve, ...
17
This source provides some excellent detail on the subject. In regard specifically to how all the animals fit, however, we look at the same verse that you quoted, Genesis 6:19-21:
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according ...
15
There are several factors that allows this. One of this, is the sheer size of the ark. According to the dimensions that the Bible gives, the Ark will have
Thus, the ark could have been up to 550 feet long, 91.7 feet wide and 55 feet high. These are not unreasonable dimensions. But how much storage space does this amount to? Well, 550 x 91.7 x 55 = ...
15
I can't answer the question in the way you're asking it, but I can 'disarm' numerology for you. When you encounter something, like say, a set of best practices in an activity, the number of units you decide to divide the information into determines the symbolic meaning you are essentially attaching to the set. This is possible with pretty much everything, so ...
10
Logical Existence of God
There is a very cogent line of reasoning presented in the book, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist, that goes something like this.
The physical universe consists of time, space, and matter.
Science has proven that the universe had a beginning--the Big Bang.
Nothing can create itself.
Whatever caused the universe to begin ...
10
St. Thomas Aquinas outlines five ways of knowing, from reason alone, that God exists. These are tough to understand without a background in classical philosophy -- it's commonly assumed, for example, that the first and second ways (Unmoved Mover and First Cause) depend on demonstrating the absurdity of an infinite series reaching back in time. But properly ...
10
"Manuscript Evidence", as the question implies, serves to provide evidence that the Bible has been transmitted accurately throughout time. It does not prove that the Bible is God's word.
The usefulness of knowing what manuscript evidence means, and what it tells us about the accurate transmission of Scripture through time is to address the statement that ...
9
If I may, here is my idea of the scientific view: yes, it can. If you look for arguments against Christianity, thinking that you may find some, but you don't find any, this is evidence in favor of Christianity.
Evidence, you see, is all about correlation. Whether or not your shoes are untied is strongly correlated to whether or not they appear to be untied. ...
9
The kind of comparison you are suggesting is not going to work for a number of reasons. The most prominent one is a huge difference in job description between those that different denominations consider church leaders.
The Catholic church, for example, ordains priests based on several years of college-level education, as well as other requirements, academic ...
9
As noted in the question, these are layman's terms. However, I am providing links to more official definitions, which have been used as source material.
Definition of the term "Inspired": The doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible means that the Bible in the original documents is God-breathed, that it is a divine product, and, because it is divine, the ...
9
I'd like to start out by pointing out that history is a murky subject. We're all familiar with the saying that "history is always written by the winners". There are plenty of things that are accepted as historical fact that are either in dispute, or that are later proved false by new evidence. Just because something is regarded as reliable, accepted ...
9
I am not sure I'm understanding the question. I see two possible things you might be asking...
I don't know about evidences of others calling them the four Gospels (not sure that's exactly what your last sentence is asking), but there is first century manuscript evidence for at least some of the Gospels.
There is potentially evidence for the book of ...
8
The group "Answers in Genesis" will point out that the scripture is not bound by our understanding of species, but rather states the he should bring every "kind" or "sort" of animal. That is, rather than bring a cheetah, jaguar, lion, tiger, panther, leopard, puma, etc., he could have brought some sort of cat, and further speciation would have taken place ...
8
I think you're referring to The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (TAG). It was first formulated by Immanuel Kant, but has been refined, disputed and defended over the years.
The argument
One formulation of the argument is,
Prove A: The Christian God exists.
Step 1 ~A: (Assume the opposite of what we are trying to prove): The Christian ...
8
Some major problems with "KJV-onlyism" lies in the assumptions it makes and some of which you enumerated.
From an evangelical perspective, we accept the idea that the Bible is, indeed, the word of God. Specifically, "men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from
...
8
The basic rules and assumptions are as follows:
That we are defending the notion that the Bible is, indeed, inspired, and therefore inerrant and infallible. It cannot contain errors, and if a true contradiction is found, it is, by definition, an error. Either one is correct and the other is wrong, or they are both wrong. Either way, the Bible is no ...
8
According to the Neal A Maxwell Institute, a dedicated LDS apologetic organization within BYU, this is not a problem.
Some may see change in teachings and practices as an inconsistency or
weakness, but to Latter-day Saints change is a sign of the very
foundation of strength upon which the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints is built—that ...
7
I think you have a good reason for why evil exists, but I would follow that with suffering exists because evil exists. I don't agree that all suffering is punishment from God. He may allow for suffering, because He can use it in our lives to make us perfect.
Another root reason is that God allows for our free will. He does not want us to be robot ...
7
You are not the first person in history to make such observations. One person who articulated it well is the late Clive Staples:
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." -- C.S. Lewis
Another man, circa the same erra and place, who argued emphatically that ...
6
The other possible answer, one that most Christians would likely not accept is that the flood was not as global as assumed. The events of the flood predate the Tower of Babel, which is when humanity is said to have been scattered across the globe. So one could assume that the human population was very localized.
God would not need to flood the entire planet ...
6
You're looking at the question from a mortal perspective, whereas God has an eternal perspective. He put us here not to be here as an end unto itself, but to prepare us for what comes after this life.
In the Sermon on the Mount, we are commanded to be perfect "even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." God is perfect because he never uses his power to do ...
6
First, like @Harmen, I'd like to clarify what I mean when I say the Bible is God's word. From there, I can get to a better answer to your question.
What does the statement "The Bible is God's Word" mean?
The traditional Evangelical view in the Scripture as God's word is that it was inspired by God. The actual term used is "God-Breathed". Further ...
6
You may look into Dr. William Lane Craig, who is a preeminent Christian philosopher/apologist, especially his book On Guard covers a lot of material related to your question. You might also look into Alvin Plantinga's book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism.
The answer is that you can make philosophical statements for the ...
6
Caleb mentions some great names. C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterston are good theologian philosophers who, I think, argue a strong rational support of Christianity.
Cornelius Van Til is another good one, who, I believe, argues that apart from God, there is no rational basis for rationality. This kind of gets to Andrew Leach's comment; I don't disagree ...
5
Yes, biologists have identified about 1.4 million species. There are surely other species not yet identified and cataloged, but estimates vary widely on how many. I've seen estimates for total number of species ranging from less than 2 million to over 100 million.
But the majority of species are microscopic. By definition, microscopic creatures would not ...
5
There are two basic approaches:
1. Blame Mankind
Evil and suffering exist because of mankind's disobedience to God. Exactly how this works is more difficult to comprehend. Certainly a lot of suffering is the direct result of man's actions, but other types of suffering - things like natural disasters - can't be justified quite so easily. They may be ...
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