39
votes
Accepted
How do proponents of the Fine Tuning argument for God, refute the puddle comparison?
Interestingly, the puddle analogy is wrong for exactly the same reasons that the claim that "improbable events happen all the time" does not solve the probabilistic issues inherent in ...
- 6,744
34
votes
Accepted
How do Christians rebut Matt Dillahunty's objection that the resurrection of Jesus is untestable, unfalsifiable and thus unreasonable to believe?
Dillahunty's argument is self-refuting.
He commits the error inherent to all forms of verificationism. A simple, jargon-free description of verificationist principles would be: "you shouldn't ...
- 11.3k
27
votes
Accepted
Have any major Christian intellectuals responded to Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design"?
God and Stephen Hawking, by John C. Lennox, is a popular direct reply to The Grand Design.
Alister McGrath calls it "a brilliant response," and the book won an Award of Merit in Christianity Today'...
- 42.3k
27
votes
How are intersex people explained by Christianity?
Young Earth Creationists (and most other Christians really) teach that the entry of sin into the universe has many more consequences than just the moral corruption of people. The world is now in a ...
- 19.7k
18
votes
The resurrection & Deut 13 - If a prophet says "Let us worship another god" - Do NOT follow him, even if he gives a sign/miracle
For mainstream Christian denominations (including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals), Resurrection is NOT the key to Jesus's identity. Rather, the resurrection ...
- 22.2k
16
votes
Accepted
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
The original argument says:
If God is the Creator, He cannot be perfect. For either God created the world desiring it or not desiring it. If he did not wish it, it implies that he does not have total ...
- 1,698
15
votes
According to Protestantism, what are the strongest apologetic arguments against the doctrine of Intercession of Saints?
For those denominations that take the Bible fairly literally, everyone that has ever died (with one notable exception) is still dead and buried and awaiting resurrection.
For the living know that ...
- 8,302
14
votes
Looking for an apologetic to the "Cosmic Child Abuse" objection
According to the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus being the Son of God means that He is fully God made manifest in human form (John 1:14). Jesus is simultaneously both fully God and fully man. As such, ...
14
votes
According to Latter-day Saints, what are the strongest apologetic arguments for the divine inspiration of the Book of Mormon?
1. Authorship-Translator
Joseph Smith had an elementary education and managed to produce a 500 page book in 3 months (obtained plates on 22 September 1827).
Born into a poor farming family, he was ...
- 8,745
14
votes
Believing that Christianity is "probably" true vs. being fully convinced that Christianity is definitely true?
Preliminaries
Having no philosophy / theology degree, but as an amateur aspiring to be a Christian epistemologist, I will share in this answer a way for a rational person who, after intellectually ...
- 22.2k
12
votes
Accepted
What is the biblical basis for the historicity of the Bible?
That professor hasn't read the Bible, apparently.
Eyewitness Account
Luke 1:1-4 (my translation)
Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compose a narrative of the things which have taken place among us, ...
- 8,260
12
votes
The resurrection & Deut 13 - If a prophet says "Let us worship another god" - Do NOT follow him, even if he gives a sign/miracle
Its hard to understand why you should think for a minute that Jesus taught anyone to follow any other god than the God of the Jewish Tanakh (ie the Old Testament). If you can add to your question to ...
- 6,681
11
votes
How are intersex people explained by Christianity?
Some people are just born as eunuchs.
Jesus off-handedly addresses this when discussing divorce and sexual abstinence.
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your ...
- 1,043
11
votes
According to Protestantism, what are the strongest apologetic arguments against the doctrine of Intercession of Saints?
On an official German protestant website exactly this question was answered with the following arguments (loosely summarized in English by me):
Protestants do not have a hierarchy of the deceased. ...
11
votes
Accepted
How do Cessationists respond to "the counterfeit proves the real" argument?
To make your syllogism more obvious for the Cessationists's argument, switch:
"Satan or his demons" to "Elvis impersonators"
"Godly version of X" to "Real Elvis ...
- 22.2k
11
votes
Accepted
What Biblical Defenses are there to Divine Hiddenness?
Some quick points up front and then lots more below. Pascal's argument is a classic response in explaining the hiddenness of God.
In the Bible, God hides himself in response to peoples' rejection of ...
- 1,196
11
votes
According to Latter-day Saints, what are the strongest arguments for the credibility of the 3 & 8 witnesses to the golden plates?
Witnesses:
Testimony of Prophet Joseph Smith
Testimony of Three Witnesses
Oliver Cowdery
David Whitmer
Martin Harris
declared an angel of God appeared to them and showed them the Book of Mormon ...
- 8,745
11
votes
URLs for Christian Polemic Repositories
I saw this partial definition of polemics in a google search
"A polemicist is a person who attacks someone else with written or
spoken words. If you're a polemicist, you have very strong ...
- 14.8k
11
votes
What are the "gospels" in the Gospels?
From a biblical, Christian standpoint, the word 'gospel' comes from the Greek word 'euaggelion' and means 'good news, tidings, word'. It can be called in English 'The Evangel' (the good news), and 'an ...
- 27k
10
votes
Counterarguments to "KJV-only"?
Opponents to the KJV-Only position generally don’t disparage the King James Version (KJV) or treat it as necessarily inferior to contemporary English translations, but instead point out that it faces ...
- 454
10
votes
What common apologetic arguments support the view that it is more likely that Jesus was resurrected than his body was stolen?
I'm going to preface this by reminding the community that whether or not a theory is true is off-topic. What is taught is what's at hand, and also what's asked. The following is only addressing what ...
- 43.9k
10
votes
HOW does the existence of the Universe make those who do not worship God to be "without excuse"?
St. Paul is evidently musing on themes in the book of Wisdom in Chapter 1 and beyond:
Wisdom 13:1-9 But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that ...
- 8,260
10
votes
Accepted
How do Open Theists respond to Bible verses claiming God knows the future?
The quote from Jeremiah refers to God's plans. Plans do not require foreknowledge, only forethought. I doubt that Open Theists deny that God plans ahead. The question is whether He has one plan that ...
- 11.4k
10
votes
Accepted
Spaulding Theory: How do Latter-day Saints respond to the claim that the Book of Mormon is based on "Manuscript Found" by Solomon Spaulding?
For about 50 years in the 19th century the Spaulding manuscript was the most popular naturalistic explanation for the origin of The Book of Mormon; it has now been widely discredited by both friends ...
- 11.3k
10
votes
How do proponents of the Fine Tuning argument for God, refute the puddle comparison?
What is the "obvious" refutation of the puddle analogy that everyone seems to know?
TL;DR: Puddles can exist in holes of any arbitrary shape, but life can exist only in a Universe that has ...
- 8,302
10
votes
Accepted
If God is perfect, do we live in the best of all possible worlds?
To be able to answer this question, a definition of goodness is required, perhaps as a mathematical function of a given world, such that you can make objective comparisons of the form:
Goodness (...
- 1,698
9
votes
According to Latter-day Saints, what are the strongest apologetic arguments for the divine inspiration of the Book of Mormon?
tl;dr Either Joseph Smith had a nearly unrealistically powerful imagination and coincidentally had many completely imaginative story elements line up with reality, or he had some kind of supernatural--...
- 191
9
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
Mark had a good answer, to which I will add a separate angle.
The word "perfect" can mean essentially two things in English:
Flawless/pure; and
Complete/finished.
It appears to me that the ...
- 1,655
9
votes
How can one counter-argue this argument against the existence of God?
Even as a heathen atheist and cultural Jew I can see the problem with this. Any argument based on "God is perfect" presumes that we're able to judge what perfection is. The argument you ...
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