- ISBN13: 9781433501159
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Product Description
Perfect as a textbook yet excellent for lay readers, this updated edition builds a positive case for Christianity by applying the latest thought to core theological themes. J. Gresham Machen once said, “False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel”-which makes apologetics that much more important. Wanting to engage not just academics and pastors but Christian laypeople and seekers, William Lane Craig has revised and updated key sectio… More >>
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
Tags: Apologetics · christian · Faith · Reasonable · Truth6 Comments
The author wants to persuade his readers to believe that (a) God exists and (b) Christianity is true. That’s a tall order, because Christianity has a 2,000 year old rule book that contradicts many modern ideas. The existence of demonic spirits, for example, or God sending a worldwide flood to destroy all human life because He was disappointed in our choice of a decadent after-hours lifestyle that revolved around sex. (Okay, the Holy Spirit wouldn’t have the same appreciation for sex that humans do. I’ll give you that much.) Craig argues that all humans can know that Christianity is true by the “self-authenticating witness of God’s Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit, as we know, is the part of the Holy Trinity that isn’t the Father or the Son. Here’s the mistake in his argument. Every human being spends the first years of life totally dependent on their parents for food. The newborn brain starts as a clean slate, so the first impressions of life are the strongest. Every human being forms a mental image of an outside force that feeds us and takes care of us, and then buries this image in the subconscious. When Craig says every human being can experience the Holy Spirit, he is actually talking about our earliest emotional memories of our parents. Here’s the test. Cultures that have different standards for child care have different images of their God/Holy Spirit that reflect cultural differences. In the OT, God was a cranky despot who was always promising to send a Messiah to restore the Kingdom of Israel, fulfilling a promise he made to Moses. In American society, Fathers are the enforcers. They make laws and enforce the rules, and so the modern Christian God wants us to worship him and conform to his will. In yuppie households, the absentee landlord suddenly wants to be your best friend and have a personal relationship with you. If you go into Oriental cultures, where parents indulge their children more and never yell at them, God never yells at his prophets either. They have a kinder, gentler God, just like George Bush promised. When Craig says we can all “experience the Holy spirit,” he never excludes those subconscious memories of our own parents. If he did, he would discover there is nothing left to his “experience.” Yes, the experience is real, and yes every human being has a simlar one. If he used stricter scientific testing instead of trying to make his results conform to a 2,000 year-old text, his conclusions would be completely different.
Rating: 3 / 5
The arguments presented really offer nothing new in the way of apologetics, whether by Cardinal Newman, G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, or St. Thomas Aquinas; the fact remains that in order to believe one must suspend disbelief, and wanting something to be true– no matter how strongly– does not make it so. There is absolutely no evidence for faith in the supernatural, and all efforts to provide rational arguments for doing so are either incomplete, misguided, or outright sophistic– (theodicy, anyone??? [...])… Just because science does not have all the answers does not necessitate the automatic default to religion. Religious mythology has many recurring motifs, across many cultures and many eras (even pre-Mosaic and pre-Christian), whether exoduses, virgin births, or resurrections; and while these narratives can evoke wonder and emotion through sheer literary value, these qualities do not make them true. Any claims to the contrary are unsupported and unprovable. The inability to disprove something does not make it true– if that were the case, then no one could prove that Santa Claus or even the Easter Bunny, do not, in fact exist; and there have been far more sightings of them recently– especially at shopping malls during the holidays– than of any other saint or deity.
Rating: 1 / 5
Evangelical Christians are always telling me things like read such and such book and you will have to give up your Atheism. I usually respond by stating that I have read enough rubbish apologetics and they should leave me alone. Then they tell me if I don’t read their ‘newest proof’ of god I am ‘closed’ minded. The odd result is that I am probably much better versed in theology then the average Christian and am still an Atheist.
Needless to say this book contains all of the standard fallacy ridden arguments for god; but the pot of gold at the … well … beginning of this trippy rainbow is chapter two “The Absurdity of Life Without God”. It contains my all time favorite theist argument, let us call the “Argument from William Lane Craig is afraid of death”. It goes like this:
1. William Lane Craig is afraid of death.
2. If William Lane Craig is afraid of death then death cannot exist.
3. The only way for immortality to exist is God (here Craig has made a ‘fatal’ error in his argument, Vampires also cause immortality).
4. Therefore God exists.
QED
Yes, William Lane proves not only that Atheism is compleatly absurd but that the entire universe bows down to the whims of William Lane Craig’s preferences. Inspired by the mans turgid intellect I developed my own variation on his argument.
1. I think William Lane Craig is silly.
2. That which I think is silly cannot exist.
3 The only way we could have a anti-silly force in the universe is if Daleks actuly exist (Daleks being compleatly humorless).
4. Therefore Daleks exist.
QED
Rating: 1 / 5
Since Dr.Craig is probably one of the most philosophically literate apologists for the Christian faith, I expected this book to be leaps and bounds better than purely worthless rubbish such as Josh McDowell’s “Evidence.” I was quite disappointed to find that this was not the case at all. Typical is the following quote from page 48:
“What, then, should be our approach in apologetics? It should be something like this: ‘My friend, I know Christianity is true because God’s Spirit lives in me and assures me that it is true. . . Now, to try to show you it’s true, I’ll share with you some arguments and evidence that I really find convincing. But should my arguments seem weak and unconvincing to you, that’s my fault, not God’s. It only shows that I’m a poor apologist, not that the gospel is untrue. Whatever you think of my arguments, God still loves you and holds you accountable. I’ll do my best to present good arguments to you. But ultimately you have to deal, not with arguments, but with God himself.”
Admissions such as these, where Craig admits that REASON itself is not sufficient to establish the truth of Christian claims, shows the title of the book is a complete misnomer– Reasonable faith does not rely on mere emotional ‘wishing-to-be-true,’ nor does it rely on the type of veiled threats embodied in the suggestion that you should accept God because you will be “held accountable” if you dont’t.
Having seen Craig in debate (albeit with someone who did not even have any philosophical background as Craig does), I expected something better.
Rating: 1 / 5
Dear amazon
Reasonable faith was not the last product I bought from you. I bought another paperback from you. It had to do with how christianity has benefitted the world. I can’t remember the title. I never received it. I think I ordered it around august 11. Is there any way that you could check your records and see what happened to that most recent order?
Thanks
Jim Betancourt
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Rating: 4 / 5
I am reading this article second time today, you have to be more careful with content leakers. If I will fount it again I will send you a link