“How do I Learn to Give a Defense of the Faith?”

Unit 3 Handout: “How do I Learn to Give a Defense of the Faith?”

• Questions and Answers from Last Week’s Discussions and the Readings for This Evening
• Quiz and Review of Quiz
• Questions and Answers: Chapter 14: Methodology
  • The Toolbox
  • Classical Apologetics
  • Evidentialism
  • Presuppositionalism
  • Fideism
  • Interaction and Critique
  • Integrative Apologetics
  • Conclusion

• Article: Coulter, “Introduction to Christian Apologetics,” http://tinyurl.com/lbduqz3
• Approaches to Apologetics
• Common Objections from the Bible
  • The Bible does not need to be defended
  • God cannot be known by human reason
  • Natural humanity cannot understand God’s truth
  • Without faith one cannot please God
  • Jesus refused to give signs to evil men
  • Do not answer a fool according to his folly
  • Apologetics is not used in the Bible
• Objections from Outside the Bible
  • Logic cannot tell us anything about God
  • Logic cannot prove the existence of anything
  • No one is converted through apologetics
  • Different Approaches at different stages
• Introduction: The Cosmological Argument
  • Existential Questions:
    • What/Who Am I?
    • How is it that I Exist?
    • How is it that Anything Exists?
  • Why is there Something instead of Nothing?
• 5 Things the Scientific Method Can’t Prove (Craig)
  • Logic and Mathematics
  • Metaphysical truths
  • Ethical beliefs
  • Aesthetic judgments
  • Science itself
• The Mystery of Existence
• The Cosmological Argument (Kalam Argument from Contingency)
  • The universe either exists necessarily or contingently
  • The universe is not necessary
  • Therefore the universe is contingent
• Four Possibilities for the Existence of the Universe
  • All that exists is merely an illusion.
  • The universe created itself.
  • The universe is eternal.
  • The universe was created by an outside eternal being (God)
• Objections
  • Schoolboy objection: What caused God?
  • How can we ever know the universe needs a cause?
• For Next Week
  • Reading from the Holman text: Chapter 2: The Cosmological Argument
  • Online Article: SEP, “Cosmological Argument” http://tinyurl.com/8xkm72n
• Conclusion