Saturday, May 05, 2007
10 Questions That Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer
I ran across a video created by some atheists meant to challenge Christians. As the title suggests, it poses 10 questions which they feel are difficult for a Christian to answer.
I decided to give it a go and post answers to each of their questions. I'm going to try and do this in short order, while, at the same time, not rushing.
The transcript and the video is at the post linked above. I recommend following the link and going through their video. I'm going by the transcript, so if the transcript is in error please forgive me.
Besides introducing the topic, I would like to go over some things which permeate more than one question.
1) Atheists have no basis to make moral objections unless they are trying to point out inconsistencies within the Christian faith. "God doesn't exist because bad things happen." Morality require purpose and meaning. And not a "I give life my own purpose" squishy purpose. I mean real purpose. Ultimate purpose and meaning. Atheism can't give you that. But atheists cling to this theistic-dependent idea very strongly.
The whole title is inconsistent with atheism. Ten questions a Christian "must answer". Why must I answer them? What universal principle compels me that I ought to answer them. "Ought" or "must" cannot be in a logically consistent atheist's vocabulary.
2) Stop poisoning the well. "So you create some kind of rationalization to explain these verses." So if I don't respond, I concede the point. If I respond, I'm rationalizing.
Now, as seen above in my first point, I make the claim that an atheist can't have any objective morality and be consistent with their atheism. So I'm not hypocritical, let me say, prove me wrong. Give me a basis which is consistent with atheism. I'm extremely sure you can't, but give it a go.
3) Scripture verses are taken out of context or out of the entire scope of Scripture.
Hopefully, I'll respond in short order. Many of the questions I've run into before. The first one was actually a pretty good question and deserved a little bit of research. I'm actually going to make the problem a little harder for the intelligent Christian.
I will have one post for each question except for question 5, which I will devote two posts to.
(Note: this link will give you a page with all the posts responding to the video.)
Lastly, the video.
I ran across a video created by some atheists meant to challenge Christians. As the title suggests, it poses 10 questions which they feel are difficult for a Christian to answer.
I decided to give it a go and post answers to each of their questions. I'm going to try and do this in short order, while, at the same time, not rushing.
The transcript and the video is at the post linked above. I recommend following the link and going through their video. I'm going by the transcript, so if the transcript is in error please forgive me.
Besides introducing the topic, I would like to go over some things which permeate more than one question.
1) Atheists have no basis to make moral objections unless they are trying to point out inconsistencies within the Christian faith. "God doesn't exist because bad things happen." Morality require purpose and meaning. And not a "I give life my own purpose" squishy purpose. I mean real purpose. Ultimate purpose and meaning. Atheism can't give you that. But atheists cling to this theistic-dependent idea very strongly.
The whole title is inconsistent with atheism. Ten questions a Christian "must answer". Why must I answer them? What universal principle compels me that I ought to answer them. "Ought" or "must" cannot be in a logically consistent atheist's vocabulary.
2) Stop poisoning the well. "So you create some kind of rationalization to explain these verses." So if I don't respond, I concede the point. If I respond, I'm rationalizing.
Now, as seen above in my first point, I make the claim that an atheist can't have any objective morality and be consistent with their atheism. So I'm not hypocritical, let me say, prove me wrong. Give me a basis which is consistent with atheism. I'm extremely sure you can't, but give it a go.
3) Scripture verses are taken out of context or out of the entire scope of Scripture.
Hopefully, I'll respond in short order. Many of the questions I've run into before. The first one was actually a pretty good question and deserved a little bit of research. I'm actually going to make the problem a little harder for the intelligent Christian.
I will have one post for each question except for question 5, which I will devote two posts to.
(Note: this link will give you a page with all the posts responding to the video.)
Lastly, the video.
Labels: 10 questions
