This blog has been moved

Hi:

This discussion has been moved to the church's website. Please click on the following link to be taken directly there:

Pilgrim Apologetics Class


SDG!

Notes from the 4 Jan 2008 class

I. Introduction

I started the class with several quotes from Richard Dawkins' book entitled, The God Delusion. I do NOT recommend the book unless you have a desire to see how a fundamentalist atheist "thinks" (note that I very carefully chose the word "fundamentalist" to describe Dawkins' atheism). Should you decide to sally forth and read Dawkins' book anyway, I would also recommend the following rebuttal by David Robertson, Free Church of Scotland pastor, entitled, The Dawkins Letters. Here's a quote from Amazon reviews about the book:

David Robertson ... wanted there to be an intelligent Christian response
to Richard Dawkins' bestselling The God Delusion. To that
end he wrote an open letter to Richard Dawkins and subsequently
posted it on his church's web site. The letter somehow found its
way to Dawkins who posted it on his own website where it generated
a response that was massive in scope and in passion. According to
the back of The Dawkins Letters, "The ferocity, and shallowness of
thinking, of some of the responses spurred David to write further
letters, which form the basis of this book. They explain
a credible basis for faith that counteracts the 'atheist myths'
that so much popular discussion is based upon."

The Dawkins Letters, then, is a series of letters from Robertson
to Dawkins -- a series of ten letters that call Dawkins to
account for the errors and inaccuracies within his book. It
also responds to his arguments -- both his novel new ones
and the tired rehashed ones common to a whole generation
of atheists...

If you are a fan of Douglas Wilson, you will find his response to Dawkins a good read. It should come as no surprise that Wilson gave his book the following title: The Deluded Atheist.

As noted in the Amazon review, Dawkins' book has been a bestseller. However, his book is not alone on the bestseller list. Several other prominent atheists have jumped into the publishing fray. One other noted atheist is Christopher Hitchens, and his most recent bestseller, God is Not Great, covers much of the same ground as Dawkins' book (and is another book I do not recommend wasting your time on). As I mentioned in class, Douglas Wilson has been debating Hitchens both in print and in front of audiences for the past year or two. Wilson's book response to God is Not Great is simply titled, God Is. Again, another good read from Wilson.

II. Common Threads in the Atheist's Books
The main thrust of much of the recent atheistic literature is do the following:
o Equate all religions as basically the same
o Belittle anyone who believes in any of this "religious
superstition"
o Point out all the atrocities committed by believers in the
name of their religion -- and I bet you can't guess which
atrocity looms largest in their minds (the Inquisition of
course, followed by the Crusades)
o Deem anyone who is religious as complicit in the
atrocities (an obvious attempt to put the religious person
on the defensive)
o Claim teaching a child religion (any religion) is tantamount
to child abuse -- and the clear implication is that strong
consideration should be given to having children removed from
such parents
o When any mention is made of atheistic atrocities (e.g., Hitler
and Stalin), they simply claim that the ruler's positions were ones
in which they demanded worship and were therefore really
religious. Of course, there's no mention of how the Inquisition
was actually counter to the teachings of Christianity, nor how
the actions of Hitler and Stalin were in keeping with their
professed worldviews.

III. Apologetics
o What is apologetics?
o What is its purpose?
o Is the apologetical response offered to someone who seems to be
genuinely asking questions different than a response given to
someone who is obviously antagonistic to Christianity?

IV. Several Different Approaches to Apologetics (not exhaustive)
o Evidentialism
o Classical (theistic proofs)
o Presuppositional

V. Tentative Outline for the Remainder of the Course
o Evidentialism
o Evolution/Intelligent Design
o Classical Proofs
o World Religions (most likely Islam and Hinduism)
o Presuppositionalism

I also hope to have videos (to be shown during the corresponding sessions listed above) of debates between:
o An evidentialist and an atheist
o A creationist and an evolutionist
o A classical apologist and an atheist
o A presuppositionalist and an atheist

Again, any and all comments are welcome!

Pilgrim Apologetics Class Blog

Happy New Year! And welcome to the Pilgrim Apologetics Class blog...

From time to time, I'll be posting class notes, pointers to interesting articles on apologetics, maybe a book review or two, and the occasional link to a pertinent video. I'll start with a link to a short lecture by R.C. Sproul entitled, "Why Apologetics?" R.C. does a good job of showing how important apologetics is to the Christian (and to the non-Christian as well). However, pay particular attention to his brief comments about how he approaches apologetics vs. how his Lutheran colleague approaches apologetics -- it will be a source of discussion for our class when we cover the section on "Classical Apologetics."

Here's the link: http://www.ligonier.org/media_player.php?tabID=1&id=146

Enjoy! And please feel free to post comments and questions...