"Pop" Apologetics

(For Mr. Samples' response to this editorial, please click here. - ed)

I do not typically write an editorial that doubles as a book review but after reading "Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions" (Baker Books, 2004) by Kenneth Samples, I felt that something needed to be said.

Before I start, I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing Mr. Samples' book specifically but I am calling on Christian authors and publishers to take another look at what they are inserting into the mainstream of the Christian/Skeptic debate. Don't get me wrong, I think there are some bright spots in this book. For example, the author's inclusion of some of the early creeds is refreshing and his discussion of the trinity and other theological topics were well done and, alone, make the book worth reading. What I would like to discuss is the section of the book that attempts to show that the God of the Bible exists. As any visitor to the World Wide Christian Web probably knows, this topic is near and dear to our hearts. In my opinion, Mr. Samples' book makes the same mistakes made by almost every book on apologetics published in the last few years.

I'm not sure if modern apologetics books are written in such a way as to "dumb down" the discussion or if overeager publishers edit out a lot of good work but almost all the books on apologetics I've read in recent years seem to forget a critical aspect to showing that God exists: support your claims to the satisfaction of your readers. Often these books claim to be written for the believer and skeptic alike, but not many skeptics will come away convinced of the arguments found therein. Anyone can make claims and jump to conclusions but as in any logical argument, all assertions must be supported with sound arguments and the conclusions must follow the assertions. As a Christian who has debated skeptics over the years, I know that if you don't patiently follow the rules of argumentation, your arguments will not be taken seriously. One cannot make a few claims, draw a conclusion, sneak a few more conclusions in the back door and say he has proven his point. In fact, since the authors of these types of books are often well-educated and very bright people, the main problem might be that they think everyone is tracking their one-sentence arguments. For example, Mr. Samples' book, after introducing the Kalam Cosmological Argument, makes the claim: "Given the nature of the effect (the contingent universe), it is logical the cause or Creator would have to be transcendent, uncaused, eternal, and immutable. (Any cause that did not have these characteristics would itself need a cause, for the very same reason this universe needs one.) Such a deity…" After this, the author goes into a few common stated alternatives to this claim and gives reasons why the "God" explanation is the best one to explain the different aspects of the universe and reality. Although I agree with the above quote, it really needs to be fleshed out. The uppercase "C" in creator needs to be dropped and the term "deity" seems to sneak in there without real warrant yet.

Of the above statement, a skeptic might ask why the universe must have an uncaused Creator or why must the Creator be eternal or immutable or transcendent. They might ask how cause and effect applies outside the universe. They might ask why the cause of the universe would need a cause if it didn't have those listed attributes. One might claim that any sophisticated skeptic would know this already. Surely skeptics have heard reasons given but I would bet they haven't accepted the bulk of them. And any Christian reading the above statement that tries it on a skeptic will find himself in a difficult spot unless he's already done a lot of in-depth study on his own.

Someone might claim that there's only so much that can fit between the covers of an average-sized book written for public consumption. This is true but I would remove some arguments over publishing a book with half arguments. Half arguments are "death" to the Christian/Skeptic debate and hinder us from getting our message out - because we're only expected to have half a message!

The World Wide Christian Web grew up on the internet over the last nine years attempting to fill in the gaps found in modern, pop-apologetics. When faced with certain Christian ministries claiming to show that God exists and then jumping to the conclusion that the God who exists is the God of the Bible, one of the first things we did was to clearly present an argument for the existence of a "god" followed by a detailed argument defining the "god" who exists. We worked to answer all the questions asked by skeptics and atheists, no matter how difficult. We tested these answers and our arguments in the public forum.

The World Wide Christian Web would love to see Christian publications start to follow our example. We would love to see the quality of pop-apologetics, and the Christians who consume them, grow in effectiveness and sophistication without losing their wide appeal.

-ed
e-mail: wwcw@wwcw.org

I want to learn more about how I can have a relationship with the creator of the universe.

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