Category: Apologetics

Christian apologetics is the rational defense of Christianity. The term is derived from the Greek word apología (ἀπολογία), which means to speak in defense of something. It is not to be thought of as offering someone a regretful acknowledgement for some aspect of Christianity that they might find offensive. Rather, Christian apologetics demonstrates that Christian doctrine is rational, Read more

The ontological argument for the existence of God is the most famous and has been heavily analyzed and debated ever since its formulation by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century.[i] In its most common form, the ontological argument defines God as a being of which nothing greater can be conceived. Given this, there are two possibilities. Read more

Cosmological arguments are based on the observable fact that the universe exists rather than nothing existing. Why is there anything at all? And why is there something that exists that can ask the question of why anything exists? Is it possible that the universe is the total of all reality and requires nothing else, or it Read more

Design Arguments – General Design arguments for the existence of God are not logical deductions but inferences based on observation. Consider, for example, you are walking through a field and come across a pocket watch. You will automatically assume that the watch had an intelligent designer and maker due to the distinct characteristics of the watch Read more

In my experience, ontological arguments are not very effective apologetic tools. Cosmological and design arguments are much better and tend to make people more open to the possibility that a personal creator God exists. Moral arguments seem to do the best in actually convincing people of a personal God that cares about the moral behavior Read more

Perhaps the strongest argument against the existence of God is the problem of evil, popularized by John Mackie in his 1955 article “Evil and Omnipotence.”[i] The logical formulation of the problem of evil states that an all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful God is inconsistent with the presence of evil in the world. The evidential formulation of the Read more

A surprising number of people are under the impression that a historical person named Jesus of Nazareth did not exist. These impressions are demonstrably false. All serious historians view it as a historical fact that a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth did exist in the Herodian Kingdom of Judea in the early 1st century. Read more

Most of the miracle accounts in the Bible are not theologically necessary. That is, theological propositions rarely (if ever) rely on specific miracle accounts being literally true. Of course, those who believe that the Bible is inerrant will believe that the miracles accounts are literally true, and those who believe that the Bible is infallible will believe that Read more

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to Christianity and is a belief that all Christians must hold. This section presents a basic apologetic argument showing that the resurrection of Christ is the most plausible explanation for a variety of historical facts. There are many more detailed academic arguments for the Resurrection, but these are Read more