Posts Tagged ‘Apologetics’

Does God Exist? 18 Arguments, one challenge – you decide.

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I teach Apologetics in a private Christian High School in Cary, NC and one of the topics is answering the challenge of the existence of God. I take the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas and add 13 more, to provide 18 Arguments for the Existence of God.

You can find it here: Does God Exist

See also: session 2

The arguments move in degree from inquiring if the so-called atheist might actually be unsure, plausibly agnostic, maybe considering theism or actually able and willing to consider Christian theism.

One of the arguments in the middle is an argument from Religion, itself. I argue that there has never been a thoroughly atheistic culture in human history – anywhere . . . anytime. I am using “atheism” a bit broader in definition to mean people who do not believe in any kind of spiritual reality or accountability. That they are more akin to materialists (the philosophical kind that think matter is all there is – not the greedy king that just want the bling.)

bizarro_atheists

As I was giving this argument in another setting, I was challenged to look up the Piraha people of the Amazon Jungle in/near Brazil. There was an episode or two on the television that proposed these people to be just that thoroughly atheistic culture that I was denying existed. So, I did.

My journey took me to a couple of YouTube videos, an article or two, a “Wiki-trail” and finally to Daniel Everett’s book, “Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle.”

My conclusion: [THIS SECTION REMOVED FOR NOW, FOR THE PURPOSE OF A CLASS EXERCISE . . . ]

I encourage the reader to watch the videos below, then read the Wiki-articles (I realize Wikipedia is not a legit resource, but these are pretty well documented) about Everett, SIL (the mission org), the Piraha, their predecessors – the Mura, an interesting article and then read the prologue and what you can of Everett’s book on Amazon.com. (I use the “Look Inside” function :))

Links are below and as for the challenge against the argument for religion . . . WHAT DO YOU THINK?

 

 

 

 

The Gospel, updated and full of life!

See attached for the Gospel Power Point pack.

The Gospel

Before Apologetics, there was Thinking . . .

ThinkHere are the links for your options in the first apologetics assignment. Either read the book in its entirety (except appendices) or watch the conference sessions for Francis Chan, Thabiti Anyabwile (the one with just him, not the one that he does with Greear), R.C. Sproul and John Piper.

 

Book: http://cdn.desiringgod.org/website_uploads/documents/e-books/pdfs/think-1388566641.pdf

Speaker sessions: http://www.desiringgod.org/conference-messages/by-series/2010-national-conference

 

GRACE LIFE COMMUNITY CHURCH ROCK YOUR FAITH WEEKEND

I had a great time with the family at Grace Life Community Church for their first Apologetics Conference – Rock your Faith Weekend. So grateful to the staff there for allowing me to come and share a bit with them. Attached are the slide packs and anything else I can remember to put up. As a note: the videos embedded in the PP slides will not work when you download the files. Sorry!

GRACE SHOW AND TELL 1

GRACE SHOW AND TELL 2

SHOW AND TELL3

The Gospel

Attached are the slides for the Gospel, as described in my Apologetics class.

The Gospel