I was brushing my teeth this morning, and I got to thinking about people who are against apologetics--especially other Christians. Apologetics is nothing more than defending a point of view. You defend a point of view by making arguments or by answering arguments.
It seems to me that a person who is against apologetics is kind of like a solipsist. If a solipsist were totally consistent, they wouldn't bother to try to convince anybody else of solipsism. What would be the point of convincing somebody else of solipsism if there is nobody else to convince?
In the same way, a person who is against apologetics can't very well defend their point of view consistently. They'd have to give an apologetic for their point of view. They'd have to engage in the very thing they object to.
2 comments:
I have a rather provincial Christian colleague who often makes comments to me like, "why do you need to study anything but the Bible," and "why do you need apologetics"? It's actually interesting to interact with him because it gives me a chance to dialog in a less rarified atmosphere than we often find ourselves on these blogs.
The way that I usually shut him down on this point you mention is to ask him why he doesn't "just have faith" in Islam or Mormonism. Of course, he ultimately will begin to give me reasons, such as he has, which entirely defeats his own position.
Apologetics is unavoidable. People do it without even realizing it.
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