Apprentice Owl Apologetics

                Probably one of the most common questions I am asked is “Why are you a Christian?” If this question had been asked of me a few years ago, and I might not have had a very convincing answer. I might have qualified for the accusation of Peter Singer, that of children blindly following the faith of their parents. I had never really examined other worldviews, but I found a challenge to my own worldview in an atheist classmate of mine. We had a discussion about pros and cons of each of our worldviews, and I found for the first time a challenge to my own worldview. My classmate presented argument after argument in quick succession and I didn’t have many answers for them. I left that discussion with my faith shaken, and almost broken. I fell into a depression for a while, and after much prayer and inner analysis, I decided to put my faith to the test and see if it was true. This would be my first exposure to Christian apologetics.                 The beginning of this

                Ask any Christian what the most common objection to their faith or God from the outside is, and I would be willing to bet one of the top objections would be: “If God is so good and loving, why does He allow suffering and evil in the world?” This question is probably one of the hardest ones to answer. I will not insult anyone by saying that I have a set of simplistic answers to deal with any form of suffering. For me to write about this, I have to appeal much to the love of God and the mind of God, which I have experienced only a sliver of His infinite love and wisdom. I hope that by my admitting my shortcomings at the beginning, I have not already shut some of your minds to what I have to say.                 So to start, we should break down the suffering that people deal with. I would say that there are two types of suffering: one caused by people inflicting suffering on others, which is called moral evil, and the suffering inflicted on people by natural even

                This is one subject I have been timid to write about, as it is a large source of tension between Christians no matter what denomination. The age of the Universe has been a large conflict since the debut of radioactive dating methods. There are people on either side of this debate between an Old and a New Earth, and while I will not weigh in on this topic personally, I would like to present what each argument is and possibly a few pieces of evidence for both arguments to get you thinking about the issue. For those unfamiliar with old and young earth creationism, young earth creationism is the result of several people taking the genealogies presented in the Old Testament of the Bible and adding up the lifetimes of each person to determine the age of the earth. Young Earth creationists also typically hold the view that the 6 day creation period are literally six 24 hour days. Proponents of this view will tend to take a literal interpretation of other Biblical pass

                Apologetics might seem like a strange word for someone reading it for the first time. One can define apologetics from the Greek word meaning “speaking in defense”. So to expand it out; apologetics is the discipline of defending a position through a systematic means. Some people, such as myself reading, the word apologetics for the first time might associate the word with apology. So if you hold that position, a Christian Apologist is someone who is apologizing for their faith. That doesn’t make much sense does it? Normally in my dialogue and watching debates between atheists and Christians, if the Christian isn’t a pastor or a priest, then they are introduced as Christian Apologists.                 Now because these people are not ordained ministers does not take away from their credibility in any way. We are all called to have a defense of our faith ready for those who ask questions regarding the Christian faith (1 Peter 3:15-17). So in a sense anyone who cla

                A big point of contention amongst those interested in politics is the question “Were the United States founded as a Christian nation?” Many of those on the left side of the aisle would love to say that our founding fathers were major secularists who hated everything within the Bible and those with the religious right would say that each and every one of our founding fathers were Bible thumping Christians. According to what I have researched, it’s kind of a mixed bag. I would say that the United States is what it is thanks to the freedoms that are granted through the applications of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. If that is what it takes to make a Christian nation, then the United States is a Christian nation. Many people would site the 1797 treaty with the Barbary pirates where President Adams wrote “The United States was not, in any way, founded on the Christian religion.” But notice that further treaties retreated from this statement and made no more b