Part Four: MORE EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS THAT PUT THE “BURDEN OF PROOF” ON NON-CHRISTIANS.
This week’s blog article will finish the list of category one Socratic questions, which I began in last week’s blog article. These Socratic questions obligate skeptics of Christianity to explain what they believe and to give good reasons for their criticisms of Christianity, as well as to substantiate their own positions on the issues they raise. They challenge non-Christians to explain what they believe, why they believe it, what difference it makes, and to provide other legitimate answers that justify their criticisms. Of course the premise of the Socratic Method is to help skeptics to see they can’t do any of these! (I introduced Socratic Method of apologetics in the first two blog articles in this series, dated January 4th and January 11th.)
4. Where did you learn that?
Challenge the skeptics’ sources of information. Are those sources reliable? Will these people document their beliefs outside of their personal opinions? If applicable, point out that their misinformation about Christianity is actually a byproduct of secular culture, not thoughtful analysis of the evidences:
• “Where did you learn that evolution is scientific fact? Have you examined data supporting creation?
• “Where did you learn that Jesus’ resurrection is mythical? I encourage you to get your opinion on the historicity of the resurrection by reading eyewitness testimony in the Bible rather than someone’s opinion on a TV documentary or in Newsweek or Time written two thousand years after the event.”
5. What is your solution to. . . ?
The idea here is to encourage non-Christians to see that apart from God their worldviews can’t solve life’s problems or answer the tough questions all people face.
• “What is your solution to human suffering if God does not exist?”
• “What is your solution to the moral depravity so widespread in our culture if there is no God to tell us how to behave and hold us accountable?”
6. What difference does that make?
How do the beliefs of non-Christians affect the Christian worldview? Do they really invalidate Christianity?
• “What difference does it make whether God created life on earth in six days or over billions of years?” (Note: Christians can legitimately disagree on this, but it should not be an apologetic issue unless an unbeliever makes it one. Either way God is the creator and evolution is wrong, and that’s the point we need to make.)
• “Even if the Bible does contain a few minor errors (and I’m not saying it does), what difference do they make? Do you reject other historical books that contain minor and insignificant textual errors?
7. If . . . is true, can you explain . . .?
The last category of questions is designed to raise issues that a skeptic’s position or worldview cannot explain.
• “If evolution is true, can you explain the absence of transitional fossils in the fossil record? In fact, why are there no transitional fossil parts, such as a half scale/half feather or a half leg/half wing?”
• “There are no laws of physics that prove the universe suddenly exploded into existence out of nothing. Can you explain how something can come from nothing?
• “If life emerged from non-life, can you explain how non-living chemicals can evolve into living anything?”
• “If Jesus’ resurrection never occurred, can you explain the eyewitness documentation that hundreds of people saw Jesus after His certified death on the cross?”
In next week’s blog article, we’ll look at the second category of Socratic Questions: rebound questions. There are Socratic questions that are essentially identical to the kinds of questions unbelievers ask us. The purpose of these kinds of questions is to point out that the worldview problems unbelievers think Christians can’t answer are even more serious problems for non-Christian religious and secular worldviews. This may prompt unbelievers to give us a fair hearing because we can provide legitimate Christian-based answers that stand up to critical scrutiny. (C)
* This series of blog articles is adapted from my books Engaging the Closed Minded: Presenting Your Faith to the Confirmed Unbeliever and The Christian Combat Manual: Helps for Defending Your Faith; A Handbook for Practical Apologetics, which can be purchased at most outlets. Many of these questions are listed in these two books, as well as the Christian positions on the issues.