Reddit Reddit reviews Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

We found 22 Reddit comments about Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Christian Theology
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Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
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22 Reddit comments about Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics:

u/AmoDman · 17 pointsr/Christianity

The problem is, a lot of the books that Christians here are recommending are very different in both style and direction than the kinds of books that you're talking about with Dawkins and Hitchens. Which, to be frank, ought to be expected. Detailed philosophical argumentation just isn't something most Christians are worried about or interested in since, once establishing faith, theology and discipleship are far more interesting intellectual pursuits to believers.


In any case, here are a variety of more serious academic responses to the kinds of books you've been reading:


Reasonable Faith By William Lane Craig


Warranted Christian Belief by Alvin Plantinga


Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga


Why God Won't Go Away: Is the New Atheism Running on Empty? by Alister Mcgrath


Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith by Francis S Collins


God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? by John C Lennox


Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target by John C Lennox


Edit: And don't forget that you don't have to buy any of these books to read them! For serious. Library card + inter-library loan system via internet is the way to win.

u/keatsandyeats · 8 pointsr/Christianity

Sure. Well, let me make a couple suggestions:

  • My personal favorite not-an-apologetic is GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy (the link includes a free online version). That book sums up, paradoxically and romantically, Chesterton's views on God. It doesn't go out of its way to be convincing and doesn't take itself too seriously, which I love about it.

  • If you're looking for convincing yet personal (and not too lofty) accounts of a couple of scientists who are believers, I recommend theoretical physicist and Anglican priest John Polkinghorne's Exploring Reality or geneticist Francis Collins' The Language of God.

  • The best logical arguments for God that have been around for centuries (and have been pretty well defended by the likes of men like Victor Reppert and William Lane Craig) were developed by Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. I suggest reading Peter Kreeft's easier-to-swallow shorter version.

  • I believe that Craig's Reasonable Faith does a very admirable and scholarly work of defending the faith philosophically.

  • William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience have nothing to do with apologetics, but have affirmed my faith in God personally. I add it here just to demonstrate, I suppose, that faith is highly personal and that God is revealed as well in the beauty and mystery of the poetic and artistic as He is in nature.
u/flylikeaturkey · 7 pointsr/DebateAChristian

I have "seen" things that have convinced me. Not visually, but emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually my search for truth has always eventually lead me towards a belief in God. I'm not going to get into the individual things that lead me to be convinced of God as they are my lifetime so far of personal experience, education and seeking. But there is enough personal evidence to convince me to have faith.

I think you haven't seen anything convincing because you're looking for the wrong thing.

I could say that I don't believe in atoms, that I haven't seen demonstrable proof for them, you'll ask what would convince me, and I could say "I'll know it when I see it." You would conclude that I haven't examined the evidence properly. You'd find the fault in my view, not reality. How I look at it has no bearing on whether or not it is true. You trust yourself to be the judge of what constitutes adequate proof, but how do you know you're judging that properly.

God is something that would by nature be outside the realm of complete human understanding. We are biological beings with a limited subjective view trying to understand the existence of something limitless, something non-biological, something relational, spiritual, metaphysical. Yet you expect this very thing to physically manifest itself before your eyes before you'll even consider that it exists.

Even if it did physically manifest itself to you, through the lens of science, you wouldn't end up believe in the thing itself, just the bit that physically manifested.

What I'm getting at is that science can only prove the physical, so when asking questions about non-physical things you can't rely on science to reveal them. You can believe that there is only the physical, and science is therefore the only metric you need for assessing the truth. But as science can only measure the physical, you can't use it to prove that a non-physical doesn't exist.

You'll ask why this non-physical, if it does exist, hasn't reached out and confronted you, hasn't revealed itself to you. I'd say it has, but you choose not to listen, because you don't believe in it. You have to open yourself to it first. It's there. What you want is for it to take the last step, to make you believe in it. But you want it to do that on your physical terms.

Someone much more wise and eloquent than I can explain this idea better than I can:
Jordan Peterson on why he believes in God.

For the record I think the scientific case for God is also pretty decent. This book has helped me with that.

u/SuperFreddy · 5 pointsr/Christianity

Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli.

Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

u/ThaneToblerone · 4 pointsr/Christianity

I think the best thing to do here (especially if you enjoy reading) is to do some study into the good reasons why Christianity is believed to be correct. William Lane Craig's Reasonable Faith is one of the best, most cohesive defenses of the reasonability of the Christian faith I've ever read but there are plenty of other good sources too (Richard Swinburne's The Existence of God and The Coherence of Theism, J.P. Moreland and Bill Craig's Philosophical Foundations of a Christian Worldview, Paul Copan and Bill Craig's Come Let Us Reason, Craig Keener's Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, and Alvin Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief just to name a few).

u/spike00 · 3 pointsr/Christianity

>I guess it might be more appropriate to ask why you believe Christianity is the right one.

Many books have been written on the subject. Might I recommend Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

But if you'd rather have my personal point of view, I believe Christianity is true because of the authentic testimony of the bible and Christians everywhere, combined with my own 'personal experiences'. The holy spirit imbues me with a sense of rightness that cant be adequately explained. All these things and more are why I believe Jesus to be the way the truth and the life. Why do you believe that he is not?

u/Adito99 · 2 pointsr/atheism

Reasonable Faith is a good place to start.

u/Neuehaas · 2 pointsr/Christianity

You are so smart to do so my friend! You're probably a philosopher at heart, too inquisitive to "just believe." That's great, I wish more Christians were like that.

The fact is there's plenty plenty of evidence for the truth (both historical and philosophical) of Christianity though it just takes time to read through it all. It's something you kind of have to get a bug up your butt about, or in my case you get strong-armed into it mentally, in which case you become obsessed with it which is what happened to me.

For some lay-level reading I'd check out (in no particular order)

Cold Case Christianity

Reasonable Faith or really anything by William Lane Craig

Evidence for Christianity

There are a TON more...

Also, read the old Church fathers, really fun stuff.

Please feel free to PM me anytime, I will gladly talk to you about whatever you want.

u/riseandburn · 2 pointsr/philosophy

Personally, I really like the book Reasonable Faith which discusses this topic and others, but for more information specifically about the Euthyphro dilemma, see the author's discussion here.

Edit: Craig's book God Over All deals specifically in great depth with divine aseity and basis for the grounding of objective moral values and duties in God, rather than platonic abstracts.

u/aussiekinga · 2 pointsr/Christianity

Not sure if its the best but Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig is a good resource.

u/OberOst · 2 pointsr/Christianity

What you need are good, solid arguments for God's existence and Jesus' resurrection. For those you should read Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

u/TooManyInLitter · 2 pointsr/DebateAChristian

> What book should I download and listen to that will convince me (a strong atheist) there is a god?

"The Call of Cthulhu" - a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft

Praise HIM so that upon waking HE may find you worthy and consume you first.

Just Kidding. We already know (gnostic theist) that Cthulhu exists as documented in the Lovecraft historical documentary story (disguised as fiction to hide the ONE TRUE GOD from heathens)!

As an agnostic atheist towards all supernatural Deities, and a gnostic atheist towards monotheistic Yahwehism, I don't know of any books that would convince you. However, if you would like to read/listen to one of the better known Christian Apologists - consider:

  • Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics,
    by William Lane Craig

    Or perhaps something of a more emotional appeal ...

  • Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

    Both books have garnered many positive reviews by Christians.

    Neither is likely to convince a strong atheist (e.g., one that holds a knowledge position that no Gods, or specific God(s), do not exist), but I know of no book/set of books/narratives/evidence/arguments that presents credible evidence or argument to support belief or acceptance in any God - with the belief in Yahweh even more unsupportable.
u/ljag4733 · 1 pointr/Christianity

You mentioned in this thread that you were interested in WLC. There are several works that might be helpful to you:

Reasonable Faith

and if you have a lot of time

Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Craig and Moreland, but includes a large collection of topics from many modern philosophers)

Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Craig and Moreland)

Again, these last two are rather extensive, but you may find them to be useful if you're interested in the philosophical/scientific aspects of Christianity. Hope this helps!

u/infinitelight9001 · 1 pointr/Christianity

I would also recommend starting with Mark, I definitely found it the easiest to read when I was younger.

In terms of philosophy and theology, it really depends on how well read OP is and how long they've been interested in both subjects. I found McGrath's Christian Theology: An Introduction (there are cheaper editions) and Guthrie's Christian Doctrine to be good high school level theology intros.

For intermediate, maybe William Lane Craig's Reasonable Faith?

If OP has a longstanding interest in and has studied philosophy—note "theology lately, and philosophy"—there's no reason not to start with advanced stuff like The City of God or parts of the Summa.

u/Ultralight-Beem · 1 pointr/Christian

Hello!

Yes I really do believe there is evidence! There is good evidence and plenty of it, it isn't hard to find.

I've got four things that you can do right now:

  1. Pray to God and ask that He would prove/reveal Himself. If God is not real, you have lost 60 seconds of your time. If God is real then this is the best thing in the world that you can do right now. That seems like a very good tradeoff!
  2. Start reading the Bible. Maybe start at John's historical account of Jesus' life. You can do so here if you don't have a Bible already: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.1.NIV
  3. Get properly reading the evidence, don't stay uninformed. This really matters. Three books I'll recommend:

    But Is It True? - Michael Ots

    The Reason for God - Tim Keller

    Reasonable Faith - William Lane Craig

  4. Watch this video as a good start point for looking at the evidence for God. You can go through the bethinking website as much as you want to. It was really helpful for me: https://www.bethinking.org/does-god-exist/case-for-christian-theism

    Please do message me if you have any questions or want any other help/ideas. I'd love to chat to you more. I'm convinced there is evidence, please do tell me why you do agree/disagree and what you're thinking :)
u/JoshuaSonOfNun · 1 pointr/Christianity

Hey man as a Medical Student your username checks out lol. In addition to the book you read I would recommend the book Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

https://www.amazon.com/Reasonable-Faith-Christian-Truth-Apologetics/dp/1433501155/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473563265&sr=8-1&keywords=reasonable+faith

u/rabidmonkey1 · 1 pointr/Christianity

Using the word apologist can be like using the word "liberal" or "conservative" depending upon who you are talking to. Calling someone a liberal doesn't really tell me about them or their politics; it just shows me that someone is vehemently anti-liberal.

Edit: To address your first question - he addresses so much and has had a long, voluminous career; so I'd suggest starting with his book Reasonable Faith if you're really interested in hearing some of what he has to say. Or listen to some of his debates instead. Or, heck, write him at his website/search there for individual responses which you may be curious about.

u/hammiesink · 1 pointr/atheism

By far, the only book I've ever read that makes a good case for theism without doing any of the stupid things evangelicals do (references to evolution, the Bible, etc) is The Last Superstition. It serves as an introduction to the thought of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and really shows how badly Dawkins' screwed up the arguments for the existence of God. From very reasonable starting principles, it argues up to God and immortal human soul with absolutely no reference to divine revelation, any specific religion (except two short pages where he explains how the resurrection could be defended). While it didn't turn me into a theist, it did give me some good food for thought and, quite frankly, I can no longer call theism irrational.

After that, try out Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig; it's considerably weaker than Feser's book, but I appreciate that Craig steers clear of any form of ID (in fact, his fine tuning argument may directly contradict it), and all five of his arguments for the existence of God are logically valid, which leaves you free to ponder over whether the premises are true or not.

Secondly, I would recommend checking out some of the individual arguments for theism, apart from any specific book. CS Lewis is weak IMO as an apologist for theism, but his argument from reason is interesting and worth thinking about. It is expanded in book form here by Vic Reppert. I also made a quickie infographic on it. I also recommend checking out the First Way of Aquinas (see my infographic), partially because it is a lot stronger than atheists seem to think, but MOSTLY to compare to Dawkins' treatment of it in The God Delusion, where you can hopefully clearly see that he hasn't bothered to actually look into it and his confirmation bias is now crystal clear to me.



u/rafaelsanp · 1 pointr/Christianity

If your looking for good philosophical and logical arguments for the existence of God that might get him thinking, then you might want to pick up Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.

I think someone up higher was correct when they said that only God changes hearts, but I found this book very thought provoking. Even if it doesn't convince him it might produce some very good and thoughtful discussions.

And cheers to you for wanting to share the joy! It's the best basis for a relationship that I can imagine.

u/Wood717 · 1 pointr/Christianity

Have you read much of William Lane Craig? He pretty much revived the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God, and he is very knowledgeable on this subject of Theology and Cosmology. His book, Reasonable Faith has something along the lines of 1/5 of the book dedicated to examining different models of the universe, including the Big Bang Model, but also including the Multiverse, Cyclical Models, and some more I'm probably forgetting. There are enough articles and videos on his website and on youtube that you could look up so you wouldn't have to go out and buy a book, but the book is more exhaustive.

u/[deleted] · 0 pointsr/Christianity

Paul in Romans insists that

> what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them, for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Many Christians will insist that everyone does believe but are obstinate because they wish to sin. For example, from this book of apologetics:

> Therefore, when a person refuses to come to Christ it is never just because of lack of evidence or because of intellectual difficulties: at root, he refuses to come because he willingly ignores and rejects the drawing of God's Spirit on his heart. No one in the final analysis really fails to become a Christian because of lack of arguments; he fails to become a Christian because he loves darkness rather than light and wants nothing to do with God.

So yes, a number of Christians will insist that it is exactly because a person is bad or immoral that they choose to fool themselves into not believing.

Edit: I'd point to these responses in this very thread: 1, 2, 3.