“Say someone calls you narrow-minded because you think Jesus is the only way to God,” says one top-selling application introduced in March by a Christian publishing company. “Your first answer should be: ‘What do you mean by narrow-minded?’ ”Oooo, eye-burner. But I suppose asking your opponents to define their terms is an old debating ploy and might even lead to some fruitful thinking. And at least it is not a lie, which is a problem with some other Christian talking points:
The Bible’s 66 books were written over a span of 1,500 years by 40 different authors on three different continents who wrote in three different languages. Yet this diverse collection has a unified story line and no contradictions.The notion that the Bible contains no contradictions is of course an old assertion of Christian theologians, and millions of hours of thinking and arguing have been spent trying to resolve all the apparent discrepancies, so it strikes me that just asserting this is a bit brash.
From the atheist side we have the Atheist Pocket Debater, which tells us:
because miracles like Moses’ parting of the waters are not occurring in modern times, it is unreasonable to accept that the events happened. If you take any miracle from the Bible, and tell your co-workers at your job that this recently happened to someone, you will undoubtedly be laughed at.Is there anyone out there whose faith would be shaken by that one?
I am of two minds about this. I find the notion that people's choices in life might be shaped by such drivel rather sad, but on the other hand I think it is good that young people should think critically about their beliefs and be prepared to defend them, at least in their own minds. So perhaps anything that encourages debate over these matters is a step toward a more intelligent world.
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