DAY 187

CHALLENGE

“The Gospels were written long after the fact. They aren’t historically reliable.”

DEFENSE

On the contrary, the details in the Gospels show they are very reliable.

In John, when Jesus is about to miraculously feed the five thousand, he asks Philip where it would be possible to buy bread (John 6:5–6). This is surprising since Philip was not a major apostle.

However, John also records that Philip was from Bethsaida—the town from which Peter and Andrew originally hailed (John 1:44, 12:21). The feeding of the five thousand occurred in a desolate place near the town of B…

DAY 186

CHALLENGE

“Peter isn’t the rock because Paul says, ‘For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ’ (1 Cor. 3:11).”

DEFENSE

Scripture describes the Church’s foundation in at least five ways. You can’t pick one and ignore the others.

Paul was not speaking of the universal Church’s foundation. He was referring to how he started the local church at Corinth, of which Christ is the irreplaceable foundation. One can extend this concept to the universal Church, but not without taking into account other things the New Testament has to say.

In 1 P…

DAY 185

CHALLENGE

There is no proof that the unborn are human beings.

DEFENSE

There is proof, and it is obvious regardless of one’s faith perspective.

Objectively speaking, a human being is a living human organism. For the unborn to qualify as human beings, they must meet three criteria:

1. They must be alive.

2. They must be human.

3. They must be organisms.

They meet the first criteria—life. We observed elsewhere that they are alive (see Day 191). This is illustrated by the fact that the unborn have biological processes occuring in their cells, which are multiplying and specializin…

DAY 184

CHALLENGE

Religion is irrational. It requires us to maintain faith even in the face of contrary evidence.

DEFENSE

No one instantly abandons his convictions upon encountering the slightest bit of contrary data. This is not true in religion, and it is not true in other areas.

We encounter vast amounts of data in our lives, some of which will contradict things we believe. When this happens, we have three basic choices: (1) ignore the new data, (2) revise our belief to fit the new data, or (3) abandon our belief.

Each choice can be rational in different situations. If we have stron…

DAY 183

CHALLENGE

How can you believe the Bible is the true word of God? It contains numerous accounts of people saying and doing horrible things.

DEFENSE

So does a typical newspaper.

A newspaper’s job is to report significant things that happened. That doesn’t mean it approves. Newspapers report rapes, murders, and crimes the paper does not approve of. They also report people saying things that the paper’s reporters and editors completely disagree with.

Similarly, just because Scripture records something doesn’t mean it endorses it. It does mean the biblical author thought the event…

DAY 182

CHALLENGE

“Luke is mistaken when he says Jesus was born during ‘the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria’ (Luke 2:2). That census happened in A.D. 6–7, long after Jesus’ birth.”

DEFENSE

There are multiple solutions, some of which are presented here.

First, the word for “first” (Greek, prōtē) can mean “before.” Taken thus, Luke would be saying this was a census before the famous one in A.D. 6–7.

Second, if prōtē is translated “first,” this implies there was a second census under Quirinius. The second census would need to be famous for Luke to point out that…

DAY 181

CHALLENGE

“The book of Judith cannot be true. It says in its very first verse that Nebuchadnezzar was king of the Assyrians, but we know from history that he was really the king of the Babylonians.”

DEFENSE

The alleged error is itself a cue to the audience, telling them what kind of book they are reading.

The book is about a devout woman named Judith, which means “Lady Jew.” She battles a general sent by Nebuchadnezzar—the greatest single individual enemy of Israel. He is depicted as the leader of the Assyrians—the other great enemy of Israel.

Let’s transpose this into a mode…

DAY 180

CHALLENGE

“Catholics are wrong to pray the rosary. Jesus condemned ‘vain repetitions.’”

DEFENSE

Jesus did not condemn prayer that involves repetition—he endorsed it.

In the King James Version, Jesus says, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matt. 6:7). Even in this translation, he does not condemn repetition but vain (useless) repetition.

But there is a problem with this translation. In Greek, Jesus says we should not battalogēsēte. This is a rare word not found elsewhere in the New …

DAY 179

CHALLENGE

“The fine-tuning argument is flawed: (1) The fact that our universe’s constants appear finely tuned to allow for the existence of life could be due to chance if there are a vast number of universes, each of which has slightly different constants; (2) perhaps there is some law we haven’t yet discovered why the universe must have the constants it does; and (3) even if the universe is designed, that doesn’t mean the designer is God.”

DEFENSE

None of these objections overturn the fine-tuning argument.

First, if it were true that there were a sufficiently vast…

DAY 178

CHALLENGE

“Modern cosmology gives us no reason to believe in God.”

DEFENSE

Elsewhere we cover the support the Big Bang gives to God’s existence (see Day 46), but there is also the fact that the universe appears to be finely tuned to allow the possibility of life.

This argument may be phrased as follows:

The universe has a significant number of physical constants that fall within narrow ranges that allow life to develop.

These values are either the product of design or chance.

It is highly unlikely that they are the product of chance.

Therefore, the physical constants of the un…