tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post4719587313032589735..comments2024-03-19T09:08:18.850+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: What should Christians do next?Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-74938633853287705332012-11-10T00:55:32.117+00:002012-11-10T00:55:32.117+00:00When you say
“If it cannot be avoided, and if you...When you say<br /><br />“If it cannot be avoided, and if you must argue; then for Heavens sake argue from explicitly Christian premises.”<br /><br />you are right on the money. This point of view is essentially the position of the so-called presuppositionalist school of Christian apologetics: Never adopt the thinking of the world, but instead use Christian thinking to show the irrationality and futility of non-Christian thinking. <br />Alan Roebuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02125110158671849339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-64838570373637839142012-11-09T10:02:39.534+00:002012-11-09T10:02:39.534+00:00@ajb - What one is able to say on the spur of the ...@ajb - What one is able to say on the spur of the moment is one matter - but I meant something like: "For two thousand years, Christians have believed...". <br /><br />Or, when Liberal Christianity is used as refutation: "Christianity is two thousand years old and eternally true; it wasn't invented in the 1960s."<br /><br />Or: "I am talking about the beliefs of the most devout and holiest Christians. That is what I am trying to live up to."<br /><br />The intention is not to 'win' an argument, at least not at that moment - but to stop the argument before it gets started, or else force it back to foundational principles:<br /><br />"If you have got time and are interested, I can tell you what are my fundamental principles and why I believe them; can you tell me what are yours?"<br /><br />What the Christian must try to avoid at all costs is to debate Leftist policies using Leftist evaluations - for example to argue about sex, marriage, education suing a utilitarian evaluation. (I read this all the time, arguments like 'wholesale promiscuity is bad because it makes people miserable', or 'affirmative action is bad because is harms those it purports to serve'. <br /><br />Whether these arguments are valid or not, effective or not; such argument may win the battle at the cost of losing the war.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-67035152155359506522012-11-09T08:11:32.901+00:002012-11-09T08:11:32.901+00:00"we believe xyz"
I think it is difficul..."we believe xyz"<br /><br />I think it is difficult to even communicate what is believed. One can say words that are basically empty placeholders as far as a typical secularist can understand the concepts, and then indicate that therefore, one disagrees about policy xyz.ajbnoreply@blogger.com