Honors for Introduction to Theology

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Product Description

In today's postmodern world, believers more than ever before are faced with a host of objections to Christianity. Expert apologist Paul Copan describes these objections as "anti-truth" claims and with "How Do You Know You're Not Wrong" he provides a helpful resource with thorough, biblical answers to such regularly used objections as - "Whatever works for you" - "Just as long as it makes you happy" - "All religions are basically the same" - "Christianity is anti-semitic" At the end of each chapter, he provides practical and easy-to-share summary points to help readers intelligently and effectively answer the challenges of their non-Christian friends and neighbors.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #204563 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From the Back Cover
"Hey, whatever works for you." If you've recently tried to tell your friends about Jesus, this is surely a familiar phrase. Besides being familiar, such challenges from today's unbelievers are also frustrating. In fact, they can sometimes leave you speechless. So how do you respond? Expert Christian apologist Paul Copan calls these objections "anti-truth claims." And he knows they're relevant-he's faced them over and over in his apologetics ministry on university campuses and in coffee shops across the country. In "How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?" he presents a collection of objections regarding reality, worldviews, and Christianity and thoroughly addresses each from a biblical standpoint. If you've ever been left lost for words when discussing matters of faith, this insightful book will give you the tools you need to confidently, lovingly, and effectively respond to colleagues, acquaintances, and friends. "Paul Copan gives clear and illuminating answers in this lively and helpful book. I enthusiastically recommend it."-Stephen T. Davis, Claremont McKenna College "Copan takes on some of the strongest challenges to Christian faith and responds to them with clarity, generosity, and laserlike logic."-Francis J. Beckwith, author, Relativism Paul Copan (Ph.D., Marquette University) is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida and is author of "That's Just Your Interpretation" and "True for You, but Not for Me".

About the Author
Paul Copan (Ph.D., Marquette University) is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida. He lives with his wife and five children in Florida.

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Customer Reviews

Responding to objections
Paul Copan is a rising star in Christian apologetics and philosophy. He has written a number of excellent titles defending the Christian faith, on both popular and more academic levels. This volume follows two of his earlier works, namely, True For You, But Not True For Me (1998) and That's Just Your Interpretation (2001).

In all three volumes he raises common objections to the faith and answers them with wisdom, learning and clarity. In this volume, he examines three categories of objections: the nature of truth, the broad area of science and scientism, and objections to specific biblical and theological claims.

In the first section, for example, he devotes a chapter to pragmatism, the claim that what is true is what works. Copan offers three strengths of this view, but then offers eleven problems with the position. And these shortcomings are profound. Lying, for example, may "work", but does that make its right, or true?

In section two he lists eight common objections, centered on the supposed clash between science and faith. In these chapters he deals with a number of related themes. Chief among them is the way in which science can tend to overstep its bounds.

Thus Copan distinguishes between science (a helpful discipline when kept in its proper place) and scientism (the idea that science speaks to all truth, and what is not covered by science is not true). The latter is a philosophical position, not testable by the very tenets of science. It is a presupposition that itself is not empirically verifiable.

While science rightly studies the natural world, scientism seeks to say the natural world is all there is: only matter matters. The truth is, as Copan demonstrates, there are many areas of knowledge that go beyond scientific study. The proper domain of science is nature, but we need more than science to understand what may lie beyond nature.

In the third section Copan looks at common complaints about the Christian faith, such as the idea that the church excluded or suppressed certain texts from the New Testament. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown of course makes such claims. But as Copan demonstrates, the early church leaders did not determine which books would be in or out, they merely acknowledged the authority of existing books.

The various Gnostic gospels that sprang up several centuries after Christ were all seen to be spurious and untrustworthy. Texts like the Gospel of Thomas were clearly at odds with the apostolic writings, and reflected a much different worldview. They also appear on the scene much later.

Thus on a number of fronts, various challenges to the faith are presented and assessed. As with the two previous volumes, these objections are capably dealt with. Not all readers will be convinced by every argument, but at least it becomes clear that there are good answers out there to the host of criticisms leveled against Christianity.

4 stars.
**** In a world where it often seems like the only right some vocal people are willing to grant Christians is the right to remain silent, it is easy to begin to wonder, "am I wrong to believe?" Addressing this question with solid reasons why you are not wrong to believe and what makes Christianity logical, this book will give you the confidence to deal with a world in which Christans are resident aliens. How do we know we have a soul and are more than animals? What about the strange things in the Old Testament that often seem bizarre and harsh? Did a lot of books get left out of the Bible? The answers to these questions and more will give you surety that not only are you, the Christian not wrong, but you are right. ****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.

A persuasive book
The best sections of the book are the first two parts. Copan has a very good analysis of materialism, naturalism and determinism. He shows the problems and limits of science better than many other critics of scientific pretensions. I also agree with him that the difference between humans and animals must be clear. If humans are lowered on the level of animals that will hurt them, too.

The third part, which mostly concerns Old Testament, was not as persuasive for me. I think the God-concept in the early part of the Old Testament reflects the cultural values of those times. Copan tries to make the Old Testament God look better than he/she is. I feel there is great change in the way God relates to human beings even in the Old Testament. This must reflect the human mind which was not ready for love. Perhaps this opinion reflects liberal theology, but that's what I think.