Day Seven of the Twelve Days of Solstice

We're celebrating the 12 days of Solstice rather than the 12 days of Christmas. I'm done writing and editing books. So I'm highlighting each of my twelve books leading up to the 25th of the month when we party. I'll tell you something about each of them you probably don't know. [See Tag Below]

 
The first thing you should know about my book How to Defend the Christian Faith: Advice from an Atheist, is that I first thought of doing such a thing before any of my 12 books were published. This is what I said back in 2006, the year I began blogging. After almost ten years I revisited the concept with a series of fifteen posts titled, "Do You Want to Be A Christian Apologist? Part 1...15". From them I was able to write Part 2 of this book. [Sorry, I drafted these posts since I owe it to my publisher to send people his way]. That same year I also wrote a series of critical posts on every chapter in God and Evil: The Case for God in a World Filled with Pain, edited by Chad Meister, and James K. Dew. [Again, I drafted these posts since I owe it to my publisher to send people his way].

The stuff that was new to the book was the chapter 1 and Part 1:

1. The Most Important Question Of All

Part 1 You Must Prepare for the Task

2. Realize in Advance the Monumental Challenges

3. Become an Honest Life-Long Seeker of the Truth  

4. Get a Good Education in a Good Field of Study

5. Nothing Less Than Sufficient Evidence Will Do 

6. How to Know Which Religion to Defend

Part 2 How to Defend the Christian Faith

7. You Must Specialize in Special Pleading

8. You Must Punt to Possibilities

9. You Must Gerrymander for God

10. You Must Master the Art of Mischaracterization

11. When All Else Fails Lie

Part 3 How to Defend God in a World of Pain

12. Skirt the Strength of the Challenges

13. Admit There Are No Solutions

14. Blame Anything But the Creator

15. Make Illegitimate Excuses for God

16. Ignore This Empirical Refutation of Christianity

In chapter 1 challenge apologists with the most important question of all when it comes to defending the Christian faith. It’s the obvious elephant in the room that very few Christians even notice. Why is it necessary to defend the Christian faith at all? I mean, really, if people want to pursue a goal they should know why they are doing so. I argue there shouldn’t be any reason to defend Christianity. I challenge readers interested in pursuing that goal to ponder this question. Answer it before proceeding any further. I argue that God, if he exists, should do all the work himself—without needing any apologists—thereby attaining much better results than apologists could ever possibly get.

I am particularly happy with chapter 5. The only apologetics method that has any merit at all is the sufficient evidentialist approach. It’s the one method that proponents of four subsequent methods reject or degrade to second class status at best. Christians should find this troublesome. After all, we’re talking about apologetics, defending the truth of Christianity. And it cannot be done without sufficient objective evidence.

As to the blurbs they can be found on Amazon. Not only can you see the Advance Praise blurbs, but also many of the fine reviews of the book. Unfortunately, it got unjustifiably blasted in a few reviews from readers who clearly have an axe to grind. It would be nice if I could get some "Likes" on reviews that are fair-minded, or even some new positive reviews.

After the book was published Christian apologist Gary Habermas told me he has "highly recommended" my book to his Ph.D. students at Liberty University in the School of Divinity. He teaches the PhD class APOL 910—Apologetic Methodology in which he requires his students to read 1000 pages for this class, and my book is on the list of recommended books.

William Albrëcht wrote: "As a Catholic apologist, I cannot recommend this book enough. The arguments therein are elite level arguments that ANY believer MUST answer if they are to defend their faith against the very best that atheism has to offer. I own this book and give copies out frequently."

I am honored to have Dr. Peter Boghossian write the Foreword with some glowing remarks about my book. To say he liked it is a big understatement. He closes it with these words:

How to Defend the Christian Faith is the Omega of literally thousands of years of intellectual history devoted to the defense of Christianity. There will never need to be another apologia of the Christian faith. It is the ultimate corrective mechanism for the Christian faith, and the definitive guide to Christian apologetics and for Christian apologists. You will never have to read another book about how to defend your faith—and, after reading this book, you may never want to.

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John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. Thank you so much!