36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Responding to objections, April 26, 2006
This review is from: How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless (Paperback)
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.
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33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 stars., July 27, 2005
This review is from: How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless (Paperback)
**** 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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Dealing with objections to the Christian worldview, July 24, 2008
This review is from: How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless (Paperback)
Copan's book provides a primer in basic logic and reasoning when confronting objections that Christians often hear regarding their religious beliefs. The opening chapters deal with slogans related to truth and reality (such as "whatever works for you"); the next seven chapters deal more with slogans related to worldviews (such as proving things scientifically and animal rights); the final six chapters deal solely with slogans related to Christianity and the Bible.
I enjoyed studying philosophy in college and Copan's book makes for an interesting read for those people who enjoy logic and reasoning. He systematically takes apart every slogan and shows how many of these fail under the harsh scrutiny of logic. Chapters 9 and 10 deal specifically with animal rights and it's from my reading of this that I learned how big of a hypocrite PETA member Pete Singer is. Reading this book made me wonder why anyone takes Singer's writings seriously.
In the Bible, philosophy is linked with "empty deception" and based on some of these slogans, it's easy to see why. Philosophy can and should be a search for truth and wisdom but too often it takes a detour into beliefs that have no real value
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