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77 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent defense of Christianity!, September 15, 2001
This is one of the best books I have ever read on the topic of defending Christianity rationally. That said, for a Christian new to this topic, a more entry-level book would be more helpful (e.g. Lee Strobel's two books: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith).The book is written to an educated audience and parts of it are difficult. The most difficult part was Moreland's discussion of the kalam cosmological argument and the mathematical part evidence therein. Moreland is an excellent scholar; in total, there are 359 footnotes where Moreland documents arguments, refers to other philosophers and so on. There is also an excellent bibliography at the end where Moreland classes the books under three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Moreland covers what one would expect to find in an apologetics book:
The Cosmological Argument
The Design Argument
The Historicity of the New Testament
The Resurrection of Jesus Much of this material can be found in hundreds of other books. In his chapter on the Cosmological Argument, Moreland focuses on a specific form of it, recently revived by William Lane Craig, namely the kalam Cosmological argument (in brief: If the universe had a beginning, then it was either caused or not-caused, if caused, then the cause is either personal or not-personal). In the Design Argument, Moreland covers different forms of Design, some of which are untouched, even if evolution is true (e.g. Design as Order, Purpose, Simplicity, Complexity, Beauty, Sense and Cognition, Information and Cosmic Constants). Moreland's defense of the Resurrection is similar in many respects to Craig's; see my reviews of, "Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Fiction," and, "Will the real Jesus please stand up?" However, Moreland has several chapters that make his book stand out from the crowd: God and the Argument from the Mind
God and the Meaning of Life
Science and Christianity
Four Final Issues In the Mind chapter, Moreland argues for and defends the idea of substantial, immaterial human souls or minds to the existence of an original Mind or Soul (i.e. God). In the Meaning chapter, Moreland looks at the ethics dimension of the question, examines the options (e.g. Nihilism, optimistic humanism, immanent purpose and Christianity), and concludes that Christianity is not only the most rational but also provides more meaning than the competing views. In the Science chapter, Moreland discusses philosophy of science and the creation/evolution debate. Often, there is an idea that either science and theology are working in totally different spheres of reality or that science should dictate to theology what it can and cannot do. I think Moreland makes an important advance here; his approach takes both science and the Bible seriously. He concludes the chapter with a discussion of evolution and offers a serious of reasons why creation science IS NOT a religion. In the last chapter, he looks at four final issues; the problem of the visibility of God, the religious experience argument for God, the objection that God is merely a psychological projection and relativism. To explain the visibility problem is the view that sense God cannot be seen, one cannot know He exists; Moreland rightly exposes this as, crude empiricism. The author offers two fairly convincing arguments based on religious experience; the reader must keep in mind that even if you reject this argument, there are numerous other objective arguments that are objective in nature. Psychologists and sociologists originally came up with the idea that God is a projection of the mind, or a fulfillment of psychological needs, obviously forgot that philosophy is not their realm. Moreland responds by saying that to explain the origin of the belief does not show whether one is justified in believing it (to discredit an idea solely by pointing to its origin is to commit the genetic fallacy), and Moreland also questions the premise that people project God. Relativism is the view that there are no universal moral rules that apply to all people, all cultures and all times; for more on this topic, see my review of, Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air. Throughout the book, Moreland considers objections to his arguments and systematically disables them. He does not make up objections, but footnotes specific books written by advocates of different philosophies. To those that claim that Christianity is intellectually bankrupt, irrational or whatever, you have a challenge to deal with. Moreland shows the intellectual strength of Christianity and makes it difficult to dismiss Christianity casually. I would highly recommend this book to college and university students and all those who long for a robust defense of the faith.
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