It's just that recently I've discovered the flaws in Darwinian Evolution, such as the whale charts, Cambrian Explosion, and such. As I know, whenever one first gets into an issue, they start getting rabid about it. I remember when I first saw a lecture by Dinesh D'Souza. I wanted to school every atheist I saw. I think the exception is when I first got into pro-life activism. Mostly because I'm banned from talking about abortion or homosexuality at school because that causes controversy and I need to develop social relationships with people because of my high-functioning autism.
A lot of people quote whale charts as evidence for evolution and when they find problems in it they discard evolution. BUt what they fail to realize is that evolution happens by DNA, not fossils. We may not have the whole fossil record, we may not ever recover all of the fossil record. But DNA spells itself out into everything we see. Most anti-evolution people think that fossils are the back bone of the evolutionary theory that if we dont have fossils then evolution has no evidence. This is simply wrong. Its true that fossils may help understand evolution but they certainly are not required for the validity of the theory itself. I would even submit that if all of the fossil record on earth went missing, evolution still would be true becuase of the mechanism of life as we see.
I would recommend you read "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief" by Dr. Francis collins, and then read "the selfish gene" by Richard Dawkins, despite the type of image Dawkin carries, "the selfish gene" is basiclly a book on evolutionary biology nothing else. Also I would recomend reading "The ancestors tale" by Dawkins and "A brief history of time" by Stephen Hawking.
These books will give you a head start on the science of things itself. Will give you a better understanding of the issues you are trying to explore.
Progressive creationism actually is a under OEC. OEC cover almost all creation models, including theistic evolution, the only exception being YEC. Where as thiestic evolution makes a case for God somehow using evolution as a tool, progressive creationism says that God created life in order, one era of certain organisms and when they went extinct then the next and so on and so forth untill it reached man.
That quote from the Bible really helped me reflect on my thoughts of interactions with others, however, what if I'm in public and somebody starts spouting stupid stuff about Christianity at my face? What should I do then?
I would try to ascertain whether I am talking to an adult or just a kid in an adult body. And if its the latter, I won't argue. All arguments that carry insults are personal to us because faith is a very personal and intimate feeling. And when our faith gets insulted, in one way we ourselves feel insulted too because it indirectly questions our intelligence. It has happened to me. But belive me, there is nothing wrong with leaving an argument, even if it sounds like you are "defeated", if the argument in question is just silly and stupid and is getting on your nerves for the wrong reasons. Instead of cursing yourself for not handling it properly later, I would suggest you don't lose sleep over it, come home, pray and thank God for the peace of mind we have in Christ Jesus and start to look at avenues from where you can productively tell people about Christ and even engage in apologetics.
Head over to my blog sometime, you may find it helpful or not, but when I started that blog I was angry at theists and I bashed them a lot. Then with time I realized that I was being the same jerk I have seen most people be. And with time I started making athiests followers who won't agree with me but because of the light mood of the conversations would always chime in and everyonce in a while I get to tell them something they don't know but there is no downside to it. I am giving respect and getting back respect, and in exchange I get to tell them something true about faith. Its not much but its better than fighting with them. Its hard sometimes, some people openly insult but I just don't lose sleep over it now. In the end I can't change their thinking by spouting hate back. I love what Martin Luther King once said "love is the only force which can transform an enemy into a friend ".
Its not that I don't challenge atheists, I do but I try to do it with a persistent friendly tone. If someone starts insults, I tell them plainly that the discourse is finished. I have tried to let go of the feeling that I should always have the last word on everything; its agood thing if you can achieve it.
So bottom line is , I will stay friendly but I won't take insults, I will challenge but won't insult. And if my argument seems like a dead end, I respectfully leave.
That's sort of what's been happening. Whenever I get into a debate on the internet, the words never leave my head until I sit down and type down a reply. I'm just going to stick out of any sort of debate on YouTube, Facebook, or any other site like that. As you said, it's just going to drive me nuts, and sometimes I feel stupid when debating certain subjects, like "does believing in God automatically make me stupid?", "Is the Soviet Gulag and Cambodian Holocaust a lie made up by Christian apologists to make atheists look bad?" or "Has every conflict in history been the direct result of a religious conflict?." (I met an atheist who seriously thought that all fighting, from when the first caveman punched another caveman, was the result of religion. Then again, he was on XBOX Live and we were playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. His buddy also denied the atrocities of the Communist world, which is ironic because we were playing a video game about the Cold War. The game pairs me up with random people to play with. I did not consciously choose to play with him, but I did pray to God to get a chance to use my apologetic skills the night before.)
When I was a teenager around 15-16, I kept my Bible in my school bag, and then later in college, I would read it and take it everywhere with me, I read it all teh time, on the bus, in the coffee break, during lunch and sooner or later some one would ask me what I was reading and that gave me a chance to tell them what I thought. But You don't get successfull all the time. I have learnt that the best way to approach is to be open, be honest, be fair, be challenging, don't give into a false argument but don't insult the other person either. Be friendly, be approachable. Someone should not think of you as someone who will lash out if you hear something against yourself or your faith. With time you will see that you will get across people and people will respect your love and humbleness.
This works for me mostly.
Most of the internet athiests on facebook and youtube are not serious people, most are trolls who just put a one liner and then have you scratch your head on the topic for two hours writing down pages and pages of response and then afterwards when you respond with great clairty and length they just put out another one liner like "you sky daddy is crap and so are you." This is clearly a waste of time of yours. And I would suggest you aviod conversation like these entirely.
The religion is the cause of all violence is an easy card to throw so every second atheist I know throws it but don't take the bait. Tell them plainly that you will only accept what he says if he can cite studies. Without ecidence nothing holds. I mean I often quote hitchens' famous line "that which can asserted without evidence can also be discarded without evidence."
I think I definitely need to study this issue more. Come to think of it, I don't know the difference between OEC and Progressive Creationism, so I definitely need more research. Evolution is just the tip of the iceberg when dealing with God. How life got to the state it's in to be able to do any sort of "evolving" in the first place is a priority in my opinion. I think I might check your post on books on evolution to get started.
I have given a few in the top section. P.m me if you need those.
I read in The Case for Faith that we all have a relationship with God, even when we don't have a "Religious High", like what happened to the Holy Rollers in Appalachia, which got their name because they had religious experiences with the Holy Spirit that literally made them roll on the ground.
I am not sure about this one, I would not call it the work of the holy spirit unless I see the fruits of the spirit somewhere in there or a testimony. Its true we all have a relationship with God but Christ is the only mediator and without him, we only have an intellectual relationship and that is not enough.
Thank you for this reminder, Neo. I really needed it. I think I've got to read Tactics by Greg Koukl again and try to memorize the tactics he uses. A lot of it is cold, technical stuff, but it's mainly on how to do it lovingly and courteously. I should also get to reading the Bible more. I've already read all of John and I'm moving on to Mark. As somebody who's name I forgot said, "Apologetics is not about refuting arguments, it's about leading others to Christ."
I would suggest you read C.S lewis "Mere christinaity", and I won't advise reading books on "tactics" alone. Be a natural find your own style and response. You will feel much better and you will do much better. Its true we all learn things from others but that is the first stage. This forum is very helpful, constantly enagage in discussion with good people, like here on this forum, keep sharpening your skill as you go along.
Most of all keep asking questions if you feel troubled yourself. An apologist with serious doubts about faith is likely to do more harm to himself then benefit others.
You are doing good, and there is nothing more pleasing then seeing someone finding God in a young age. Keep the lamp burning
