A CUMULATIVE CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY

 

Important Distinctions:

1. If something is really true, it is true whether or not I believe it. Truth is bigger than me.

2. This is not an argument from nothing to something; rather it is an explanation of the evidence that we must admit we have before us.

3. Plausibility does not depend upon our comprehensive understanding of the details (e.g., one need not know and understand everything about electrical science in order to make use of electricity).

Criteria of Truth:

1. Correspondence–must respond to the evidence and be livable/applicable to real life.

2. Consistency–must not ask us to accept a contradiction.

3. Completeness–must account best for all the evidence (or, at least more than any other theory).

 

 THE GOD OF CHRISTIANITY MAKES BEST SENSE OF:
I. EXTERNAL EVIDENCES II. INTERNAL EVIDENCES

 

A. REASON
1. PHILOSOPHY
Epistemology
Logic
God's Existence
Ontological
Cosmological
Teleological
Moral
Right/Wrong
Religion
Problem of Evil
Mental
Experiential
Christological
Fulfillment
Human Personality
Miracles
2. HARD SCIENCES
Cosmology
Chemistry
Biology
Physics
Mathematics
Geology
Archaeolgy
3. SOCIAL SCIENCES
History
Sociology
Psychology
B. REVELATION
Bible
Jesus Christ
Miracles

 

A. CONSCIENCE
Sense of Right/Wrong and Responsibility
Faith and Certitude (for believers)
B. DESIRES
Purpose
Happiness
Fellowship
Wisdom & Certaint

It should be noted that the outline is an adaptation of Paul D. Feinberg's chart published in "Cumulative Case Apologetics" in Five Views on Apologetics, ed. Steven B. Cowan, pp. 148-72 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), p. 157.

Thanks goes to Douglas S. Huffman, Ph.D. Dean of Admission & Records and Associate Professor of Bible, Northwestern College, for making this information available to the webmater.

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