Apologetics and the Desirability of Christianity

I don’t want Christianity to be false. There, I said it.

Does that mean I’m biased when I do my research on the existence of God and on the Resurrection of Jesus? Of course.

Does that mean I’m wrong? Of course not. My desire has absolutely no bearing on whether or not God exists. The evidence and reason are what matters.

It does, however, mean that you would have a hard time convincing me that Christianity is false. I should mention that I do believe Christianity is falsifiable. Prove Jesus didn’t rise from the dead and Christianity is over, Paul himself said so.

Here’s the thing: I’m not unique. Everyone is this way. Before you change your mind, you have to have at least some desire to do so.

I’ve heard atheists say before, “I’d like to believe, but there just isn’t enough evidence.” I believe them.

They are the kind of person that could be converted. There are other kinds though.

There are some who, like me, rather enjoy things as they are and don’t want them to change. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this. After all, I just admitted that I’m the same way.

What I’m saying is, such a person is nearly impossible to convince. It does happen, but how often?

I’ll tell you right now: the odds of me ever giving up the Christian faith are about zero. I’ve examined the evidence already and reached my conclusion. Of course, I could be wrong and I could change my mind, but I highly doubt it.

I, like many atheists, would first have to be given a reason as to why I would want to change my mind.

Here’s the main point of this article: Based on this observation, it seems that providing evidence for the truth of a worldview is necessary, but inadequate. There must be more, if we are going to convince people that have no desire to change their minds.

Here’s some ideas that I’ve had to go about this. Let me know what your suggestions are.

1. Offense. I think we have to go on the offense. We can’t just defend the existence of God and the Resurrection of Jesus. I think we need to go on the offense against atheism and other world religions. We need to show why they are incoherent and ultimately untenable.
2. Good God. We need to show the desirability of Christianity by showing how good God is and the benefits of a life following Jesus. This isn’t an argument for his existence, this is an argument for his desirability.
3. Love. And of course, as Jesus said, they will know us by our love. Much of the time when a person leaves the faith it is because of something a Christian did. To counter this, let us lead the way in showing love to one another. Let’s be the kind of church that people want to be a part of.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, while I believe it is vital to show the truth value of Christianity, it is equally vital to show the desirability of Christianity.