Tip #26 Face What You're Evading
Jul. 20th, 2015 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastConsider this one an addendum to "You're Not Going to Win on Technicality."
In a debate titled "Is The NT Evil"*, David Silverman asked if he had the ability to do other than what God has, from the beginning of time, deemed that he will do. James White's response was "You don't want to, so I don't know why you're asking the question."
If you view the debate, yourself, I think you'll share my skepticism that Mr. White didn't know where a straight-forward response to that question would go.
In a court of law, giving that kind of response can result in having the judge instruct to answer the question. If the same response is given, that can result in being found in contempt of court with fine and/or jail time. Additionally, and more importantly for your concerns as an evangelist or apologist, it highlights that you need to evade in order to avoid.
In James White's case, he's avoiding the logical conclusion that his particular version of Christianity does not allow for free will.
Another example is the classic response to the Problem of Hell "Would you rather God keep you in his presence despite you not wanting it?" which deliberately misses the point (read: evades) that the creation of a realm specifically to be eternal torment is the problem.
Evading tells those who aren't already predisposed to your position that there's something of your own belief or of a basic reality with which you have not contended. Perhaps it's that, without meaning to, you've been believing in an Evil Jesus. Perhaps it's that the cultural response to your faith is not the uniformly better morality that you've believed/promised.
If so, you may need to adjust your faith accordingly, you may need to come to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between your faith and its adherents.
Or, maybe, it's just something that takes more time and effort to explain than you once thought.
Either way, evading won't help you. It won't convince the unconvinced of anything but that you are trying, desperately, to keep them in the dark.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4oNDSg_g-8
In a debate titled "Is The NT Evil"*, David Silverman asked if he had the ability to do other than what God has, from the beginning of time, deemed that he will do. James White's response was "You don't want to, so I don't know why you're asking the question."
If you view the debate, yourself, I think you'll share my skepticism that Mr. White didn't know where a straight-forward response to that question would go.
In a court of law, giving that kind of response can result in having the judge instruct to answer the question. If the same response is given, that can result in being found in contempt of court with fine and/or jail time. Additionally, and more importantly for your concerns as an evangelist or apologist, it highlights that you need to evade in order to avoid.
In James White's case, he's avoiding the logical conclusion that his particular version of Christianity does not allow for free will.
Another example is the classic response to the Problem of Hell "Would you rather God keep you in his presence despite you not wanting it?" which deliberately misses the point (read: evades) that the creation of a realm specifically to be eternal torment is the problem.
Evading tells those who aren't already predisposed to your position that there's something of your own belief or of a basic reality with which you have not contended. Perhaps it's that, without meaning to, you've been believing in an Evil Jesus. Perhaps it's that the cultural response to your faith is not the uniformly better morality that you've believed/promised.
If so, you may need to adjust your faith accordingly, you may need to come to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between your faith and its adherents.
Or, maybe, it's just something that takes more time and effort to explain than you once thought.
Either way, evading won't help you. It won't convince the unconvinced of anything but that you are trying, desperately, to keep them in the dark.
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4oNDSg_g-8
