I tend to get involved in apologetics.  I don’t mean to, but I sometimes doubt my faith.  I sometimes get afraid that I am an idiot for believing what I do.  I used to read Richard Dawkins and be in awe of his doctorate.  I thought that he was a really smart man.  When I read post-modern philosophers their scepticism seemed wise.  Sometimes a nihilistic approach has seemed attractive – but as Nietzsche’s life indicates it is too easy to step across a line from sanity to insanity.  Popular movies and television make fun of what is seen as a Luddite and repressive Christian faith.  Do we have to say that what we believe is irrational and that is why it is faith.  In the end though, everyone has properly foundational beliefs (emphasis on beliefs).  The idea that science will save us and all life’s solutions are scientific is not science – it is faith.  The idea that all truth is relative is contradictory (i.e. why isn’t the sentence itself open to the same criticism?).  Scepticism destroys everything except itself (why does it get to survive?).  In the end there are beliefs and we choose which beliefs to accept as true.  The next step is to see which beliefs actually are true.  Which beliefs actually correspond with reality.  Belief in the Christian God is not the same as belief in fairies or spaghetti monsters.  Fairies and spaghetti monsters have no explaining power.  Once we, like Kierkegaard, take a step into a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ reality comes into sharper focus.  It may seem like foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.  So my doubts and fears about the validity of my faith cause me to read a little deeper and find answers.  This enriches my faith because I can love God with all my mind, and with a clear conscience.  What do you do with arguments or experiences that shake your faith?

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written:
   “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”^[c]

 ²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Questions

1. What message exactly is foolishness to those who are perishing?
2. What two groups does Paul address as dismissing the gospel?
3. Why do they dismiss it according to Paul?
4. What do wise people in the media call upon as their authority?
5. How do New Age spiritual people dismiss the gospel?  How do the ‘New Atheists’ dismiss the gospel?  How do you respond?

Going Deeper

Watch the youtube clip of J.P. Moreland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgSjqbD3RCE

Do Christians need to think on this level?  Do you?

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer 

http://www.ligonier.org/

http://www.reasons.org/

Why do you think that there is a level of disconnect between the level of thinking that goes on in church settings and the level of thinking that goes on in universities?  If we are to love God with all our mind, how can we develop the mind in the Christian faith?