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Faith is Reasonable Thinking is not the enemy of the Christian

2016 Auxanō Series

Scripture to Consider (ESV) ➢

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. (2 Peter 1:16)

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Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. (2 Corinthians 5:11)

Today’s Agenda ➢ ➢

Logical Fallacies (just to wrap up some things from last week) What is faith according to the Bible?

Logical Fallacy Kenneth Samples’ definition: “occurs when an argument contains a specific defect.” ➢

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As Christians we want to think and communicate clearly, we want to avoid fallacies and be aware of them when talking with others who may challenge us A good argument has premises (evidence, facts, reasons) that support a conclusion Avoid irrelevant emotional appeals ○ This is used all the time in the messages of our culture!

*See Professor Samples’ book A World of Difference for the following examples and more

Emotional Appeals Examples: Bin Laden to the Saudi royal family: ”You must break off all cooperation with the United States and denounce America as an imperialistic enemy of Islam...And if you do not, Allah will surely use his agents to topple your puppet government.”

Doctoral advisor to graduate student: “Your arguments critiquing Darwinian theory are certainly provocative and clever, but pay heed that no student will ever successfully defend a doctoral dissertation here while challenging the scientific basis for evolutionary thought.”

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Can you spot the similarities between the two? ○ ○

Both include threats which are irrelevant to the issue This fallacy is called an appeal to force

Emotional Appeals Example: Pro-choice advocate speaking at a pro-abortion rally: “If abortion on demand is outlawed, then desperate women will seek illegal back-alley abortions with rusty coat hangers, leading to untold harm and thousands of needless deaths.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○ ○

It tries to appeal to a person’s sense of compassion and evoke sympathy instead of drawing a conclusion from premises backed up by proven facts This fallacy is called an appeal to pity

Emotional Appeals Example: Hitler Youth Leader to student (ca. 1938): “Our Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s policies must be good for Germany--just look at how the large the crowds salute him. You too should join our victorious patriotic movement.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○ ○

This plays on a person’s psychological desire to be accepted, respected, and included in order to get a conclusion accepted by the audience This fallacy is called an appeal to the people ■

Just ask: does the number of people who believe in something change the morality of an issue?

Genetic Fallacy Examples: Psychology instructor to class: “Belief in God arises from fear--primarily fear of the unknown and especially fear of death. Reason and logic have nothing to do with belief in the divine.” A pro-abortion lobbyist: “We cannot have laws limiting abortion that are based on moral concerns because those concerns are religiously-based.” A skeptic on the street: “The New Testament authors were believers in Jesus as their Messiah and thus they were biased, therefore we cannot trust what they wrote.”

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What are the defects in these arguments? ○ ○

They try to reach conclusions about an idea based on assuming that there is something wrong with the origin of that idea, despite the origin having no relevance to the issue This is called the genetic fallacy

Wishful Thinking Example: A late-night preacher on TBN: “I am positively confessing that God will give me unlimited health, wealth, and prosperity! Sickness, poverty, and death cannot even touch me!”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○ ○

The logical fallacy is assuming something must be true because someone wants it to be true This is called wishful thinking

Begging the Question Example: “Of course David Koresh was the messiah. All of his followers at Waco believed it. And he personally taught his intimate followers about his messianic claims.” “All the greatest scientists in the world believe that Darwinian evolution is a fact. If they didn’t believe this they wouldn’t be great scientists.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○ ○ ○ ○

The logical fallacy here assumes to be true that which needs to be proved true The premises need the conclusion to be right in order for them to be right Sometimes this argues in a circle This is called begging the question ■ We often misuse this phrase!

Complex Question Examples: “Hey, Henry, have you stopped plagiarizing other people’s work yet?” “Does your mother know that you are stupid?”

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What is the defect? ○ ○

The logical fallacy involves raising questions that have unproven conclusions built in This is called a complex question

After this, Therefore Because of this Example: “Baseball legend Ted Williams batted over .400 in the 1941 major league baseball season. Just a couple of months after this accomplishment the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Wow. A batting slump on William’s part might have kept America out of World War II.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○

The logical fallacy reasons that since Event A happened prior to Event B, Event A must have caused Event B, when in reality the timing was merely coincidental instead of causal

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Sometimes this fallacy is committed by religious leaders who blame large tragic events on the judgement of God on sin This is called after this, therefore because of this

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Not the Cause for the Cause Example: “There is a lot of poverty in countries that produce the most terrorism. Therefore, we should help those countries create jobs to fight terrorism.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○ ○

The logical fallacy happens when the argument misidentifies the cause of an effect This is called not the cause for the cause

Oversimplified Cause Examples: “President Ronald Reagan won the Cold War.” “He (President Obama) is the founder of ISIS.”

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What is the defect in this argument? ○

The logical fallacy here involves taking complex issues with complex causes and

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simplifying the cause to the point of absurdity, even if the stated cause may be one of the contributing factors This is called oversimplified cause

An Appeal to Untrustworthy Authority Examples: The world’s most famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, once wrote “philosophy is dead.” A pastor during a sermon states, “global warming is a complete fiction!” A famous football player is featured in an ad selling car insurance

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What is the defect in the argument? ○ ○

The logical fallacy here involves an authority speaking outside of his/her area of expertise and doing so in such an authoritative way This is called an appeal to untrustworthy authority

An Appeal to Ignorance Example: The skeptic might say, “until you can prove to me there is a God, I am going to assume that atheism is correct.”

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What is the defect in the argument? ○

The logical fallacy occurs when a conclusion is drawn despite the premises not proving

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anything. It’s either arguing that an idea is true because it has not been proved false, or arguing that an idea is false because it has not been proved true This is called an appeal to ignorance

Category Mistake Examples: An atheist states, “I reject any notion that there is a God because if there was we would have seen Him by now.” A skeptic asks, “who created God?”

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What is the defect in the argument? ○

The logical fallacy here is confusing categories, misunderstanding that by definition God is

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invisible or that God is eternal (the category of divinity does not fit into the category of things that can be either seen or created) ■ And this also ignores what Christians believe about the Incarnation This is called a category mistake

Ad Hominem Example: Candidate A: ”The system is broken, we need to pass a robust tax reform policy in Washington.” Candidate B: “We can’t trust anything he says, he just wants to give more to his rich cronies!”

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What is the defect in the argument? ○

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The logical fallacy occurs when a person attacks the character of his/her opponent instead of dealing with the actual argument that was presented ■ The Christian ought to stay focused on the argument and not the person This is called ad hominem (“argument against the person”)

Straw Man Example: A Muslim talking to a Christian on the street: “You say you believe in only one God, but then you actually believe in three Gods! That’s a logical contradiction, and so Christianity can’t be true!”

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What is the defect in the argument? ○

The logical fallacy occurs when a person misrepresents the opponent’s actual position

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which then makes it easier to attack; often this comes from either exaggerating the opponent’s views or oversimplifying them ■ A good way to avoid this is to repeat the other person’s argument This is called a straw man (because it’s easier to knock down!)

Red Herring Example: “You have argued against the so-called plague of abortion on demand based on your pro-life convictions. But war, famine, and disease cause millions of deaths every year throughout the world. Shouldn’t we be addressing those issues?”

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What is the defect in the argument? ○

The logical fallacy diverts attention away from the issue at hand and redirects attention to a secondary topic that distracts from meaningful and relevant dialogue ■

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This happens often in evangelism, especially when talking with cultists. I sometimes refer to these diversions as “rabbit trails”

This is called a red herring (apparently red herrings were used in fox hunts to get the hunting dogs off track)

How about these questions ●

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What does a non-Christian think when we say “I am a person of faith?” ○ ○

You believe things that cannot be known with certainty, you took a leap You believe in things that you may even suspect are make-believe

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The more you suspect something is not real, the greater the faith you have to believe it!

What does a non-Christian mean when he/she says, “you seem happy and I wish I could believe as you believe, but I just can’t.” ○ ○

I see that your faith makes you happy, but you believe in things that aren’t real ■ What do we call people who believe in things that are not real? I have to embrace insanity to believe as you do, but I just can’t

What is faith according to the Bible? Since when is faith a leap into the dark, belief in things that are not real? ➢

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, ESV)

There were two possible ancient Greek words the N.T. could have used for the word “faith,” both of which have significantly different connotations (pistis or nomizo)

What is faith according to the Bible? Nomizo = “to believe,” used in classical and Hellenistic Greek in reference to believing in the Greek gods, which are believed without basis (tradition) Pistis comes from the Greek root word peitho, which means “to be persuaded” ➢

Pistis can also = fidelity, faithfulness (in regards to the character of someone who can be relied on) ○

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Only real persons can can be relied on because they shown to be so in the past

Ex: What do we mean when we say “I have faith in our leader?” The idea here is that God has demonstrated evidence that He is worthy of our trust/faith

What is faith according to the Bible? Only pistis occurs in the New Testament, nomizo does not! ●

How do you think this has bearing on how we ought to biblically think about what faith is? ○

The biblical concept of faith (pistis) is not blind faith!

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Rather, biblical faith is based on being persuaded on grounds of evidence that God has demonstrated

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Michael Ramsden says pistis involved “the process of putting your weight and trust into something which you knew was true and real. It was connected to truth and reality.”

Let’s wrap faith up with two Ramsden quotes “Now, faith is a gift, that’s what Scripture teaches, but it is not the gift of stupidity. It is not the gift that allows you to believe in things that are not there.” “Thinking is not the enemy of the Christian faith, because the more you are convinced as to God’s reality and truth, the more you will believe, the more you will trust, the more you will lean on Him.”

Now, let’s take a look at some evidence that persuades us to place our faith in Jesus Christ…(next week!)