In my article on the appeal to emotion, I wrote about how we can address the consequences of abortion being banned and where that will lead. Some readers familiar with logic might have recognized that such talk can be close to what is called the “slippery slope” fallacy.
Many parents of small children know the kind of talk they can get when passing through the toy section of the department store. There’s the begging and the crying and the claims of “You don’t really love me!” My favorite justification for getting something is “But I want it!” (Well, of course you do or you wouldn’t be asking for it.)
Many of us learned about the ad hominem fallacy while growing up. It’s the tactic of using an insult instead of an argument to make a point. The idea of saying “You’re stupid!” rather than giving an argument for what someone believes seems to take hold early on. The term after all means “To the man.”
Last night, as my wife and I were watching a movie on TV, I saw an ad with one product comparing its service to its competitor. The company spoke about its number of customers and said that 30 million customers can’t be wrong.
Unfortunately, if you were not there, the prezi may be of limited value since the “meat” of the meeting was in the discussions. The topics are captured in the prezi, though, so you will get a feel for the types of issues we discuss at our Ratio Christi meetings.
The bottom line was our observations that humans are unique in their:
• Creative capacities
• Craving for justice
• Compassionate tendencies
• Aesthetic passions
• Depths of self-awareness
• Quest for transcendent meaning through worship
In a mere hour-long discussion we were not able to “prove” that these observations are consistent with a Christian worldview of humanity being created in the image of God. But let’s continue the conversation on these topics as time allows.
Pre-evangelism is what leads up to a person accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior. It can take many forms. While sometimes it’s not necessary (a person might place their faith in Christ the first time they hear the Gospel), Christians ought to be intentional about pre-evangelism.
Scripture gives us many examples of evangelism and pre-evangelism. Let’s look at a few of them:
Looking for an apologetic resource for youth but don't know where to start? Below is a fantastic list of great apologetic resources including curriculums, books, programs, DVDs, and more for kids ranging from elementary school to high school. Whether you are a parent, teacher, youth pastor, or kid yourself, we hope this list proves useful for you in finding the apologetic resource you're looking for.
I'm excited about Ratio Christi! Many years ago when Bill Bright started Campus Crusade for Christ the average university student was much more open to the truth claims of historic Christianity. In fact, the biggest thing that many Christians encountered in witnessing was that most students already thought they were Christians because they went to a Christian church. Thus we'd often resort to saying things like "standing in the garage doesn't make you a car and going to church doesn't make you a Christian.
Coordinated Apologetics Calendar & Speaker’s Bureau
Imagine a web site where you could find every apologetics event happening in the whole country. Ratio Christi has been developing this new web site feature, and we believe it will be the most significant unifying project in the apologetics community ever. We need $7,000 to get this project over the hump. Please consider a special gift of any amount to make this a reality. Below are the details.
