Apologetics, derived from the Greek
word, ἀπολογία, translated in English as "defense," consists
of logical arguments and the presentation of provable facts which are intended
to explain or justify religious doctrines and is aimed at defusing objections to
the faith. This occurs in every religious tradition but, for our purposes,
refers to Christian Apologetics.
It is difficult
to understand how people can ignore or entirely discount some of the facts
brought to light by Christian Apologetics, but some always do, sometimes
vehemently. Some will insist that apologeticists are misinterpreting facts or
taking them out of their proper context. Others outright reject any
supernatural interpretations of any facts.
One can
easily get bogged down in all the arguments, but I believe that the point of
apologetics can be summed up by a line from the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film masterpiece,
Amelie: “When the finger’s pointing at the sky, only a fool looks at the
finger.”
Amelie is a quirky, but beautiful, French-language
comedy and is not a Christian film. I, admittedly, am quoting the film totally out of
context. The quote is a perfect fit for the point I am making in this post.
Posts
