Recently in Apologetics Category

I was clearing out highlighted posts from my too-full Google reader (does anyone else have this problem?) and came across a series of posts on ID at Tough Questions Answered: A Christian Apologetics Blog. The two fellows who run the site (one of whom was formerly LDS) obviously disagree with Mormonism when it comes up, but they do so nicely. How refreshing.

Since I'm on the subject of apologetics (see my prior post), here's a link to a post summarizing a recent book of Christian apologetics, J. P. Moreland's The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning. The book is an attempt to respond to anti-Christian arguments of the New Atheists and is directed to what might be termed the open-minded non-believer. Since most of the criticism directed at Christianity comes from secularists, Christian apologetics takes on a "faith versus science" theme -- it's more of a clash of worldviews than a religious debate. In contrast, most of the criticism directed at Mormonism comes from fellow Christians, so most Mormon apologetics defends the reasonableness of Mormon beliefs from biblical and religious attack -- it's more a clash of denominations than a philosophical debate.

There is a lot of Mormon apologetics out there, perhaps because there is a lot of Mormon criticism. It has gotten better over the years, but one still sees both good apologetics and bad apologetics. A post from a few weeks ago at Faith-Promoting Rumor that points up one difference between the good and bad sort is "Translation Styles and Book of Mormon Apologetics and Exegesis." The observation made in the post is that an author cannot shift between tight and loose translation styles to enhance her arguments as she moves from chapter to chapter or point to point.