View source for Evidential apologetics

== Evidential apologetics and the rebuttal of non-Christian worldviews ==

A Christian apologists may also cite various historical facts/studies/statistics to rebut claims made by non-Christian apologists. For example, a Christian apologists could cite various [[atheism statistics]] to rebut the claims of atheist apologists.

Concerning [[atheism and mass murder]], Christian apologist Gregory Koukl wrote that "the assertion is that religion has caused most of the killing and bloodshed in the world.
There are people who make accusations and assertions that are empirically false. This is one of them."<ref name="Koukl">Koukl, Gregory (February 20, 2013). [http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5527 "The real murderers:  atheism or Christianity?"] Stand to Reason.  Retrieved July 19, 2014.</ref>
Koukl details the number of people killed in various events involving theism and compares them to the much higher tens of millions of people killed under [[Atheism|atheistic]] [[communist]] regimes, in which [[militant atheism]] served as the official doctrine of the state.<ref name="Koukl" />  See also: [[Atheism and communism]]

=== Non-Christian views, other false views and historical revisionism ===

''See also:'' [[Atheism and historical revisionism]]
[[File: Voroshilov, Molotov, Stalin, with Nikolai Yezhov.jpg|right|225px]]
[[File: The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg|thumbnail|right|220px|Nikolai Yezhov walking with [[Joseph Stalin]] in the top photo taken in the mid 1930s. Subsequent to his execution in 1940, Yezhov was edited out of the photo by [[Soviet Union]] censors.<ref>[http://www.newseum.org/berlinwall/commissar_vanishes/vanishes.htm The Commissar Vanishes]</ref>]]
Theodore Beale wrote about [[secular left]]ists and leftists in general:
{{cquote|Regardless of whether it is...[[Richard Dawkins]], [[PZ Myers]], or the vast and [[Lesbianism and obesity|corpulent mass]] of [[feminism|feminists]], the Left has an observable tendency to shun debate.  They assert many different reasons for doing so, but the truth is always revealed by their seemingly contradictory willingness to debate the incompetent and the overmatched....

One of the things that has been interesting to observe over time is the way that the heated attacks on me, both in public and via email, have all but disappeared even though my overall readership has never been larger.  Why is this?  My theory is this is because most of my critics, be they atheists, feminists, [[evolution]]ists, or free traders, have learned they simply cannot win in a direct confrontation.  They can't openly criticize my ideas because they have learned, much to their surprise, that they cannot adequately defend their own.

As [[Aristotle]] pointed out more than two thousand years ago, even at the rhetorical level, the side more closely approximates the truth will tend to win out, because it is easier to argue when your arguments are based on truth rather than falsehood.  Events will always ultimately prove the arguments of the [[global warming|global warmers]], the godless, the female supremacists, the [[socialism|socialists]], the [[Keynesian economics|Keynesians]], and the monetarists to be false because their ideas are false.  This is why a good memory is one of the most lethal weapons against them and why it is so easy to win debates against them, as given enough time, they are going to contradict themselves. 

Why?  Because they have no choice.  Being false, their positions have to be dynamic, which means they can never hope for any significant degree of consistency.  This is why ex post facto revision and double-talk are the hallmarks of the Left, and is why the first thing Leftists do when they are in a position of power is to erase history and attempt to silence any voices capable of calling attention to their fictions and contradictions.<ref>[https://voxday.net/2012/10/10/the-distaste-for-debate/ The distaste for debate], Theodore Beale</ref>}}

=== Evidential apologetics and demonstrating that anti-Christian views lack evidence ===

''See also:'' [[Atheism and evidence]] and [[Atheist apologetics]]

Evidential apologists also provide evidence/arguments showing the falsity/improbability of non-Christian [[worldview]]s. For example, Dr. Don Batten wrote an article on the [[origin of life]] which demonstrates the vexing problem first life is for those who insist that life arose through purely natural processes<ref>[https://creation.com/origin-of-life Origin of life] by Dr. Don Batten</ref> See also: [[Philosophical naturalism]]

The Christian apologist Brace E. Barber wrote:
{{Cquote|The bankruptcy of the atheist position is critical for Christians to grasp. If we as Christians know that those with counter ideas have no evidence to back up their positions, then it encourages us to find the evidence that supports our position.

Atheists are now forced to present conclusions for their beliefs that are beyond the scope of evidence. They propose [[Multiverse|multiple universes]], alien creation, secular meanings of life and morals. They suggest [https://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/11/30/top-scientist-humans-emerged-after-chimpanzee-had-sex-with-pig/ chimpanzees mated with pigs] to create humans – no joke – and that the Bible is horribly corrupted despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.<ref>[http://bracebarber.com/atheisms-evidential-bankruptcy/ Atheist Beliefs and Absence of Evidence]</ref>}}

==== William Lane Craig on attempts to define the word atheism ====
[[Image:Billcraig_czvx.jpg‎‎|thumb|150px|[[William Lane Craig]] ]]

''See also:'' [[Definition of atheism|Atheist attempts to change the definition of atheism]]

[[Atheism]], as defined by the ''[[Stanford University|Stanford]] Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the ''[[Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'', and other [[philosophy]] reference works, is the denial of the existence of [[God]].<ref>[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Atheism and Agnosticism]</ref><ref name="cw">[https://creation.com/atheism-is-more-rational Is Atheism More Rational?] by [[Creation Ministries International]]</ref><ref name="Divine">Day, Donn R. (2007).  [https://web.archive.org/web/20140906135211/http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm "Atheism - etymology"].</ref><ref name="Definition of atheism">[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/definition-of-atheism Definition of atheism] by [[William Lane Craig]]</ref> 

[[Paul Edwards (philosopher)|Paul Edwards]], who was a prominent atheist and editor of the ''[[Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]'', defined an atheist as "a person who maintains that there is no God." <ref name="CRI">[http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0131a.html Putting the Atheist on the Defensive] by Kenneth R. Samples, Christian Research Institute Journal, Fall 1991, and Winter 1992, page 7.</ref>

Beginning in the latter portion of the 20th century and continuing beyond, many [[agnosticism|agnostics]]/atheists have argued that the [[definition of atheism]] should be defined as a mere lack of belief in God or gods.<ref name="Divine"/><ref name="Definition of atheism">[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/definition-of-atheism Definition of atheism] by William Lane Craig</ref><ref name="CRI"/><ref>Britain is a less religious country than the United States and the online Oxford Dictionaries offers both the narrow/broad definitions of atheism (As noted in a previous footnote the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which is a traditional American dictionary, offers a more narrow definition of atheism similar to the definition that major encyclopedias of philosophy use). Oxford Dictionaries: Disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.[http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/atheism]</ref>  

William Lane Craig declared:
{{cquote|There’s a history behind this.  Certain atheists in the mid-twentieth century were promoting the so-called “presumption of atheism.” At face value, this would appear to be the claim that in the absence of evidence for the existence of God, we should presume that God does not exist.  Atheism is a sort of default position, and the theist bears a special burden of proof with regard to his belief that God exists....

But when you look more closely at how protagonists of the presumption of atheism used the term “atheist,” you discover that they were defining the word in a non-standard way, synonymous with “non-theist."  So understood the term would encompass agnostics and traditional atheists, along with those who think the question meaningless (verificationists)...

Such a re-definition of the word “atheist” trivializes the claim of the presumption of atheism, for on this definition, atheism ceases to [[Atheist worldview|be a view]].  It is merely a psychological state which is shared by people who hold various views or no view at all.  On this re-definition, even babies, who hold no opinion at all on the matter, count as atheists!  In fact, our cat Muff counts as an atheist on this definition, since she has (to my knowledge) no belief in God.

One would still require justification in order to know either that God exists or that He does not exist, which is the question we’re really interested in.

So why, you might wonder, would atheists be anxious to so trivialize their position?  Here I agree with you that a [[Atheism and deception|deceptive game]] is being played by many atheists.  If atheism is taken to be a view, namely the view that there is no God, then atheists must shoulder their share of the burden of proof to support this view.<ref name="Definition of atheism">[http://www.reasonablefaith.org/definition-of-atheism Definition of atheism] by William Lane Craig</ref>}}

For more information, please see: [[Definition of atheism|Atheist attempts to change the definition of atheism]]