Counter-apologetics

The atheist Sam Harris quipped about William Lane Craig that he was "The one Christian apologist who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists".

Within the endeavor of criticism of religion, counter-apologetics is a field of thought that criticizes religious apologetics.

While religious apologists criticize the defense of other religions, the term counter-apologetics is frequently applied to criticism of religion in general by atheists/agnostics.

The atheist Luke Muehlhauser, defines counter-apologetics as "a response to Christian apologetics...examining the claims and tactics of Christian apologists and then equipping [a thinker] with skeptical responses to them"

Atheist apologetics have been very ineffective. The atheist Sam Harris quipped about William Lane Craig that he was "The one Christian apologist who seems to have put the fear of God into many of my fellow atheists".

Luke Muehlhauser wrote:

“

As far as I can tell, he has won nearly all his debates with atheists. When debating him, atheists have consistently failed to put forward solid arguments, and consistently failed to point out the flaws in Craig’s arguments... This is especially embarrassing for atheists because Craig’s arguments and debates are easily available, and he uses the same arguments all the time. So it should be easy for atheists to prepare for a debate with Craig.

”

Atheists have performed badly in debates (see: Atheism debates and Atheism vs. Christianity debates).

Dr. Greg Bahnsen became known as "the man atheists fear most" due to Michael Martin's cancellation of their scheduled debate.

In 1990, the atheist philosopher Michael Martin indicated there was a general absence of an atheistic response to contemporary work in the philosophy of religion and in jest he indicated that it was his "cross to bear" to respond to theistic arguments. Yet, in 1994, Michael Martin was criticized for his eleventh hour cancellation of his debate with Greg Bahnsen (see: Greg Bahnsen and debate and Bahnson-Martin debate press release).

Inadequacy of counter-apologetics

The majority of philosophers of religion, or those who have extensively studied the issue of the existence of God, are theists (72 percent).

There is a considerable body of evidence and argumentation for the existence of God and for the validy of Christianity (see: Arguments for the existence of God and Evidence for Christianity).

On the other hand, atheism and agnosticism lack proof/evidence and are unreasonable (see: Atheism lacks proof and evidence and Rebuttals to atheist arguments and Agnosticism lacks proof/evidence and it is unreasonable).

See also

• Atheology

• Atheism and irrationality

• Atheism and logic

• Atheism and reason

• Atheism and logical fallacies

• Atheist deconversion stories