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mid-week apologetics booster (9-3-2026)

Good morning friends,

Quote of the week:

In a philosophy class that I [Norm] was teaching, I pointed out the flaws in Kant’s philosophy this way. I said, “First, if Kant claims that he can’t know anything about the real world (the thing in itself) then how does he know the real world is there? And second, his view is self-defeating because he claims that you can’t know anything about the real world while asserting that he knows that the real world is unknowable!” One student blurted out, “No! It can’t be that easy, Dr. Geisler. You can’t destroy the central tenet of the last hundred-plus years of philosophical thought in just a couple of simple sentences!” Quoting my favorite source–The Reader’s Digest–I responded, “That’s what happens when a beautiful theory meets a brutal gang of facts.” – I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

Now, here are your weekly links:

Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity (by Larry Taunton) – In The Atlantic Larry Taunton tells the story of how David Hume, the philosophically famous 18th-century empiricist and skeptic, once attended a religious service where George Whitefield was preaching (Whitefield was the famed evangelist of the First Great Awakening). “I thought you didn’t believe in the Gospel,” someone asked Hume. “I do not,” Hume replied. Then, with a nod toward Whitefield, he added, “But he does.” Taunton comments that “there is something winsome, even irresistible, about a life lived with conviction.” And there’s something off-putting and disingenuous about the hyped-up “seeker-friendly” church that disguises the gospel so as not to freak “seekers” out.: https://www.johnpiippo.com/2013/07/the-failure-of-watered-down-seeker.html
4 Things I’ve Learned from My Conversations with Atheists – YouTube – In this episode of the Cold-Case Christianity Broadcast, J. Warner provides four observations from his youth ministry trips to UC Berkeley. These simple observations may help you improve the quality of your discussions with non-believers and help you better understand the underlying issues in some of these conversations. J. Warner also answers viewer email related to the disagreements between Christian denominations and the need for personal research. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGWt43xCsZk
Why Smart Christians Lose Arguments About God | Wes Huff – YouTube – 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be prepared to give a reason for our faith…but what does that actually look like? Wes Huff became a master of Christian apologetics not by having all the right answers, but by following the example set by Jesus in the New Testament. He unpacks what should be in every Christian’s toolkit when we have conversations about God so we can actually be prepared to share our faith. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZkLgtw60c
This Question Exposes Why Jews Ignore JESUS – YouTube – Dennis Prager and Jordan Peterson (and I believe that is Os Guinness as well) discuss sin and lust and C.S. Lewis chimes in posthumously with a profound insight.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THCyQ1A45Mk
Why I’m Not Afraid of God’s Final Judgment–And You Shouldn’t Be Either! – YouTube – Will both Christians and non-Christians stand in the judgment? : https://youtu.be/dK1jirAAXpw?si=sJ4nc1FgDkvFk4E7&t=1005
Eight Steps to Investigating the Case for Christianity | Cold Case Christianity – There’s a reason why God calls us to worship Him with our minds, understand the value of evidence, examine our beliefs until we are convinced, and live as Christian “case makers”. While our faith and trust in Christ saves us, our ability to make the case for Christ protects us and transforms our world. “Case making” needs to be a part of our Christian identity, and all of us need to be ready to defend the Christian worldview. We can’t continue to delegate this responsibility to well-known apologists and Christian authors. We don’t need another “million dollar apologist”; we need a million “one dollar apologists”. All of us can be equipped to defend our faith; it doesn’t require a master’s degree in apologetics; it doesn’t require a library full of books, a radio show, or a podcast. It simply requires a personal commitment to learn the truth and defend it to others.: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/eight-steps-to-investigating-the-case-for-christianity/
Why We Should Expect Witnesses to Disagree | Cold Case Christianity – After interviewing literally thousands of witnesses over the course of twenty five years, I think I’ve learned something about reliable eyewitness testimony. I want to share three simple characteristics of reliable eyewitness testimony and relate these three characteristics to the Gospels…: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/why-we-should-expect-witnesses-to-disagree/
Good Reasons to Trust a Courtroom Over a Laboratory When Trying to Determine What Happened in the Past | Cold Case Christianity: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/good-reasons-to-trust-a-courtroom-over-a-laboratory-when-trying-to-determine-what-happened-in-the-past/
6 Signs Your Kids Will Eventually Believe “Nothing in Particular” – Natasha Crain: https://natashacrain.com/6-signs-your-kids-will-eventually-believe-nothing-in-particular/
65 Apologetics Questions Every Christian Parent Needs to Learn to Answer – Natasha Crain: https://natashacrain.com/65-apologetics-questions-every-christian-parent-needs-to-learn-to-answer/
DNA Is Written Like Digital Code-So Who Programmed It? – YouTube – This video explores the mystery of biological information and its implications for the origins of life. Focusing on the rapid appearance of complex animal forms during the Cambrian Explosion, it highlights how the digital code stored inside DNA requires an immense infusion of new instructions that random mutations struggle to explain mathematically. By applying the historical scientific methods used by Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell, the presentation demonstrates that whenever functional, complex information is traced to its source, it consistently points to an intelligent mind rather than an undirected material process. Speakers: Dr. Stephen C. Meyer and Douglas Axe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvYJkUbeNMM
Is Kathryn Krick an Apostle? Costi Hinn Answers – YouTube – Allie sits down with Costi Hinn, teaching pastor of Shepherd’s House Bible Church, to talk “Apostle” Kathryn Krick. Costi analyzes the parallels between Krick and his uncle, Benni Hinn, and the hold she has over followers. Costi warns Christians against wolves in sheep’s clothing and false prophets.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtHi2oimR5I
Physicist Explains: The Scary Truth About Tidal Locking – YouTube – In this presentation, physicist Bijan Nemati breaks down the unique requirements for planetary habitability using data from over 5,500 discovered exoplanets. Moving beyond simple blackbody radiation models, Dr. Nemati examines atmospheric dynamics, runaway greenhouse loops, and snowball planetary states. He further analyzes star classification types, explaining why red dwarf systems suffer from extreme tidal locking and how binary star forces destabilize planetary orbits-demonstrating why Earth-like conditions remain extraordinarily rare in the cosmos.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45bM6xad5Y4
How to talk about Jesus without sounding like an idiot | Wesley Huff | Calgary Life Church – YouTube: https://youtu.be/P4d23yKp5QU?is=uQmhINeBEPI5iRpE
The Mind-Blowing Design of the Human Tongue – YouTube: https://youtu.be/32RuuY7BTU8?is=rZ5CuJWr_kp5ohCw
Still Haven’t Found What You’re Looking For? C.S. Lewis, Bono and the Argument from Desire – In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis articulates an argument for the existence of God based on our dissatisfactions as well as our deepest desire, which sounds a lot like the lyrics of U2’s song. I would even argue that the core idea is the virtually the same. Lewis’s argument goes like this: …A baby feels hunger; well there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…: https://crossexamined.org/still-havent-found-youre-looking-c-s-lewis-bono-argument-desire/
The Challenge of Discussing Objective Truth on a College Campus – THINKAPOLOGETICS.COM: https://chab123.wordpress.com/2026/09/02/the-challenge-of-discussing-objective-truth-on-a-college-campus/
Internal Telomere-like Sequences Are Abundant and Functional | The Institute for Creation Research – The prevailing evolutionist mantra holds that humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived about six million years ago. One of the most cited evidences for this belief is the alleged human chromosome 2 fusion site. There, evolutionists claim, one can see the degenerate remnants of where two telomeres fused, which they say are leftovers from humans’ evolutionary descent.: https://www.icr.org/article/internal-telomere-like-sequences-are
3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church – “What do we do about our kids?” The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes. I’m a high school pastor, but for once, they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. Each had a story to tell about a “good Christian” child, raised in their home and in our church, who had walked away from the faith during the college years. These children had come through our church’s youth program, gone on short-term mission trips, and served in several different ministries during their teenage years. Now they didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. And, somehow, these mothers’ ideas for our church to send college students “care packages” during their freshman year to help them feel connected to the church didn’t strike me as a solution with quite enough depth. The daunting statistics about church-going youth keep rolling in. Panic ensues. What are we doing wrong in our churches? In our youth ministries? It’s hard to sort through the various reports and find the real story. And there is no one easy solution for bringing all of those “lost” kids back into the church, other than continuing to pray for them and speaking the gospel into their lives. However, we can all look at the 20-somethings in our churches who are engaged and involved in ministry. What is it that sets apart the kids who stay in the church? Here are just a few observations I have made about such kids, with a few applications for those of us serving in youth ministry.: https://faithit.com/3-common-traits-of-youth-who-dont-leave-the-church/
Genesis Apologetics – Did Dinosaurs Walk With Man? – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdC4Jub9oNM
Are Young People Really Leaving Christianity? | Cold Case Christianity – Much has been written about both the Biblical illiteracy of teenage believers and the flight of young people from the Church. Many have observed this trend, and I too have witnessed it anecdotally as a youth pastor (and shamefully, I contributed to the trend for some time before I changed course). Some writers and Christian observers deny the flight of young people altogether, but the growing statistics should alarm us enough as Church leaders to do something about the dilemma. My hope in this post is to simply consolidate some of the research (many of the summaries are directly quoted) so you can decide for yourself. I’m going to organize the recent findings in a way that illuminates the problem…: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/
Jeff Foxworthy on the Bible – YouTube – An interview with Jeff Foxworthy for a promo leading up to the hosting of the Bible Challenge game show. He talks about one of his favorite stories of the bible and real life experience.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxFqVQFvhvw
Loving God with all your mind: logic and creation · Creation.com – Logic and reason are far from being incompatible with biblical Christianity. Rather, they are essential. Without them it is impossible to deduce anything from the true propositions of the 66 books of Scripture, the Christian’s final authority. This applies to Creation, one of the foundational doctrines of Christianity. Examples of valid and fallacious reasoning are discussed, with emphasis on showing how logical reasoning can support the truth of biblical creation, and demonstrate the fallacies in many evolutionists’ arguments. Logic is the science of the relations between propositions. Logic can tell us what can be inferred from a given proposition, but it cannot tell us whether the given proposition is true in the first place. All philosophical systems rely on logical deductions from starting assumptions-axioms-which, by definition, cannot be proven from prior assumption. For our axioms, it is rational to accept the propositions revealed by the infallible God in the 66 books of the Bible.: https://creation.com/en/articles/loving-god-with-all-your-mind-logic-and-creation
Should You Use Someone’s Preferred Pronouns? – Stand to Reason – this topic starts 13 minutes into the program: https://subsplash.com/u/standtoreason/media/d/wpdn8xd-should-you-use-someones-preferred-pronouns
Which country is the most dangerous for Christians? | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2024/01/02/which-country-is-the-most-dangerous-for-christians/
Why Would God Send Good People to Hell? | Cold Case Christianity – I’ve been blogging recently on the existence and nature of Hell and, unsurprisingly, I’ve received tremendous response from Christians and non-Christians alike (much of it hostile). The topic polarizes believers and unbelievers. Many Christians struggle to correlate God’s mercy with a place of permanent justice, while others prefer to believe God would annihilate rebellious souls rather than assign them to Hell eternally. Non-believers often point to the apparent unfairness of God related to those who either reject Jesus or haven’t heard of Him. After all, there are millions of good people in the world who are not Christians. Is it fair for God to penalize people who are otherwise good? A good God would not send good people to Hell, would He?: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/why-would-god-send-good-people-to-hell/
Is Jesus Simply a Retelling of the Mithras Mythology? | Cold Case Christianity – It’s been popular in the past ten years (or so) to describe Jesus as nothing more than a “retelling” of prior “dying and rising” gods such as Horus or Osiris. Skeptics who make such claims typically describe a number of shared characteristics in an effort to highlight the similarities between Jesus and prior mythologies. Perhaps the most persuasive case of potential mythological “borrowing” is found in claims related to Mithras, the ancient mythological deity worshipped in Persia four hundred years prior to Jesus (and worshipped continually throughout the first four or five centuries of this millennia in Rome, right alongside those who worshipped Jesus). Jesus “mythers” claim Mithras was born of a virgin, in a cave, on December 25th, and his birth was attended by shepherds. Mithras was considered a great traveling teacher and master. He had twelve companions (or disciples) and promised his followers immortality. Mithras performed miracles and sacrificed himself for world peace. He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again. His followers celebrated this event each year at the time of Mithras’ resurrection (and this date later became “Easter”). Mithras was called the “Good Shepherd,” was identified with both the Lamb and the Lion, and was considered to be the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” the “Logos,” the “Redeemer,” the “Savior” and the “Messiah.” His followers celebrated Sunday as His sacred day (also known as the “Lord’s Day,”) and they celebrated a Eucharist or “Lord’s Supper”. Mithras, by this description, sounds a lot like Jesus doesn’t he?: https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/is-jesus-simply-a-retelling-of-the-mithras-mythology/
Minimal Facts Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ – Worldview of Jesus: https://worldviewofjesus.com/minimal-facts-argument-for-the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ/
Was Peter Crucified Upside Down? | Sean McDowell: https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/was-peter-crucified-upside-down
What to Say When Someone says the Bible can’t be Trusted. – New York Apologetics: https://www.newyorkapologetics.com/when-someone-says-the-bible-cant-be-trusted/
How the presence and quality of fathers affects belief in God | WINTERY KNIGHT: https://winteryknight.com/2022/09/18/how-the-presence-and-quality-of-fathers-affects-belief-in-god-7/
Why are the newer translations of the Bible missing verses? | GotQuestions.org: https://www.gotquestions.org/missing-verses.html
The Masterpiece of Engineering That Darwin Couldn’t Explain – YouTube: https://youtu.be/4JIOtPmJPxA?is=okmnfjHz_RF7NGoA

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. 2 Corinthians 11:14-15

Blessings to you all