I was bored and looking for something to blog about, so I typed “apologetics” into Google, and clicked one of the ads that came up. It happened to be for an apologetics ministry named Solid Reasons, 
and I gotta say, that’s a pretty slick and shiny-looking web site. I don’t know who they’ve got doing their design and coding, but I can tell you, a fancy web site like that ain’t cheap.
The second thing I noticed is that their ad promises “Proof that Christianity is True,” and yet when you click on the link, you don’t see any information about any such proof. It’s all about what a great ministry they are, and all the churches that are so happy they hired them, and of course the inevitable “Donate” button in the navigation bar, outlined in white in case you might have missed it.
I clicked around a few of the links, trying to see if they had any evidence for their supposed proof of Christianity, but if they do, they’re pretty good at hiding it. I did notice they’re not quite so good at spelling, at least in the case of the word “Resources.” But they’re great at quoting Bible verses, and C. S. Lewis, and scary statistics like “66% of Adults do not believe in Absolute Moral Truth.”
These guys, in short, are highly successful professionals, with a highly professional marketing site. They’ve realized that the true audience for Christian apologetics isn’t unbelievers, but believers. Their answers only work on people who have already committed to believing Christianity, so why waste time on those outside the faith?
That’s why they advertise “Proof Christianity is True!” but then do not link to any evidence that Christianity is true. For one thing, they’ve got the kind of “evidence” that requires assuming your conclusion, so it’s not going to work on anybody but Christians. And secondly, they’re not giving away what the “proof” is because they want to be paid big bucks in order to share it with the faithful.
They’re making big bucks off of this because they’ve understood what apologetics is really all about. It’s not about evangelism. It’s about trying to persuade believers that their religion is true.
And that right there ought to tell you everything you need to know about the “truth” of Christianity.
If a particular version of christianity is true why are there so many variations?
But Christianity HAS to be true! 42,000 cults…er…denominations CAN’T be wrong!
On the contrary, a lovely website like that is available quite cheaply at, e.g. Squarespace and the like. There are a number, here’s a roundup. Pay a small fee per month, drag’n’drop pretty widgets, automatic support of mobile devices… pity they don’t include a spell-checker…
When you say that there’s no way to disprove X, you’re pretty much saying that there’s no way to tell the difference between X’s existence and X’s non-existence. Why should anyone bother to believe in something whose existence can’t be distinguished from its non-existence?
Thanks to concerned fundie relatives and Christmas, apologetics come to me. My bookshelf accumulates everyone from Keller to Stroebel, as well as a number of B-listers. Their accumulated evidence would pass through the eye of a needle if one could find the thread, and every one of their arguments for god depends on a hefty grab-bag of unsupported premises. Preaching to the choir is an understatement. Even professional apologists in high profile debates seem geared more to reassuring their base rather than convincing skeptics.
I wonder what would happen if you returned the favor with a copy of “The God Delusion” and so on. A “I won’t even accept your book until you can prove you’ve read “insert atheist book title”. Maybe branch out into other religions as well.