How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?: Responding to Objections That Leave Christians Speechless

by Paul Copan

Book Overview

In today's postmodern world, believers more than ever before are faced with a host of objections to Christianity. Expert apologist Paul Copan describes these objections as "anti-truth" claims and with "How Do You Know You're Not Wrong" he provides a helpful resource with thorough, biblical answers to such regularly used objections as- "Whatever works for you"- "Just as long as it makes you happy"- "All religions are basically the same"- "Christianity...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801064996
• ISBN13: 9780801064999
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Baker Books
• Length: 270 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A persuasive book

The best sections of the book are the first two parts. Copan has a very good analysis of materialism, naturalism and determinism. He shows the problems and limits of science better than many other critics of scientific pretensions. I also agree with him that the difference between humans and animals must be clear. If humans are lowered on the level of animals that will hurt them, too. The third part, which mostly concerns Old Testament, was not as persuasive for me. I think the God-concept in the early part of the Old Testament reflects the cultural values of those times. Copan tries to make the Old Testament God look better than he/she is. I feel there is great change in the way God relates to human beings even in the Old Testament. This must reflect the human mind which was not ready for love. Perhaps this opinion reflects liberal theology, but that's what I think.

Crypto-Mormon?

This book is a wonderful addition to "True For you, But Not For Me" and "That's Just Your Interpretation." And kudos to the cover designers for keeping that ingenious design of the crazy road signs that was used on the second book. The first book's cover is funny in its own way, but for illustrating the idea that all roads do not lead to Mount Fuji (much less Mount Zion), the crazy road signs is a stroke of genius. Being the third in a series, Copan has the freedom to deal with many of the side questions that were not covered in the first books. Get the other books if you want the basic questions, and do this one for the deeper and the side questions. I thought the discussion on the mind-body problem was insightful, and Copan rightly fingers Descartes as main culprit in the miscommunication. The discussion in chapters 3-5 on the nature of scientism versus science was even better. We are not dealing with science (which is merely correlated data), but scientism (not only an assumed philosophical framework for managing data, but also an outlook on ethics, economics, politics, and includes a robust social-political-academic agenda). On thing I would have liked so see in the discussion is Thomas Aquinas's statement in his Five Ways. Back in the 1200's, Aquinas pointed out that one possible argument against God was naturalism: "It is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many. But it seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist. For all natural things can be reduced to one principle which is nature." His reply was not reductionism as used by Copan (53), but the obvious teleology in the world: "Since nature works for a determinate end under the direction of a higher agent, whatever is done by nature must needs be traced back to God, as to its first cause." Everyone believes in ecology or the "Circe of Life." Well, where did this come from? As he aaerts, if animals have rights, where did they come from? I was let down with the discussion on Abraham. Isaac was an obvious symbol of Christ ("he received him in a figure" Heb. 11:17-19), but Copan never mentions this. His explanation is Jewish, but not Christian. Abraham was being taught a vital lesson: faith in the Atonement. The section on the Fall of Adam was an eye-popper. Copan's view of the Fall of Adam is essentially the position of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are the data: COPAN: * "Our deeply sinful condition should be understood in terms of damage/consequences rather than guilt reckoned to all of us as the result of Adam's sin. Otherwise, what do we make of those who die in infancy or who are mentally retarded?" (202) * (Quoting Gordon Lewis and Bruce Demarest) "None will suffer the execution of the penalty who not themselves responsibility sinned." (205) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: * "We believe that men will

Responding to objections

Paul Copan is a rising star in Christian apologetics and philosophy. He has written a number of excellent titles defending the Christian faith, on both popular and more academic levels. This volume follows two of his earlier works, namely, True For You, But Not True For Me (1998) and That's Just Your Interpretation (2001). In all three volumes he raises common objections to the faith and answers them with wisdom, learning and clarity. In this volume, he examines three categories of objections: the nature of truth, the broad area of science and scientism, and objections to specific biblical and theological claims. In the first section, for example, he devotes a chapter to pragmatism, the claim that what is true is what works. Copan offers three strengths of this view, but then offers eleven problems with the position. And these shortcomings are profound. Lying, for example, may "work", but does that make its right, or true? In section two he lists eight common objections, centered on the supposed clash between science and faith. In these chapters he deals with a number of related themes. Chief among them is the way in which science can tend to overstep its bounds. Thus Copan distinguishes between science (a helpful discipline when kept in its proper place) and scientism (the idea that science speaks to all truth, and what is not covered by science is not true). The latter is a philosophical position, not testable by the very tenets of science. It is a presupposition that itself is not empirically verifiable. While science rightly studies the natural world, scientism seeks to say the natural world is all there is: only matter matters. The truth is, as Copan demonstrates, there are many areas of knowledge that go beyond scientific study. The proper domain of science is nature, but we need more than science to understand what may lie beyond nature. In the third section Copan looks at common complaints about the Christian faith, such as the idea that the church excluded or suppressed certain texts from the New Testament. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown of course makes such claims. But as Copan demonstrates, the early church leaders did not determine which books would be in or out, they merely acknowledged the authority of existing books. The various Gnostic gospels that sprang up several centuries after Christ were all seen to be spurious and untrustworthy. Texts like the Gospel of Thomas were clearly at odds with the apostolic writings, and reflected a much different worldview. They also appear on the scene much later. Thus on a number of fronts, various challenges to the faith are presented and assessed. As with the two previous volumes, these objections are capably dealt with. Not all readers will be convinced by every argument, but at least it becomes clear that there are good answers out there to the host of criticisms leveled against Christianity.

4 stars.

**** In a world where it often seems like the only right some vocal people are willing to grant Christians is the right to remain silent, it is easy to begin to wonder, "am I wrong to believe?" Addressing this question with solid reasons why you are not wrong to believe and what makes Christianity logical, this book will give you the confidence to deal with a world in which Christans are resident aliens. How do we know we have a soul and are more than animals? What about the strange things in the Old Testament that often seem bizarre and harsh? Did a lot of books get left out of the Bible? The answers to these questions and more will give you surety that not only are you, the Christian not wrong, but you are right. **** Reviewed by Amanda Killgore, Freelance Reviewer.