25 Evangelical Questions
I can’t quite remember how I stumbled upon this, but here are 25 Questions Every Catholic Should Ask An Evangelical About the Bible:
Tag: Questions
Asking for evidence
A few weeks ago, a friend on Facebook posted this:
This just didn’t seem right, so I asked him what evidence he had to back up this assertion. Several weeks later my friend still hasn’t responded to my request for evidence…
I went and looked at a Fact-Checker website which assessed that it was Mostly False.
People are often afraid of doing apologetics, but honestly most of the time you’re just asking some basic questions, particularly “Do you have any evidence to back up that claim?”. If none is presented, it betrays that the opinion is primarily held because the person would like it to be true, rather than as a result of conscientious study.
Asking Questions
In my talks, Evangelization for the terrified and Apologetics for the confused, I emphasize how important it is to ask questions. Here’s a shot video from Summit Ministries explaining why…
Wise Words on Wednesday: The Quality of your Life
“A single change in the habitual questions you ask yourself can and will profoundly change the quality of your life.”
Discussions about marriage
Facebook continues to buzz with threads discussing the SCOTUS decision concerning same-sex marriage. I have engaged in some of these online discussions but I’ve continued to find them disappointing. As I pointed out in my earlier post, I’ve found the level of argumentation displayed in these exchanges typically to be rather low. I’ve found that even to call into question the soundness of the SCOTUS decision is to simply invite a tirade of abuse and name-calling.
There have, however, been a few occasions where the exchanges have more closely resembled a dialogue. As I’ve previously written, when involved in apologetics, I try to be socratic in my approach, mainly restricting myself to asking questions. Today’s post is simply to share the kinds of questions I typically ask when discussing the subject of same-sex marriage…
Great Apostasy Questions
A while back, I produced a post in which I listed some Canon Questions, some specific questions I ask when talking to non-Catholics about the Table of Contents found in their Bible. Following my post concerning my recent encounter with a Jehovah’s Witness, I’ve decided to do another post similar to my Canon Questions, but this time concerning the “Great Apostasy”, the belief that that the Church effectively disappeared from the earth some time after Christ’s death.
Groups like the Mormons hold to the Great Apostasy and use this as an explanation for the significant differences between their doctrine and the doctrine of historic Christianity. Muslims hold to this narrative too, to justify the teachings of Muhammad which stand in stark contradiction to the New Testament. Additionally, most Protestant groups, while typically not holding such a radical version of this doctrine, usually hold to some variation of it, saying that somewhere along the line the Church went off-track in a rather major way.
Questions: An apologist’s best friend
Today I wanted to talk about an apologetic strategy I use a lot: asking questions. You see, regardless of the topic, be it abortion, Christianity or Catholicism, there is always the temptation to spend most of your time telling someone what they should believe. People are rarely very receptive to being told. When I’m in that mode, it becomes very easy for me to become pompous and prideful. Questions help prevent this.
Rather than telling someone what they should believe, I find it is generally much more effective to ask the person what they believe and why. This communicates to the other person that you care what they think and you want to know more. Even though you are talking less, you have guiding control over the conversation through the questions that you ask. Not only that, but if you ask questions, it will probably encourage your friend to open up and ask you questions about what you believe. This allows you to follow the advise a wise priest once told me: “It’s best to start giving answers only once they’ve started asking you questions”
I would suggest that the goal is to ask questions which reveal the flaws in that person’s worldview. Once these are revealed, you can then present your own perspective, thereby giving you an opportunity to demonstrate the cohesiveness of your own world view.
“He who asks questions has control”
– Socrates (387 BC)
A while ago, Aggie Catholics put together a great list of questions to ask when you’re evangelizing…