Why believe? 12 Apologetics sites and apps [Part 1 of 2]
Posted by Anne Witton on Friday, May 12, 2017 Under: Resources
In Scripture we are exhorted to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3: 15). Many of us will have non-Christian family and friends who ask us questions about why we believe what we believe, and we need to be prepared to answer them “with gentleness and respect.”
Many atheists, especially those who follow the teachings of Richard Dawkins and the like particularly closely, think that faith is ‘blind faith’ - persistently believing the absurd in spite of all the evidence against the belief.
However, the Christian faith is in no way irrational and followers of Christ come from all walks of life and fields of expertise, including all branches of academia (the former director of the Human Genome Project, Francis Collins is just one example). In fact, many eminent scientists and philosophers have found that their studies and research into the nature of reality have pointed towards, rather than away from God.
It is right that we, as Christians, engage with the questions of our friends, whether they’re concerned about the reliability of the Bible, how the universe came into being, or about the Christian view of sex and relationships.
Fortunately, there are some really helpful websites and apps that we can go to to explore questions for ourselves and help us to give intelligent answers to our friends.
In no particular order:
(1) BeThinking
An attractively-presented site from UCCF: The Christian Unions. It’s really easy to navigate and search, with similar topics being intelligently grouped and there’s a comprehensive index.
The site includes articles, audio and video and each article gives an approximate reading time.
Topics covered include: Jesus, the Bible, the resurrection, creation, science, evolution, miracles, meaning, truth, sexuality, gender, worldviews, other religions and hundreds more.
Huge range of contributors includes: Francis Schaeffer, Ted Turnau, Antony Flew, N.T. Wright, A.C. Grayling, Bill Hybels, Josh McDowell, Vaughan Roberts and hundreds more.
(2) Christians in Science
iOS app download
An international network of professional scientists and those interested in the interaction between science and Christianity. There are hundreds of scholarly articles and audio files and well as useful links, nicely organised under the ‘parent’ topics of creation, education, environment, ethics, general science and faith, miracles, interviews, Higgs Boson, science and atheism, students, suffering and the universe.
They also do a series of accessible resources called ‘Thinking About…’ for non-scientist Christians which can be downloaded as free PDFs or viewed on the app.
(3) Test of Faith
Introductory resources from The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. There are all sorts of resources to explore, including many videos that are rated for difficulty, easy to share and free to download.
There are also a number of short articles, briefing sheets (free PDF downloads) and book reviews.
There are also some great testimony videos from scientists who are Christians.
(4) The Faraday Institute
An interdisciplinary research enterprise based at St Edmund's College, Cambridge.
There are over 600 videos, 19 Faraday papers (aimed at the general reader), book reviews and research projects.
There is a link to their school site which has lots of great animated videos, free posters for teachers, articles and videos, games and apps and curriculum-based teachers’ resources.
(5) Reasonable Faith
iOS app download
The website of William Lane Craig who is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist University. The ministry has a 3-fold mission:
• “to provide an articulate, intelligent voice for biblical Christianity in the public arena.
• to challenge unbelievers with the truth of biblical Christianity.
• to train Christians to state and defend Christian truth claims with greater effectiveness.”
The site features scholarly articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals; Popular articles intended for a general audience; Transcripts of debates; Q&A; Plenty of video and audio and a regular podcast.
A unique feature of this site is the forum section where you can ask questions and share your thoughts.
(6) Reasons to Believe
iOS app download
A site exploring science and faith with resources including blogs, podcasts and articles.
It is sometimes a bit tricky to navigate and slow to load, but definitely worth having bookmarked for the wealth of rigorously researched scientific material.
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I hope you enjoy exploring those sites. Check out another 6 in part 2 of this series.
Disclaimer: Whilst I have found all of these sites useful, linking to them here doesn't indicate agreement with everything they express.
Disclaimer: Whilst I have found all of these sites useful, linking to them here doesn't indicate agreement with everything they express.
In : Resources
Tags: apologetics evangelism theology
