Something that's been bugging me for a while. Since when is being a apologist for anything a respectable position to be in? I be watching Youtube videos, and a Christian in the comments section will say, "We could use more people in the field of apologetics", and all I can think about is how ridiculous it is to talk about something called 'apologetics' as a serious thing.

I'm more flabbergasted at the term than anything else. It's like whoever came up with it isn't even trying to hide that they're intellectually dishonest.

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Well, the term comes from ancient Greece, and meant a formal verbal defense of something.

Yeah the idea that being an apologist is a good thing from the believers' perspective is that to them they are protecting the "truth" of whatever their faith is from whatever is countering it, whether it is someone pointing out discrepancies in the new testement or the plain fact that the sun doesn't set in a muddy puddle.

Sadly they ignore the fact that if they were right, an omnipotent and omniscient being wouldn't need them or any such defence.

With the whole muslim thing going on these days I keep forgetting about our old foe

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Oh, the term "apologetics" can also be used for anything outside religion. People do it because it makes them feel like they're in the right and they're trying to convince us that their position is correct. Usually, these people don't use "apologists" to describe themselves because usually, they have no idea they're doing it. Sometimes they even know they're being intellectually dishonest and they don't care, they just want to be right and feel good about themselves.

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In the United States, it's kind of hard not to forget Christianity, especially now since Christians are using the logic that the only way to stop the spread of Islam is through Christianity. Which, has been attempted before, but never exactly worked out (see Crusades). Lesson: Fighting religion with more religion is...ill-advised.

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Indeed

6148853

If Christianity is so great, why is everyone always apologizing for it?

^a line I always wanted to use but never found a situation to do so in.

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Without actually doing any research on the subject, I would imagine it's more the other way around: “Apologetics” has a negative connotation because it's used to refer to defending religion. If they called it something else, that would inevitably garner the same connotation over time.

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Turtle gets it.

The thing which Christians/Muslims do in order to defend their beliefs is a thing many people do in many situations. Take those filthy Sparity shippers with their disgusting pedo shp. When they try to defend it by saying, "I only ship them aged up" they're practicing apologetics.

It isn't that they're doing it that is reprehensible. It is that they're failing at it so laughably. If they actually managed to do a reasonably good job of apologetics, the Bible would be much more appealing. If they could come up with legitimately reasonable answers to questions you and I had about the validity of the Bible, that would be compelling.