As someone who’s done Christian apologetics for a long time, I’m accustomed to using a cumulative case approach with people that weaves together multiple independent philosophical, empirical, and historical arguments to show that Christianity is more probable than not. The idea isn’t that the presented claims are mathematically coercive or logically inescapable, but rather they’re more of a web of reinforcing probabilities where each one adds weight to the overall conclusion.
That’s great in theory, but the problem is that, today, we live in a post-truth culture where society thinks far more with its feelings than it does with its mind. Any emotive turn-off often blinds people to facts, no matter how persuasive they are. And when it comes to turn-offs to Christianity, nothing’s bigger than you and me.
While the problem of evil is the number one cerebral issue skeptics will raise when it comes to trying to disprove the Christian faith, when you push past that, you’ll almost always find Christ rejectors don’t so much reject Him as us. Research by the Barna Group not long ago revealed that only 30% of U.S. adults hold a positive perception of Evangelicals. Sadly, that’s not a typo or anything new.
Of course, some of those thumbs-downing Christians may not like the moral demands of the faith and transfer that to us, but there’s more to the story than just that. The atheist philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once stated, “I might believe in the Redeemer if His followers looked more redeemed.” Piling on, Gandhi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” A Hindu man that a well-known apologist I know was witnessing to told him, “If this conversion you speak about is truly supernatural, then why is it not more evident