Mitch Stokes - A Shot of Faith (to the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists

PRAISE FOR A SHOT OF FAITH
(TO THE HEAD)

A fine book: lively, clear, accessible, but also deep, and deeply competent.

Alvin Plantinga, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, author of Where the Conf lict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism, Oxford University Press

The Bible identifies Jesus as the Word and as the Light, available therefore to the mind as well as the heart. Of all religions, Christianity most invites one to think as well as to believe, and in this troubled time that invitation is still more urgent to take up. Here is a book by a skilled thinker, showing how better to think about faith. It is a worthy task, ably achieved.

Larry P. Arnn, PhD, president, Hillsdale College

This book is what snarky atheists have coming to them for their dismissive claims and unfounded arrogance. Written not to convince atheists but to help Christians defend themselves and the Christian faith, A Shot of Faith to the Head takes the best tools of top-notch apologetics and philosophy and puts them in the hands of every believer. Even better, its easy and fun to read, winsome, witty, filled with sharp thinking, and well-researched. As a professor and pastor, Ill be assigning this book in my apologetics courses and would recommend it to every Christian. It displays strategic answers to questions and objections every Christian has encountered.

Justin Holcomb, pastor, Mars Hill Church; executive director of the Resurgence; adjunct professor of theology, Reformed Theological Seminary

A Shot of Faith to the Head is much more than a defense of Christianity; it takes the offensive against the secularist thinking that presently enamors so many in the West. Mitch Stokes demonstrates the intellectually dubious nature of the so-called new atheism and provides Christians with a much needed handbook for the questions they will surely face. I highly recommend it.

Larry Taunton, president, Fixed Point Foundation; author of The Grace Effect

There is a cultural movement afoot that is irrational, atavistic, dogmatic and dangerousI speak of course, of the new atheists. Mitch Stokes is the antidote. A Shot of Faith to the Head is a wonderful book: theologically sound, relentless in its reason, and fun to read.

Mark Judge, journalist and author of A Tremor of Bliss

A SHOT OF FAITH
{TO THE HEAD}

Be a Confident Believer in an
Age of Cranky Atheists

MITCH STOKES, PHD

2012 by Mitch Stokes

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012931126

ISBN: 978-1-5955-54345

Printed in the United States of America

12 13 14 15 16 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Shane, Summer, Jared, and Elena.

CONTENTS

vii

I m just glad I believe.

It was about the worst answer she could have given me. Her reply not only revealed her frustration, but also suggested she was giving upthat I was to be left alone with my doubts. And what really bothered me was that it started looking like my questions had no good answers, which just confirmed my suspicions.

Maybe science was responsible for my doubts. Engineering had trained me to demand a special kind of evidence for my beliefsscientific evidence. This vague requirement extended to all my beliefs (I thought), even to my religious ones. And to be sure, a thread running through this book is the alleged conflict between science and belief in God and the related allegation that science has shown that God doesnt exist.

Ive since learned that science was indeed responsible for my doubts, but in a surprisingly different way. For years I had been immersed in a discipline that altogether ignores questions of philosophy and theology (and history and literature and anything else not covered by physics, chemistry, or mathematics). My education and vocation had been restricted and lopsided. It was as if I had lifted heavy weights with only my right arm, allowing the rest of my body to atrophy. Science without good philosophyas youll learn in this bookdistorts and stunts our growth. At its best, unaided science results in idiot savants.

viii

Whatever the cause(s) of my own doubting, I found that people had already addressed many of my questions. Some of these people had died centuries ago; others had years left. A few of them only made things worse, but many had good answers. All in all, I was rehabilitated. My belief in God stood.

But I still respect the questions. I even entertain them, putting them in their proper place. Questions are natural, and ignoring them is unnecessary and even dangerous. Addressing them, on the other hand, usually yields sizeable dividends.

I eventually left a comfortable and promising engineering career, returning to graduate school, this time in philosophy. I found myself surrounded by some of the best philosophers in the world, many of whom were serious Christians.

Christian philosophers? Yes, and its one of academias most closely guarded secrets. For the last four or five decades, these philosopherswho are enthusiastic about sciencehave developed powerful intellectual weapons, ones proven in the war between faith and unbelief. Many of these are alarmingly simple. Learning them is like turning an inverted picture right side up: anyone can do it, yet it makes everything look different. Everything finally fits.

These weapons are immensely helpful and its time you knew about them. You need them. I daresay every believer does. The stakes are about as high as they get.

ix

SMARTER THAN THOU

S ome local atheists recently rented a billboard near my home. The signs message contrasts the things Christians believe with those that atheists think. Christians, apparently, believe in God without thinking; they just believe. The idea is as clear as it is common: religious believers embrace irrationality, in contrast to the atheists careful employment of cool reason.

This charge is a damning one too. In the West, as far as virtues go, rationality ranks just above love and only slightly beneath attractiveness. To be irrational is to be intellectually substandard, maybe even mentally defective. And by association, this is also what it is to have faith, to believe in God. Atheist Sam Harris, in his bestseller The End of Faith, offers this diagnosis:

We have names for people who have many beliefs for which there is no rational justification. When their beliefs are extremely common we call them religious; otherwise, they are likely to be called mad, psychotic, or delusional.

Simply calling insanity religion, says Harris, doesnt make it any less insane, just as calling a horses tail a leg doesnt make it any less a tail (as Abraham Lincoln is said to have pointed out). If Harris is right, being religious is even worse than being unattractive. And thats bad indeed.