Since I’m facing off against J. P. Moreland in the Apologetics March Madness tournament (click here), I thought I’d re-post one of my favorite J. P. Moreland posts. I’m asking for your vote, although right now, he is leading 75-25 and it doesn’t look good. The poll runs to the end of Friday.

This lecture contains Moreland’s famous “Wonmug” illustration. If you don’t know who Wonmug is, you can find out in this lecture.

The MP3 file is here.

Topics:

• Is it intolerant to think that one religion is true?
• Is it more important to be loving and accepting of people regardless of worldview?
• How should Christians approach the question of religious pluralism?
• How does a person choose a religion anyway?
• Who is Wonmug, and would you like to be like Wonmug?
• Is it enough that a belief “works for you”, or do you want to believe the truth?
• Can all the religions in the world be true?
• Is it wise to pick and choose what you like from all the different religions?
• Is it possible to investigate which religion is true? How?
• Which religions are testable for being true or false?
• How you can test Christianity historically (very brief)

I’m posting this, because I’ve noticed that there’s an awful lot of cultural Christianity in red states. Basically, if you ask someone if they are a Christian, and they say yes, they don’t usually mean that they think it’s true and that they’ve investigated whether it’s true. They usually just mean that they like it, or it makes them feel good, or that’s how they were raised, etc. My worry about this is that if Christianity isn’t adopted because it’s true, then no one is going to do any work or self-sacrifice for it. And I think that Christianity won’t survive the challenges of the secular culture if parents and pastors don’t understand that Christianity will require work, if it’s going to be presented to people as TRUE in a persuasive way.

Why is truth important? People are willing to invest in projects self-sacrificially if they think that they are involved in something true. So, you might enroll in a chemistry program in college because you expect to come out with true beliefs about chemistry. You’ll do the work and solve the problems because you think that chemistry is real. But if you think that chemistry is just made up nonsense with no use at all, you’re probably not going to work at it and sacrifice for it. You’ll probably just find something else to do with your life that’s easier and more fun. That’s why the truth question is really important.