Reasons for an Apostasy

I am watching a youtube.

• 1) he came to see Evolution as undisputable;
• 2) the problem of evil "always falls back on God";
• 3) "the Bible is not special"
  
  
  • i) text versions - Samarian, Masoretic, Septuagint, pre-Masoretic involved in Vulgate - imply errancy on part of at least some of them and on his view then all equally
  • ij) discrepancies between Kings and Chronicles, with manipulation
  • iij) Gospels supposedly contradict. Tatian and Augustine (he doesn't say which of them) failed to make a working Gospel harmony.
  • iu) Manipulation is not compatible with the revelation of an all-knowing and all-powerful God.
  • u) uncertainties in philology of original meaning.
  • uj) textual similarities between Bible and cultures around.
  
  
  
• 4) "Christianity has no objective morality"
  
  
  • i) moral contradictions between OT and NT
  • ij) moral contradictions within OT, like between laws of Exodus and of Deuteronomy
  • iij) if there were an objective morality, OT contradicts it
  • iu) moralities of Joshua and of Jesus contradict
  • u) divine command theory is a horrible theory of what is right.
  
  
  
• 5) No philosophical justification for the existence of God.
  
  
  • i) ditches watchmaker analogy
  • ij) ditches starter argument by its ambivalence as to who God is (including a group of fairies)
  
  
  
• 6) Problem of salvation
  
  
  • i) thousands of different denominations
  • ij) each has its own view of God
  • iij) no way of proving one of them right
  • iu) if a self professed Christian is close to worshipping Quran's Allah and a self professed Muslim is close to worshipping Christianity's God ... he concludes characteristics are very important
  • u) we can't know who God is + would the Muslim go to Heaven?
  
  
  
• 7) Faith is an unreliable way to truth. "Faith is belief without evidence" - > You can have faith in anything.

His video is not for arguing, which is why I am not linking right now.

Here are my answers:

• 1) Evolution is indisputably false over more than one thing:
  
  
  • i) origin of life
  • ij) origin of human thought and language
  • iij) origin of many-celled eukaryotes and especially of new cell types
  • iu) origin of new genes by mutation and new functioning organs by genes (the genes necessary for an organ are often more than one, and they are too specific for origin by mutations
  
  
  
• 2) Human freewill is an asset to God's goodness and so is angelic freewill. Combining freewill with total exclusion of all bad choices in other, created, persons is logically a contradiction, and requires the real possibility of moral evil, of which its real existence is an illustration.
  
  
• 3) The Church is special.
  
  
  • i) text versions - Samarian, Masoretic, Septuagint, pre-Masoretic involved in Vulgate - imply errancy on part of at least some of them but not on all equally (when important the Church knows which ones to reject)
  • ij) discrepancies between Kings and Chronicles, with manipulation do not amount to contradictions.
  • iij) Tatian and Augustine each madee a working Gospel harmony.
  • iu) Manipulation on part of human authors is compatible with the revelation of an all-knowing and all-powerful God.
  • u) uncertainties in philology of original meaning - when important the Church can decide.
  • uj) textual similarities between Bible and cultures around should be expected if the Bible is factually true : no culture after Babel can have started off as completely ignorant of the Flood, for instance.
  
  
  
• 4) Christianity has objective but not uniform morality
  
  
  • i) moral climbing between OT and NT
  • ij) (moral contradictions within OT, like between laws of Exodus and of Deuteronomy - I'd like to know more on this one, but he doesn't seem to have made a video about it)
  • iij) if there were an objective morality, OT fulfills some minimal requirements
  • iu) moralities of Joshua and of Jesus involve a moral climb
  • u) divine command theory is not all there is to objective Christian morality.
  
  
  
• 5) Some philosophical justification for the existence of God.
  
  
  • i) He ditches watchmaker analogy - but ignores St. Thomas comparing God to an instrument both maker and player.
  • ij) He ditches starter argument by its ambivalence as to who God is - but philosophical theism is not too much decisive on that anyway.
  • iij) He ignores the five ways, including mover of the visible cosmos.
  • iu) He ignores how the existence of valid reason and valid morality points to an eternal mind not produced from scratch like each human mind is.
  
  
  
• 6) Problem of salvation
  
  
  • i) thousands of different denominations
  • ij) some have their own views of God
  • iij) Matthew 28:20 proves most wrong and leaves very few options as to which one is right. Luther, Calvin, Cranmer are all out bc Reformation contradicts this passage. If it was necessary, a few days before it happened, no one was doing exactly the right Christianity, and therefore Christ would have broken His promise. Unless the right one had been going on unbroken and therefore unreformed elsewhere, but no "elsewhere" in fact coincided with these Reformers. Kyrillos Laskaris was no Calvinist and he was deposed for being too close to Calvinism for the taste of fellow Orthodox.
  
  
  
• 7) "Faith is belief without evidence" = misdefined.

Faith really is belief stronger than the apparent strength of the evidence for the moment will warrant and belief for the evidence of an authority having the answer. Like, you would trust Froissart that the Hundred Years War happened - but you didn't watch it happen yourself, so you believe it by faith in his narrative. Most facts are believed by faith. All strong positions at some point in the lives of some believers face what seems to be overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Faith is sticking to an authority you have chosen for a good reason, not just for the sake of "having an authority". Though that is a good reason too, as long as it isn't a bad one. Or which others before you chose for a good reason.

I will now post this link on another youtube of his, so he can decide if he wants me to link back to his video or not, but if not, I think these reasons are so common that none of them is original with him.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Lazarus of Marseille
17.XII.2020

Massiliae, in Gallia, beati Lazari Episcopi, sanctarum Mariae Magdalenae ac Marthae fratris, quem Dominus in Evangelio appellasse amicum et a mortuis excitasse legitur.