what is an apologist?

[jackman]

i can't grasp wtf an apologist is yet. of course i googled it and got a definition that made sense, but when i read posts here and people use it, it doesn't seem to connect as what i read. can anyone explain for me? i'd appreciate it. thanks.

as a side note, any references that explain the many categories of non-belief/belief would be cool too. speaking of the stuff like pantheism, deist, gnostic ... i've never paid much attention to this but suspect it would give me a clue in on how people i converse with see the world. this one, i can dig up myself but if you have a good solid one, i'd like to see.

[Welsh cake]

Wikipedia is a great site to start.

Just type in whatever you're interested in learning about and away you go.

[jackman]

yeah, i already did that (with apologists). doesn't always mesh with what i hear here tho. so i wonder what i'm missing.

[Whateverist]

I'm sorry?

---

Seriously an apologist is someone who explains away objections in order to preserve a pet theory. It is what scientists try so hard to avoid by making the best arguments they can think of against the theories they are wed to. You can always count on a Christian apologist to justify whatever objection you present in a way that leaves their 'theory' untouched. They never allow their pet theory to be called into question. In their minds, what they believe about God is axiomatic so no evidence you can present can ever over turn it. You might say an apologist "spins" evidence in the service of their already held conclusions rather than consider evidence for the purpose of reaching the best conclusion.

[jackman]

... so no evidence you can present can ever over turn it. You might say an apologist "spins" evidence

exactly what i wanted. thanks.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

The literal meaning:

Apologist;One who defends (eg Christianity) by argument (Concise Oxford dictionary)

Here we have all sorts; defenders of young earth lunacy,we've had Catholic apologists, Muslim apologists, gun owner apologists,all kinds of political apologists,and of course militant atheist apologists who are convinced all believers are stupid,ignorant or insane.


In popular culture,an 'apologist' seems to have become a person who defends the indefensible. EG defending the Catholic church over the institutionalised corruption which has come to light over the endemic child abuse and consequent evasion of civil law.

[Justtristo]

Evangelists are those who sell the snake oil. While the apologists are those spokespersons who have to defend the product when it does not work (which minus the placebo effect is always).

[Minimalist]

yeah, i already did that (with apologists). doesn't always mesh with what i hear here tho. so i wonder what i'm missing.

I suspect that is because the idiot jesus freaks who show up here are not very good at it, either.

If you want to see a real apologist in action you need to read something like Justin Martyr's First Apology where you hear such gems as:

And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter.

or,

And if we even affirm that He was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you accept of Perseus. And in that we say that He made whole the lame, the paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds said to have been done by AEsculapius.

(Justin lived at a time (c 160 AD) when his fellow xtians would not burn his ass at the stake for comparing ole jesus to Roman gods!)






http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/te...ology.html

[NoMoreFaith]

God's Spin Doctors. That's as concise a description I can think of.