Daily Defense Podcast

DAY 341 CHALLENGE “Catholics can’t have assurance of salvation because the Church teaches justification by faith plus works, meaning that they will always have to be wondering whether they have done enough good works to be justified and enter heaven.” DEFENSE This is not what the Church teaches. We elsewhere cover the fact that the Church does not use the phrase “justification by faith and works”...

DAY 340 CHALLENGE “The Bible originally taught reincarnation, but the relevant passages were struck out by the Council of Nicaea.” DEFENSE This claim is not credible for numerous reasons. First, the surviving records of the First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) and the Second Council of Nicaea (A.D. 787), as well as the writings of those who took part in them, give no indication the topic of reincarn...

DAY 339 CHALLENGE “Catholics are wrong to allow the use of alcohol. Jesus would never have approved of it. In the Bible, there were two types of wine—fermented and unfermented—and only the second, also known as ‘new wine,’ is ever endorsed.” DEFENSE The Bible contains multiple warnings against drunkenness (Prov. 20:1, Isa. 5:11–12, Luke 21:34, 1 Cor. 6:10, Eph. 5:18). But it does not condemn the m...

DAY 338 CHALLENGE “Unanswered prayer disproves Christ’s teaching on prayer. Jesus said, ‘If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you’ (Matt. 17:20b). But experience shows that we can’t do such things by prayer.” DEFENSE Jesus’ teaching is more complex than this challenge suggests. It...

DAY 337  CHALLENGE “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Religion makes extraordinary claims, therefore we must have extraordinary evidence for them.” DEFENSE This depends on what you mean by “extraordinary.” In its original sense, extraordinary refers to things outside of or different from the ordinary. It thus refers to anything uncommon. However, the term has acquired an additio...

DAY 336 CHALLENGE “Belief without evidence is irrational. A rational man will proportion his beliefs strictly according to the evidence.” DEFENSE Actions are irrational if they’re done contrary to reason, but not all reasons are evidential. We sometimes have practical rather than evidential reasons. Suppose you are fleeing danger and the only way to escape certain death is to leap across a chasm....

DAY 335 CHALLENGE “Catholics may claim that they rely on Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, but the Magisterium has the final say. What Catholics really believe in is solo magisterio (“by the Magisterium alone”). It could make up anything, and Catholics would have to believe it.” DEFENSE This claim does not stand up to analysis. First, the Magisterium is not itself a source of the Faith. I...

DAY 334 CHALLENGE “People should not try to legislate morality.” DEFENSE Any degree of scrutiny causes this claim to fall apart. First, law deals with the ordering of human affairs—what people are and are not to do—and this has an inescapably moral dimension. This is obvious with laws prohibiting things like murder and rape, but it is true of legislation in general. Laws that redistribute wealth o...

DAY 333 CHALLENGE “Why shouldn’t science be the ultimate guide to truth in all matters?” DEFENSE Because some truths are inaccessible to science. First, there are many subjects in life where it would be foolish to try to apply the scientific method. For example, it would be foolish for a man who desires to know if his wife still loves him to subject her to a series of scientific tests. Even if suc...

DAY 332 CHALLENGE “The Assumption of Mary isn’t taught anywhere in the Bible.” DEFENSE From a Catholic perspective, it doesn’t have to be. The idea theology should be done sola scriptura (Latin, “by Scripture alone”) is a distinctly Protestant idea not shared by most Christians. It also has numerous difficulties (see Days 5, 16, 311, and 352). In general, it is better to sort out how theology is t...

DAY 331 CHALLENGE “If God really exists and wants us to know him, why doesn’t he make his existence more obvious to us?” DEFENSE This is a subcase of the problem of evil—specifically, why God would allow us to have less knowledge of him than we would prefer to have. Its solutions fall along the same lines as other aspects of the problem of evil. God could make it undeniably obvious that he exists,...

DAY 330 CHALLENGE “Jesus can’t be God if he said, ‘The Father is greater than I’ (John 14:28).” DEFENSE The divinity of Christ is consistent with Jesus’ statement. Jesus has the same nature as his Father: They are both divine, both God. This does not mean that the Son doesn’t hold a lesser place in other respects. To consider a human analogy, both a father and a son are equal in nature, but the fa...

DAY 329 CHALLENGE “If God wants us to know him, and if the Bible is his word, why isn’t it clearer?” DEFENSE Several answers may be given. First, much of the Bible is quite clear, including many of its main teachings (e.g., there is one God, who created the world, and who loves man enough to send his Son to die on a cross so we might be saved from our sins). So is the main sequence of events it na...

DAY 328 CHALLENGE “The pope is a sinful man who makes mistakes. Therefore, he can’t be infallible.” DEFENSE The premise of this challenge is true; the conclusion is false. The pope is a sinful man, but this does not lead to the conclusion that he can’t be infallible. Sinlessness—sometimes called impeccability—operates in a different sphere than infallibility does. Sinlessness is a quality pertaini...

DAY 327 CHALLENGE “Matthew contradicts the other Gospels when he says that Jesus used two animals during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It also, absurdly, says he rode both at once.” DEFENSE There is no contradiction, and he didn’t ride both at once. When two things are involved in an encounter, the evangelists frequently simplify their recounting of the event by mentioning only one (see Day...

DAY 326 CHALLENGE “We know we can’t lose our salvation by committing mortal sin because Scripture says we can’t be separated from God (John 6:37, 39, 10:27–29, Rom. 8:38–39).” DEFENSE None of those biblical passages show that we cannot separate ourselves from God. John 6:37 states: “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” Jesus will not cast us o...

DAY 325 CHALLENGE “Why shouldn’t the individual decide for himself what books belong in the Bible?” DEFENSE God didn’t promise to guide individuals in this way. It’s also a dangerous thing to try. First, how would an individual decide what books are canonical? Some have claimed these books are “self-authenticating” or that the Holy Spirit will provide what amounts to a private revelation to the in...

DAY 324 CHALLENGE “Genesis can’t be the word of God because it borrows from pagan texts.” DEFENSE God can interact with pagan works if he chooses. Proposed parallels between the Old Testament and pagan sources are often exaggerated. Other times they may be due to independent development. When a parallel is not coincidence, it is possible that both the biblical and the pagan authors are drawing fro...

DAY 323 CHALLENGE “If what is ultimately important is our faith in God, then there is no reason for the Church to have sacraments.” DEFENSE Interior dispositions like faith are not the only thing that is important. We are also physical beings. The Church has sacraments because they correspond to human nature and thus Christ instituted them. Every religion has certain rites it regards as sacred. Su...

DAY 322 CHALLENGE “Jesus was a Jew. If Christians are really his followers, why don’t they keep Old Testament laws like circumcision, eating kosher food, and so on? Jesus said he didn’t come to destroy the Law and not a jot or tittle would pass away from it (Matt. 5:17–18).” DEFENSE Such prescriptions were only binding on Jewish people before Jesus fulfilled the Law. Everyone must obey the natural...

DAY 321 CHALLENGE “If human nature has a predisposition to religious belief (see Day 313), why can’t we explain this as an evolutionary by-product?” DEFENSE We can’t dismiss our religious disposition so easily. Religion requires a robust set of cognitive faculties, which is why humans have religion and less intelligent species do not. According to the theory of evolution, the needed faculties woul...

DAY 320 CHALLENGE “Once we are saved, we are always saved. We don’t need to worry about mortal sins, because when we are justified, God forgives all of our sins—past, present, and future.” DEFENSE Scripture teaches the opposite. It is, of course, true that when we come to God and are justified that he forgives all of our past sins. However, this is not true of present and future sins. One of the r...

DAY 319 CHALLENGE “Pascal’s Wager is open to objections: (1) It isn’t based on evidence; (2) Christianity and skepticism aren’t the only two options we can choose; and (3) how do you know that God won’t perversely decide to put you in hell for placing your faith in him?” DEFENSE None of these objections overturn Paschal’s Wager. First, as we observe elsewhere (see Day 318), Pascal’s Wager is desig...

DAY 318 CHALLENGE “I am unable to decide between Christianity and skepticism, and it doesn’t help to review the evidence. My dilemma seems insoluble.” DEFENSE In his Pensées, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal proposed a practical solution that became known as Pascal’s Wager. He proposed that, if evidential reasoning cannot settle the question for a particular person, then practical reasoning m...

DAY 317 CHALLENGE “The synoptic Gospels say the Last Supper was a Passover meal, but John indicates it wasn’t (John 18:28, 19:14).” DEFENSE There are multiple resolutions to this challenge. First, there were disputes about the calendar in first-century Judaism. Some have proposed Jesus used a different calendar than the temple authorities, so he ate the Passover meal a day earlier than the Jewish...