As an apologist, how do you always stand by your convictions and beliefs, as so often the arguments put forth to refute the Bible are so strong, rational and logical. Also, there is always the confirmation bias that could influence one’s judgement.  Thank you.

A very good question.  I get literally thousands of questions, complaints and criticisms of Christianity.  It is my experience that these questions invariably result in an increase in my faith. Have I ever gotten a challenging question?  Sure, but the process of finding answers always confirms the truths of Christianity in the long run. There is a reason for this.  It just so happens that Christianity is true.  The truth holds up very well in the light of criticisms from others who do not have the truth.  Of course, this is a conclusion, and one which should only be reached upon much inquiry and examination.

Here is my specific experience.  The majority of the questions I get are actually NOT “strong, rational and logical.”  In fact, a fairly large majority of questions are either very easily answered or are actually not even good questions.  I get a LOT of questions from Muslims, and most of them involve presuppositions which are so obviously untrue that I even struggle to give gentle, concise answers.

Only a fairly small percentage of the questions that I get are “strong, rational and logical,” as you say.  But a small percentage of thousands of questions is still a lot of good and challenging questions. I have received hundreds of really good questions, including hard questions, and claims which cause me to think carefully in order to answer them. Questions such as why does God call his people to massacre their enemies in the Old Testament, or how can a God of love condemn people to eternal punishment are tough ones.  Most of the questions about supposed contradictions in the Bible are very easily answered, being due to a basic misunderstanding of the Bible.  But perhaps one in ten questions about supposed inconsistencies in the Bible are good questions which need careful thought and which are not easily answered.

But, like I already said, it is these hard questions which strengthen my faith the most.  The bottom line is this: Christianity is true, the Bible is inspired by God, and Jesus is the resurrected Messiah and Son of God. These being true, it should not be too surprising that even the challenging questions turn out to increase rather than decrease my faith.  This is what I have found.  If you take some time to look through the various questions and answers at the web site, you will see why this is true.

On the question of bias and particularly confirmation bias (definition: the tendency to only notice data which confirms your desired conclusion and to dismiss disconfirming information), this needs to be handled carefully and with wisdom.  I have reached the conclusion that the Bible is inspired by God.  For this reason, I begin questions by presupposing that, almost certainly, criticisms will prove to be answered well.  All of us have biases and presuppositions.  The important thing is that we need to be very well aware of our biases and presuppositions.  If I remain self-aware, then I can protect myself against confirmation or any other sort of bias.  This is a difficult task, but I am convinced the biggest problem is when we do not recognize our biases and take them into account. Being self-aware is very important here.

Let me give an example.  My wife Jan has been faithful to me for just under 40 years.  I am convinced that she is faithful and always will be.  Therefore, if I hear information which seems to tell me that she is somehow being unfaithful, I am fully justified in assuming that the information is either simply wrong, or it is true, but there is another explanation of the information.  My prejudice is very well justified, and I do not need to waste any mental effort worrying that Jan might actually be out there messing around.  There is no way!  The same, more or less, applies to the inspiration of the Bible.  This is a settled matter for me.  However, as an apologist, I must treat new information about the Bible differently than I treat new information about my wife.  I need to be prepared to answer, and therefore I must take such questions seriously, even as I am quite confident what the conclusion will be.

The net result is that the more questions I receive, the stronger my faith is.  Why?  Because the Bible is true and the Christian message is true.  That is the only possible conclusion to the matter.

I hope this helps.

John Oakes