Possible Answers to the Apologetics Exercise
1. If it is inappropriate to be judgmental, why are you judging me? Are you saying that views of which you approve ought not to be judged or criticized in any way, but those views you do not favor may be judged and dismissed without a hearing or without debate? Not liking my point of view is not a counter argument; neither are insults.
Christianity possesses a rich intellectual history, one that the academy recognizes. In fact, the origins of the university are part of that intellectual history. Dismissing ideas as intolerant or shameful that have earned centuries of intellectual respect cannot honor the university. Nor can holding to views also held by the very founders of Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, as well as men such as Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Edwards, and William Wilberforce, prove dishonorable to a contemporary college student. If I am to be dishonored for my faith, then I am in very good company.
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I do not object to others having views that differ from my own. I should expect that others who might disagree with me would extend the same courtesy. That I believe to be tolerant. Moreover, such toleration is a necessary intellectual courtesy, a prerequisite to rational debate. If disagreeing parties do not extend this courtesy, then discussion becomes impossible. Consequently, the loudness of the screams and denunciations made by one party against the other takes the place of rational thought and sheer volume wins the argument. This hardly befits the very idea of the university. In fact, it is its contradiction. To reject the historical idea of university education: is that why you are paying
1. If it is inappropriate to be judgmental, why are you judging me? Are you saying that views of which you approve ought not to be judged or criticized in any way, but those views you do not favor may be judged and dismissed without a hearing or without debate? Not liking my point of view is not a counter argument; neither are insults.
Christianity possesses a rich intellectual history, one that the academy recognizes. In fact, the origins of the university are part of that intellectual history. Dismissing ideas as intolerant or shameful that have earned centuries of intellectual respect cannot honor the university. Nor can holding to views also held by the very founders of Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, as well as men such as Thomas Aquinas, Francis Bacon, Jonathan Edwards, and William Wilberforce, prove dishonorable to a contemporary college student. If I am to be dishonored for my faith, then I am in very good company.
2. …show more content…
I do not object to others having views that differ from my own. I should expect that others who might disagree with me would extend the same courtesy. That I believe to be tolerant. Moreover, such toleration is a necessary intellectual courtesy, a prerequisite to rational debate. If disagreeing parties do not extend this courtesy, then discussion becomes impossible. Consequently, the loudness of the screams and denunciations made by one party against the other takes the place of rational thought and sheer volume wins the argument. This hardly befits the very idea of the university. In fact, it is its contradiction. To reject the historical idea of university education: is that why you are paying