After initially posting, William Lane Craig Advises Christians on How to Deal With Their Doubts, I made an addition concerning his advice to Christians – implying that he was sending a hidden message that if they’d only attend to their spiritual disciplines more then they wouldn’t be having those doubts.
UnkleE called me on it:
Brenda, I must say I was very disappointed with this final comment. I didn’t get any sense of blame from Craig here – he was at all times earnest, positive and encouraging. And as for manoeuvering to avoid valid arguments, Craig is one of the most powerful christian debaters who wins far more than he loses, and has been willing to address a wide range of topics, so that comment is simply untrue. Saying these things makes you sound petty, like you are just trying to find fault, when you usually seem to try to be more fair-minded. I think the post was better without this comment, I’m sorry.
I think he was right and now that section of the post says:
[I want to focus on #3 for a bit. When I originally wrote this post I made it sound as though Craig was purposely trying to blame the person doubting by telling them that if they’d only attend to their spiritual disciplines more then they wouldn’t have those doubts. In hindsight I think what I should have said is that it could be taken that way by someone truly in the middle of some serious doubts. I think I am always on the alert for when Christians use fear or blame to keep people from questioning the religion and in this case I crossed the line and implied intent on Craig’s part when that probably wasn’t his meaning. I still want any doubters to be alert for anyone who tries to tell them that if they’d only do (blank) more then they wouldn’t have those doubts – so I stand by that warning in general but not how I implied intent on Craig’s part.]
It was interesting that this all happened right after I’d posted about The Courage to Be Imperfect. I had a chance to put that into practice right away!
I hope I don’t have a post that sucks that much energy out of me for a long time!
Left Christianity 