On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision

If you've ever desired philosophers to say things in easy to understand, yet not dumbed down language, then you will be pleased with this book.On Guard seems to take all the great things William Lane Craig says during his debates, podcasts, and interviews, and puts them in one accessible read. For some reason, apologists speak so clearly during their debates, and yet when you buy their book, you get bogged down in technical jargon that keeps you busy either reading the same page 4 times, or rifling your fingers through a copy of Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion.Before I got this book, I believed it would be one of those books that would be great for using in a young adults (or not so young adults) Sunday School class, or perhaps giving to someone who knows nothing of apologetics. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that that On Guard is not only that, but also much more! On Guard reminds me of a book that would be the result of an individual's gleanings of the best notes of his studies. (Now I don't have to spend the next year writing all my notes down, because WLC has done it for us! ha ha)Ok, so now that I've given my impression of the book, allow me to go into greater detail:On Guard begins with an impressive list of endorsements, ending with the finest by J.P. Moreland, who refers to Craig as, "the finest Christian apologist of the last half century." I wholeheartedly agree, and also place Moreland there too.We move on to an excellent introduction by Lee Strobel. Lee reminds us of the great debate between Craig and Zindler (a debate I actually paid money to buy on cassette from Moody), and then closes with the claim that, "you'll learn the most compelling arguments in favor of Christianity."Chapter 1 opens with a description of what exactly apologetics is, points out that it is biblical by giving references to Jesus (Luke 24:25-27; John 14:11), and Paul (Romans 1:20; 1 Cor. 15:3-8), and more. He continues by giving reasons why apologetics is important, such as: shaping culture, strengthening believers, and winning unbelievers. Craig closes by explaining how to get the most out of his book.Chapter 2 is about "What difference does it make if God exists?" Starting with the absurdities of life without God, Craig discusses how there would be no ultimate meaning without God (illustrated by his excellent story of the astronaut marooned in outer space), no ultimate value, and no ultimate purpose. He moves on to talk about how people are living in denial, and then to the practical impossibility of atheism.Chapter 3 discusses "Why does anything at all exist?" Craig begins with Leibniz's Argument in easy to memorize form. 1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence. 2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. 3. The universe exists. 4. The universe has an explanation of its existence. 5. Therefore, the explanation of the universe's existence is God.The book goes on to raise objections to the premises, and also sufficiently addresses those objections.Chapter 4 moves into "Why did the universe begin?" Here, Craig takes us to Al-Ghazali's Argument. 1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. 2. The universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.Craig then discusses premise 1, explaining that "something cannot come from nothing," and, "if something can come into being from nothing, then it becomes inexplicable why just anything or everything doesn't come into being from nothing." He ends the discussion of premise one by pointing out that "common experience and scientific evidence confirm the truth of premise 1."WLC moves on to premise two by discussing actual infinites, Hilbert's Hotel, Big Bang, beginning of time, Oscillating Universes etc. (again, I will remind the reader, if you are not familiar with these subjects, he makes these points in understandable language).Chapter 5 asks, "Why is the universe fine-tuned for life?" I find this chapter especially interesting, since it addresses the impossible odds of life existing in this universe, such as, if the nuclear weak force was altered by only one part out of 10 to the 100th, life would not exist. Craig then discusses arguments against fine-tuning, such as "if they were different, different life forms might have evolved," and, "what if there were different laws?"Taking time to body slam Richard Dawkins' objection presented in his best seller, "The God Delusion," Craig tidily shows the errors of Dawkins' conclusion, "Therefore, God almost certainly does not exist," and then moves on to the next chapter.Chapter 6, "Can we be good without God?" Craig gives the moral argument for God's existence, explains the distinction between values and duties, addresses Euthyphro's Dilemma, answers notions such as, "moral values simply exist," "Whatever contributes to human flourishing is good," "we evolved morals," and then gives a clear description of the Genetic Fallacy, followed by a nice example.By now, hopefully you have a decent picture of what this book is like, so I shall forgo summarizing the rest of the chapters, choosing rather to merely list them.Chapter 7, "What about suffering?"Chapter 8, "Who was Jesus?"Chapter 9, "Did Jesus rise from the dead?"Chapter 10, "Is Jesus the only way to God?"I'll close this review with a mention of two additional features I find appealing. One is the regular "Talk About It" boxes that are on many pages. These are great for reviewing with a class, or testing yourself to see what you remember. e.g. "How has this chapter shown that God: Is unembodied Mind? Transcends the universe? Created the universe?"And, "Think of a movie you've seen recently. If you asked the main character, 'Why does your life matter?' what do you think he or she would say?"The second feature is the wide margins on the side of the pages. There is plenty of room for taking notes.Good luck and enjoy On Guard!

The book arrived in the condition that a buyer should expect

I just wanted to start my review by saying that this book quite possibly saved my faith. Right now I'm a senior at Princeton and I've recently been going through the period where I had to stop believing things because that was what I had always been taught and start believing them for my own reasons and an objective appraisal of the truth, no matter where it led me. I'm still working out the kinks, but I'm on the right track now.To me, the strongest parts of this book are the beginning and the end: the parts that deal with the philosophical arguments for God's existence and the responses to the two problems of sin and the fates of the unevangelized. Those were very strong and, after having read several atheist authors (Quentin Smith, John Loftus, Richard Dawkins, etc.), I believe that Craig offers much stronger arguments than they do. He also represents their views pretty accurately, and doesn't resort to setting up straw men.The weaker part of this book has to do with the peculiarly Christian aspects of God: Jesus' teachings and his resurrection. I found his attempts in such a small amount of space to be overly ambitious and a bit too unnuanced. I personally preferred Michael Licona's excellent work The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. While Licona makes strong arguments for his personal beliefs, he confines his main analysis to the facts that are agreed upon by almost all biblical scholars, both Christian and atheist: the historical "bedrock." I've listed them here for those who are interested:1. Jesus existed.2. Jesus was a man regarded as a prophet and moral teacher who performed what many interpreted as miracles, magic, or exorcisms.3. Jesus believed himself to have a special role with God as a prophet or son.4. Jesus died on the cross.5. After Jesus died, many of his apostles, in different times and places, had experiences that led them to believe and proclaim that Jesus had been resurrected and had appeared to them.6. A few years after Jesus died, Paul, a devout Jew with a history of persecuting Christians, had what he interpreted as a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to him.Licona then examines the various atheist explanations for these known facts and finds them seriously lacking in merit (as did I--the cases against Jesus' resurrection are very tenuous). Ultimately, I found Licona's case more persuasive than Craig's, although a large part of that simply has to do with the fact that Licona's work has much more room to make a serious case, since it is much longer and devoted entirely to one subject. I simply mention it here as an avenue of further study for people who are interested.In short, I have a newfound admiration for Craig. His thoughts are clear, logical, and insightful. I currently still disagree with him on some matters (primarily on the issue of biblical inerrancy), but I will engage in further research before coming to any firm conclusions.

Graig apresentou uma ótima defesa dos argumentos da existência de Deus, que ultimamente tem sido deixados de lado. O argumento Kalam permaneceu firme, mesmo após eu ler uma tentativa de resposta a ele, mas no meu entender o opositor não foi bem sucessido

This book is for everyone who truly seeks the truth

Desde siempre he sido alguien que tiene como pasión (y ministerio) la apologética. Tengo en mi biblioteca varios libros sobre este tema y de varios autores. Sin embargo, si tuviera que elegir uno que fuera fácil de leer, fácil de entender y que ofreciera herramientas útiles para presentar una defensa de la fe les recomiendo ampliamente este libro. Es útil, efectivo y una vez que haces de los argumentos tuyos, se vuelve en LA herramienta principal de uso y problablemente la piedra angular de tu defensa. Por supuesto que lo recomiendo al libro y al autor!.

Ich habe zuvor schon viele apologetische Bücher gelesen und viele Vorträge gehört, deshalb dachte ich, dass ich aus dem Buch von Craig nicht viel neues lernen werde. Aber ich habe komplett getäuscht.On Guard ist echt genial, es bringt gute Argumente in einer logisch nachvollziehbaren Art und Weise und diskutiert ebenfalls die Einwände und Gegenargumente. Fachbegriffe aus der Philosophie werden dem Leser erklärt.Aber nicht nur die Argumente von Craig sind sehr gut dar gelegt, er geht auch auf die Frage ein, ob es einen Unterschied macht, ob Gott existiert oder nicht. Außerdem betrachtet er die Theodizee-Frage im Licht der Philosophie, was ich bisher in keinem anderen Buch lesen konnte.Ich kann jedem, der sich für Apologetik interessiert, dieses Buch nur empfehlen.

Excellent livre, très clair et relativement facile à suivre. Je ne peux que le recommander. Dommage qu'il n'existe pas en français.