Should our focus shift to moral issues?

[Windfish]

I think enough momentum has been built that the structures in place for contra Protestantism apologetics are good enough. There are MANY books, blogs, and websites available for any seeking Protestant and for the doubting Catholic.

I also think that “new” atheism has been dismantled and exposed by both atheist and theist intellectuals alike. What remains now is more an attitude than a defensible position.

Where we are weak, I think, is in the defense of moral issues. A lot of us can argue with quite sophistication on the existence of God and so forth, but, speaking for myself, defending, for example, marriage with argument and facts is a lot harder.

The reason I think it is a lot harder because views on marriage really boil down to our most basic presuppositions. Secularists have a statist “morality,” where everything is permitted as long as it does not infringe on the freedom or will of another person. For us, our wills are not just limited by the rights of others, but also by very real moral duties and obligations. With this in mind, to them, the argument against gay “marriage” seems like an infringement on another person’s rights. Getting them to change their minds will involve a radical worldview shift, and I think this is asking too much.

So, what do you guys think?

 

[DavidFilmer]

I think enough momentum has been built that the structures in place for contra Protestantism apologetics are good enough. There are MANY books, blogs, and websites available for any seeking Protestant and for the doubting Catholic.

And, yet, we field questions every day. I like to think we do some good.

Where we are weak, I think, is in the defense of moral issues.

There is also a Moral Theology forum here. This is the apologetics forum, where we discuss apologetics.

A lot of us can argue with quite sophistication on the existence of God and so forth, but, speaking for myself, defending, for example, marriage with argument and facts is a lot harder.

Wow. Defending marriage (as a sacrament) is MUCH easier for me than defending the existence of God.

Now, marriage as a civil union is another matter, and is not really an apologetical OR moral matter. The State is at liberty to legally define marriage in any manner it chooses. If the State says that a man may “marry” his horse, then so be it. But the Church will never recognize such a union.