Are the Apologetics successful in defending Christianity?

Answer 1

Apologetics are usually preaching to the choir. Their audience is made up of strong Christians wanting to give a few stirring "Amens!", weak Christians giving a "Well that makes me feel better." and Agnostics wanting to hear arguments for either side. None of these groups provide much of a need for defense.

Atheist's see Apologetics as trying to cover up obvious fallacies and bear traps in Christian beliefs with weak and confused opinions. Atheists are generally not attacking Christianity, just ignoring it. So the "defense" sounds more like a threat that "You'll be sorry if you don't listen to this!"

People with strong belief in other religions, don't care what Apologetics say as they know Christians are wrong anyway. As a test ask anti-Islamics what Moslem apologetics are saying to defend Islam or the Qur'an, or what Buddhists say about the Four Noble Truths or the Heart Sutra.

People with no familiarity of Christian beliefs or the Christian bible have no idea of what the Apologetics are going on about. Like a Christian listening to a Blackfoot Shaman explain why Napi made tent pegs out of willow branches, there is no context or cultural meme.

On balance it seems few would listen to them and fewer folks would care.

ANSWER:

While some claim that atheists ignore rather than attack Christianity, some in recent years such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have taken a very militant stance against religion in general, and Christianity in particular. In response, some very effective apologists such as Ravi Zacharias and William Lane Craig have risen to answer them. Often in front of audiences that are generally atheistic, or at the least agnostic or very skeptical of Christianity, such apologists have held their own and in most cases have very sound answers to the questions posed to them. Arguing far more than "The Bible says so" (as this obviously holds very little water with someone who has no belief in the Bible), these apologists take their arguments from nature, physics, history, philosophy, and many other areas to argue their beliefs. Additionally these and other apologists have had intense debates with apologists of the Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist beliefs.

Sadly, most who profess Christianity nowadays cannot articulate what they believe, or more accurately, why they believe it beyond the weak reason that their parents believed it. In this kind of audience, apologists find themselves in the role of teacher, helping the faithful understand their own beliefs enough to accept or reject them based on something more substantial than family tradition.

Essentially, anyone who cares to take the time to listen with an open mind to a good apologist will find that there are Christians with a much more intelligent and well thought out belief system than many would lead you to believe nowadays.