Daily Defense Podcast

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#336 Practical and Evidential Reason - Jimmy Akin Dec 02, 2023

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DAY 336 CHALLENGE “Belief without evidence is irrational. A rational man will proportion his beliefs strictly according to the evidence.” DEFENSE Actions are irrational if they’re done contrary to reason, but not all reasons are evidential. We sometimes have practical rather than evidential reasons. Suppose you are fleeing danger and the only way to escape certain death is to leap across a chasm. Suppose further that the chasm is wide enough you can’t tell whether leaping it is within your ability, but if you lose confidence you will certainly fail. In this situation, you have a practi...

#335 Solo Magisterio - Jimmy Akin Dec 01, 2023

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DAY 335 CHALLENGE “Catholics may claim that they rely on Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, but the Magisterium has the final say. What Catholics really believe in is solo magisterio (“by the Magisterium alone”). It could make up anything, and Catholics would have to believe it.” DEFENSE This claim does not stand up to analysis. First, the Magisterium is not itself a source of the Faith. Its function is to proclaim and clarify what is found in Scripture and Tradition, which together “make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God” (CCC 97). Scripture and Tradition thus re...

#334 Legislating Morality - Jimmy Akin Nov 30, 2023

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DAY 334 CHALLENGE “People should not try to legislate morality.” DEFENSE Any degree of scrutiny causes this claim to fall apart. First, law deals with the ordering of human affairs—what people are and are not to do—and this has an inescapably moral dimension. This is obvious with laws prohibiting things like murder and rape, but it is true of legislation in general. Laws that redistribute wealth or raise public funds to be spent on certain projects imply a set of values. Even laws that seem completely arbitrary from one perspective (e.g., drive on the right side of the road rather than...

#333 The Limits of Science - Jimmy Akin Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

DAY 333 CHALLENGE “Why shouldn’t science be the ultimate guide to truth in all matters?” DEFENSE Because some truths are inaccessible to science. First, there are many subjects in life where it would be foolish to try to apply the scientific method. For example, it would be foolish for a man who desires to know if his wife still loves him to subject her to a series of scientific tests. Even if such tests were well designed, they would be likely to crush her remaining affection for him. This is a case where the attempt to impose scientific method disturbs the very thing being observed ...

#332 The Assumption of Mary - Jimmy Akin Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

DAY 332 CHALLENGE “The Assumption of Mary isn’t taught anywhere in the Bible.” DEFENSE From a Catholic perspective, it doesn’t have to be. The idea theology should be done sola scriptura (Latin, “by Scripture alone”) is a distinctly Protestant idea not shared by most Christians. It also has numerous difficulties (see Days 5, 16, 311, and 352). In general, it is better to sort out how theology is to be done before engaging in apologetic discussions of issues, like the Assumption of Mary, that depend significantly on apostolic Tradition not recorded in Scripture. If a Protestant dialogue...

#331 God’s Hiddenness - Jimmy Akin Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

DAY 331 CHALLENGE “If God really exists and wants us to know him, why doesn’t he make his existence more obvious to us?” DEFENSE This is a subcase of the problem of evil—specifically, why God would allow us to have less knowledge of him than we would prefer to have. Its solutions fall along the same lines as other aspects of the problem of evil. God could make it undeniably obvious that he exists, and it is commonly understood he will do so in the next life, paralleling the way he will vanquish evil in the next life in general. Why God remains partially hidden in this life is a myste...

#330 The Father Is Greater Than I - Jimmy Akin Nov 26, 2023

Show notes

DAY 330 CHALLENGE “Jesus can’t be God if he said, ‘The Father is greater than I’ (John 14:28).” DEFENSE The divinity of Christ is consistent with Jesus’ statement. Jesus has the same nature as his Father: They are both divine, both God. This does not mean that the Son doesn’t hold a lesser place in other respects. To consider a human analogy, both a father and a son are equal in nature, but the father ranks higher in the relationships within the family. Further, if he sends his son on a mission, the son has a lower place with respect to the mission: He is the one sent, not the sender. ...

#329 Why Isn’t the Bible Clearer? - Jimmy Akin Nov 25, 2023

Show notes

DAY 329 CHALLENGE “If God wants us to know him, and if the Bible is his word, why isn’t it clearer?” DEFENSE Several answers may be given. First, much of the Bible is quite clear, including many of its main teachings (e.g., there is one God, who created the world, and who loves man enough to send his Son to die on a cross so we might be saved from our sins). So is the main sequence of events it narrates. For the most part, it tends to be the subsidiary points that are less clear. Second, the Bible was written in a certain period of time and in a certain culture. It therefore reflects...

#328 Objections to Papal Infallibility - Jimmy Akin Nov 24, 2023

Show notes

DAY 328 CHALLENGE “The pope is a sinful man who makes mistakes. Therefore, he can’t be infallible.” DEFENSE The premise of this challenge is true; the conclusion is false. The pope is a sinful man, but this does not lead to the conclusion that he can’t be infallible. Sinlessness—sometimes called impeccability—operates in a different sphere than infallibility does. Sinlessness is a quality pertaining to the moral order: It means not making a mistake in the sphere of one’s own moral behavior. Infallibility is a quality pertaining to the doctrinal order: It deals with not making a mistake...

#327 The Triumphal Entry - Jimmy Akin Nov 23, 2023

Show notes

DAY 327 CHALLENGE “Matthew contradicts the other Gospels when he says that Jesus used two animals during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It also, absurdly, says he rode both at once.” DEFENSE There is no contradiction, and he didn’t ride both at once. When two things are involved in an encounter, the evangelists frequently simplify their recounting of the event by mentioning only one (see Day 37). This is within the level of descriptive approximation one expects (see Day 258). Here Matthew gives the fuller account by mentioning both animals (Matt. 21:2), while the others simplify b...

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