New Evidence that Demands a Verdict

I am reading through Josh McDowell's book New Evidence that Demands a Verdict... and since it is incredibly LONG, i just want to share key points that stick out to me throughout it....so here's todays! :)

*Faith, contrary to popular belief, is NOT a blind leap..."Faith in Christianity is based on evidence. It is reasonable faith. Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it...Faith is the assurance of the heart in the adequcy of the evidence."

* "A basic definition of history for me is ' a knowledge of the past based on testimony'." If you dont agree, then I ask, "Do you believe Lincoln lived and was president of the United States?" If so, then I believe it is safe to say niether you, myself, or anyone else we have known has ever personally seen or observed Lincoln right?The only way one knows about his existence is by testimony, physical, verbal and written.

* To tolerate, by definition, does not mean we should accept eachothers beliefs... New World Dictionary of English defines it as " to recognize and respect [other's beliefs, practices, and so forth] without sharing them," and " to bear or put up with [someone or something no especially liked]". The misconception today is that truth is inclusive, that it gathers under its wings claims that oppose each other. The fact however, is that all truth is exclusive --at least to some degree-- for it must exclude as false that which is not true.

* In reference to people accusing Christians of being close-minded..." But are we to remain open-minded when all reason says that there can be only one conclusion?...One should never remain open to a second alternative when only one can be true." It is the person who disbelieves in the face of strong evidence supporting Christianity who is really intolerant and close-minded.

* Norman Geisler points out that, "If Truth is relative, then no one is ever wrong--even when they are.As long as something is true to me, then I'm right even when I'm wrong.The drawback is that I could never learn anything either, because learning is moving from a false belief to a true one--that is, from an absolutely false belief to an absolutely true one."

*It will be seen that minds do not create truth or falsehood. They create beliefs, but when once the beliefs are created, the mind cannot make them true or false. What makes a belief true is a fact, and this fact does not (except in exceptional cases) in any way involve the mind of the person who has the belief."

* Mortimer Adler states, "The truth or falsity of a statement derives from its relation to the ascertainable facts, not from its relation to the judgments that human beings make. I may affirm as a true statement that is in fact false. You may deny as false a statement that is in fact true. My affirmation and your denial in no way alter or affect the truth or falsity of the statement that you and I have wrongly judged.. We do not make statements true or false by affirming or denying them. They have truth or falsity regardless of what we think, what opinions we hold, what judgments we make."

* When there is no objective truth, then there is nothing that is wrong. What most people would consider abhorent ( for example, murder, stealing, and, in the past, lying) must now be accepted because it is acceptable to some people."

* "A person could neither function nor live very long if he consistently acted as though truth were a matter of perspective rather than objective reality. He would bounce checks if only "to him" his bank account had money, he'd drink poison if only "to him" it was lemonade, he'd fall through the thin ice if it was thick "to him", or get hit by a bus if "to him" it was nto moving.To a person that wants to function effectively in the world, the objective correspondence of truth to reality must matter in some sense."