On the need for apologetics
This quotation, from a response by William Sanday to the book Supernatural Religion , perfectly sums up my own thoughts on apologetics (my own emphases in bold), and I think it speaks for itself: Ideally speaking, Apologetics ought to have no existence distinct from the general and unanimous search for truth, and in so far as they tend to put any other consideration, no matter how high or pure in itself, in the place of truth, they must needs stand aside from the path of science . But, on the other hand, the question of true belief itself is immensely wide. It is impossible to approach what is merely a branch of a vast subject without some general conclusions already formed as to the whole . The mind cannot, if it would, become a sheet of blank paper on which the writing is inscribed by an external process alone. It must needs have its "praejudicia" i.e. judgments formed on grounds extrinsic to the special matter of enquiry--of one sort or another. Accordingly we find that a...