T J Walshe

How to Prove the Chrisitan Faith T J Walshe

THE study of the science of Apologetics is very necessary in these days of doubt and agnosticism. The fundamental principles which underlie all religious belief are daily called in question. And even if the urgent need of a reasoned grasp of the foundations of Faith did not exist, the interest of the subject of Apologetics, the large outlook upon life which it involves, the coherence of its parts and the cogency of its conclusions make it desirable that an examination into the principles of Theism should be an indispensable adjunct of Christian teaching. The first step to take in the investigation of the claims of Natural Religion is to prove that an objective world exists, a world external to consciousness. The ground for this belief must be examined so as to justify the transit from conscious ness to reality. In the process, one begins to realise, perhaps for the first time, the truth that there are many characteristics of the external world which our perceptive faculties are not keen enough to observe. At the same time, it can be shown that our perceptions, though not adequate, are true as far as they go, and this conclusion is sufficient for the validity of the well-known argument that contingent beings postulate the existence of a First Cause upon whom all contingent existences depend, the necessary personal Being, to whom we give the name of God.