Two Notes on Beversluis’s Anti-Trilemma Argument
1. Beversluis critiques Kreeft and Tacelli’s argument in Handbook of Christian Apologetics that Christianity has attracted some of the brightest minds in history. He objects: “Christianity has attracted infinitely more average, below average, and even marginal minds. … I am sure that no Christian apologist would care to draw any resounding inference from that.” I care: that is an argument for Christianity from “the miracle of conversion of half the world.” The argument from the bright folks may be called the argument from “sages and saints.” Maybe those guys knew (and know) a few things we don’t. It is true furthermore that various small charismatic cults have existed, some of which ended up with the suicide of their members. I tackle this problem in The Argument for Christianity from “Martyrdom.”
2. Beversluis goes on: “Finally, even the most cursory reading of the synoptic Gospels reveals that Jesus’s disciples seldom have the slightest idea of what he is talking about. It is no exaggeration to say that they are among the most unpromising assortment of blunderers it was ever a sage’s misfortune to endure. They are always saying the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing, asking obtuse questions, jumping to absurd conclusions, missing the point, or otherwise putting their foot in their mouth.” Maybe so, but the one thing of which most of them are certain is that Jesus is God. They have faith. For example:
Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Mt 14:33)
* * * Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Lk 7:50)
* * * Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” (Jn 11:25-27)
* * * When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” (Mt 16:13-17)
* * * Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28)
Admittedly, not all of them:
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” (Jn 14:8-10)
* * * Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive [the demon] out?”
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mt 17:19-20)
So, there is both faith and skepticism in the disciples, as seems reasonable to me. As this “cursory reading” indicates, Jesus’s disciples were far from the fools Beversluis takes them for.