If I Had been born in India, would I Have been a Hindu?
The short answer to this question is that nothing really follows (with logical necessity) from where I happen to be born; the truth or falsity of a religion is not determined by where someone is born. Paul Copan responds, “the same line of reasoning applies to the pluralist himself. If the pluralist grew up in Madagascar or medieval France, he would not have been a pluralist!” Furthermore, this question seems to imply that people can’t escape the cultural views they were born into. Also, the number of conversions from within closed countries to a different belief system undercut the weight of this objection. Finally, the notion of the Christian God’s providential ordering of the world rules out people being born somewhere by historical accident:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of you." - Acts 17:24-27
Labels: Apologetics, Evangelism, Hell, Jesus Christ, Pluralism, Truth
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
1:12 PM
2 Comments:
Jonathan, very thoughtful post and well-constructed rebuttal. It seems that with a growing tide of universalism and pluralism, this type of clear thinking is going to be increasingly important - outstanding!
http://torconsblog.blogspot.com/
Great post, Jonathan.
I wrote on this objection coming from an atheist a while back. I've added a link to your post at the end for the additional perspective.
http://lukenixblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/default-positions-atheism-and.html
Keep up the great work!
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