Daily Defense Podcast

Jan 01 2024 100 ep. 170

Daily Defense Podcast artwork

In this podcast, Catholic Answers senior apologist Jimmy Akin will take up a different challenge to Catholicism every day of the year and show how you can defend the Faith and give answers to skeptics. It’s the perfect podcast for the thinking Catholic on the go—less than five minutes a day to learn a new apologetic argument.

Religion & Spirituality

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#366 What This Book Doesn’t Cover - Jimmy Akin

DAY 366 CHALLENGE “This book doesn’t include my objection to the Faith!” DEFENSE A single book can only do so much. Therefore, let me recommend some more resources that may help. The Handbook of Catholic Apologetics by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli: This is an excellent survey of the general evidences for the Christian faith, written by a pair of scholars who communica

#365 Ancient Scriptures - Jimmy Akin

DAY 365 CHALLENGE “Why should I pay attention to the Bible at all? It’s an ancient book written by people of limited understanding. Besides, other religions have their own scriptures, too. Why are they any less important?” DEFENSE The Christian scriptures are unique and valuable. The mere fact that the books of the Bible were written a long time ago is no reason to look

#364 The Cosmic Teapot - Jimmy Akin

DAY 364 CHALLENGE “As an atheist, I may not be able to prove God doesn’t exist, but I also can’t prove there isn’t, orbiting between Earth and Mars, a teapot too small to be detected by telescopes. If I don’t have to believe in the latter, I don’t have to believe in the former.” DEFENSE This argument is subject to a number of objections. First, it was originally p

#363 Antipopes - Jimmy Akin

DAY 363 CHALLENGE “There can’t be an ‘unbroken line’ of popes going back to Peter. Look at the vacancies between popes, and at the antipopes.” DEFENSE The “unbroken line” claim may be found in the writings of individual Catholics, but it is difficult to find it in any official Church documents. Nevertheless, it expresses a truth: There is a line of popes (bishop

#362 A Multiplicity of Gods? - Jimmy Akin

DAY 362 CHALLENGE “Why can’t there be a multiplicity of gods?” DEFENSE The answer depends on what you mean by “gods.” In classical paganism, the gods people typically worshipped were not infinite, eternal beings. Instead, they were understood to be superhuman but finite beings who came into existence at some point. (Thus Osiris’s father was Geb, Zeus’s father was

#361 Homosexual Unions Not Marriages - Jimmy Akin

DAY 361 CHALLENGE “Why shouldn’t people of the same sex be allowed to marry one another?” DEFENSE It’s not so much a question of what should be allowed as of what is possible. Marriage involves a reality that can only exist between a man and a woman. Marriage is a union of a man and a woman that is oriented toward the good of the spouses and the procreation an

#360 Evolution and the Benefits of Religion - Jimmy Akin

DAY 360 CHALLENGE “If religion has benefits for individuals and groups, why can’t we say that evolution has favored the development of religion, even though it has no bearing on reality.” DEFENSE Religion does have benefits (see Day 283), but this doesn’t lead to the conclusion that religious beliefs are false. If it were possible to dismiss a belief as having no be

#359 Keeping the Sabbath - Jimmy Akin

DAY 359 CHALLENGE “Why do Catholics worship on Sunday instead of keeping the Sabbath? The (Saturday) Sabbath is part of the Ten Commandments, which Catholics recognize as expressing the moral law (CCC 1962).” DEFENSE The Sabbath command is unique among the Ten Commandments in that it incorporates both moral and ceremonial aspects. The Catechism of Trent states: The other

#358 The Cumulative Case for God - Jimmy Akin

DAY 358 CHALLENGE “There is no one argument that demonstrates the Christian God exists. At most, each points to only a single aspect of the Christian God.” DEFENSE The arguments are not meant to be used individually. They’re meant to be combined in a cumulative case. It would be possible to combine all the arguments into a single, highly complex argument, with many subar

#357 Christianity and Pacifism - Jimmy Akin

DAY 357 CHALLENGE “For Christians, violence is never permitted. Jesus teaches strict pacifism when he says, ‘Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’ (Matt. 5:39).” DEFENSE What Jesus teaches in one passage must be read in light of what he teaches elsewhere. Jesus’ statement about turning the other che